Januaey 14, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



69 



In other words, the allusions to the frog and 

 chimpanzee, true or otherwise, are not par- 

 ticularly illuminating in a discussion of Men- 

 delism because there is involved no feature of 

 dominance nor alternation of characters. 



In Mr. Punnett's original statement of 

 what is known as the Cuenot theory :^ 



There are but two relations into which the 

 unsplittable unit character can enter with the 

 individual. It may be present or it may be absent 

 and no third relation can be conceived. From this 

 we are led to ask whether the hypothesis can be 

 brought into any simple relation with the phe- 

 nomenon of dominance. Is dominance the out- 

 come of the presence of the given factor, and 

 recessiveness the condition implied by its absence? 

 At present we can only say that such a point of 

 view is not at variance with the great majority 

 of cases hitherto worked out. Whether the few 

 instances which now seem contradictory will ulti- 

 mately fall into line, future work alone can decide. 



Nothing very cryptic or very dogmatic 

 about that. In speaking of " roseness," " pea- 

 ness," etc., Mr. Punnett has merely framed 

 a convenient and probably temporary handle 

 to grasp a difficult subject in order the better 

 to inspect it. We owe him a vote of thanks, 

 that, instead of christening his conceptions 

 with newly coined words dug from the dusty 

 depths of the Greek lexicon, he has rather 

 chosen to emphasize their temporary character 

 by Englishing them, lest others should read 

 into his statements a concreteness he mani- 

 festly wishes to avoid. 



The writer is of those who believe that the 

 dangerous facility with which the facts of 

 Mendelism fall into categories and A-B-C 

 notations is illusory and that the matter is 

 more complicated than those would have us 

 think who have allowed themselves to be en- 

 tangled in all-explaining formulae. Yet work- 

 ing hypotheses we must have in order to ad- 

 vance, and none suggested so far is any more 

 usable, certainly none more lucid, than the one 

 Professor Eitter finds so contaminated with 

 metaphysics. 



J. F. Abbott 



St. Loins, Mo., 

 September 29, 1909 



'R. C. Punnett, "Mendelism," 1907. 



HYDROGEN POLYSULPHIDE AS A REDUCING AGENT 



I SHOULD like to correct a clerical error in 

 the account I gave a few months ago^ of my 

 investigation of the reducing action of hy- 

 drogen polysulphide. The statement " it may 

 be used at the ordinary temperature, dissolved 

 in ionizing solvents, such as water or alcohol, 

 or in non-ionizing media, such as carbon bi- 

 sulphide " should read " it may be used at the 

 ordinary temperature, for the reduction of 

 substances dissolved in, etc." 



As is well known, the polysulphide is prac- 

 tically insoluble in water and alcohol. 



Alfred Tingle 

 Laboeatoby of the Imperial Chinese 

 Pei Yang Mint, Tientsin, 

 October 10, 1909 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 

 Landmarhs of Botanical History. By Edward 



Lee Greene. Smithsonian Miscellaneous 



Collections (Vol. 54), 1909. 



We have had many histories of botany, each 

 of which has added somewhat to our knowl- 

 edge of the growth of the science and of the 

 men who have been its chief workers, or they 

 have given us a new point of view so that we 

 have been able to see how botany has grown 

 and developed from its crude beginnings to 

 the present. In Dr. Greene's book we have 

 another attempt to set forth the matter in a 

 new light, and at the outset it may be said 

 that few men could bring to the task better 

 ability, training and preparation. Nor are 

 there many men who can command equal 

 library facilities, for Dr. Greene's unrivaled 

 private library of the earlier botanical works 

 is supplemented by the Congressional Library, 

 to which as an attache of the Smithsonian 

 Institution he has had the freest access. This 

 happy coincidence with the unusual freedom 

 from official duties afforded by his position, 

 and a persevering industry, have conspired to 

 favor the production of a monumental work. 



In choosing for his title the word " land- 

 marks " the author indicated something as to 



1 Science, XXX., 158 (July 30, 1909). 



