382 



SCIENCE. 



LN. S. Vol. XVII. No. 427. 



sense of something yet lacking for the com- 

 plete solution of the question. It is not clear 

 why epistasis and metakinesis may not well 

 be regarded as particular cases of orthogenesis 

 as Professor Jaekel defines that factor, and, 

 if amphimixis have no place or part in the 

 production of the orthogenetic progress, what 

 is its source and maintenance? The paper, 

 however, is full of interest, the ideas being 

 clearly and forcibly expressed, and accompanied 

 by a wealth of illustration drawn from sources 

 unfamiliar to the majority of biologists. 



The second paper, that of Professor von 

 Wettstein, is a relapse into the old discussion, 

 since it takes as its thesis the combined action 

 of the Darwinian and Lamarckian factors in 

 the origin of species. It can not be said, 

 however, that the evidence adduced by the 

 author from the botanical field in favor of 

 Lamarckianism is more apt to carry convic- 

 tion to the minds of Selectionists than much 

 that has already been presented. The fact, 

 for instance, that an asporogenous variety of 

 yeast, produced by exposure to an abnormally 

 high temperature, does not again become 

 sporogenous when grown at a normal tem- 

 perature, will not be regarded by Selectionists 

 as proof of the Lamarckian position, since 

 they recognize the inheritance of acquired 

 characters, if so they may be called, in unicell- 

 ular organisms. Nor will the gradual as- 

 sumption of the peculiarities of Hungarian 

 wheats by foreign varieties grown in that 

 country prove to them a stumbling-block, 

 since such changes may plausibly be explained 

 as the results of the direct action of the en- 

 vironment upon the germ plasm and through 

 it upon the somatic cells. The author, in fact, 

 fails to take into account the fundamental 

 idea of the Selectionist standpoint, namely, 

 the isolation of the germ plasm, and, like many 

 of his predecessors, assigns to the term ' ac- 

 quired characters ' a meaning very different 

 from that which it possesses for a Selectionist. 

 J. P. McM. 



Municipal Engineering and Sanitation. By 

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