112 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 107. 



The Cell in Development and Inheritance. By 



Edmund B. Wilson, Ph. D., Professor of 



Invertebrate Zoology, Columbia University. 



New York and London, Macmillan. 1896. 



8vo, cloth, 371 pp., 142 figs. $3.00. 



These two recent books on the same subject 

 by well known investigators, the one in Ger- 

 many, the other in America, serve to mark a 

 new stage in the differentiation of the biological 

 sciences — the separation of cytology from his- 

 tology as an independent science. Although, 

 as their titles indicate, they attempt to cover 

 much the same ground, they show a marked 

 dissimilarity in several respects — -a dissimilarity 

 which it is worth while to emphasize. 



First, however, a word as to the common 

 ground covered. Both consider especially the 

 structure and chemical composition of cytoplasm 

 and nucleus, the phenomena of cell-division, 

 the germ cells in their development and union, 

 and the theories of inheritance from the cyto- 

 logical standpoint. Both works give full biblio- 

 graphical references. 



The most important difference between them 

 arises from the fact that Wilson's work was 

 written three and a-half years after Hertwig's. 

 Wilson is thus able to use the results of the 

 extraordinary activity in cytological research 

 which has characterized the last third of a dec- 

 ade. Aside from this, the standpoint of the 

 authors is slightly different, for Hertwig devotes 

 nearly a third of his book to the results of ex- 

 perimental physiological study on the cell, 

 while these are only incidentally considered by 

 Wilson. Thus only in Hertwig's book do we 

 find a systematic discussion of protoplasmic 

 movement and the phenomena of irritability, 

 metabolism and formative activity. Wilson, 

 on the other hand, discusses more fully certain 

 matters of recent observational study, such as 

 the origin of the tetrads and reduction of the 

 chromosomes. Thus while the scope of Hert- 

 wig's work is broader, Wilson's is more recent 

 and more thorough as concerns cell morphol- 

 ogy. 



The general method of presentation of the 

 subject in Wilson's work is in the highest de- 

 gree pleasing. It retains the impress of its ori- 

 gin in a semi-popular course of lectures, which 

 makes it easy reading, while the style is clear 



and interesting— qualities too rarely found in 

 technical works. Each topic is usually begun 

 with a general outline of our present knowl- 

 edge of the matter, and this is followed by a 

 more detailed and critical presentation of the 

 facts. The historical method of developing the 

 subject is not usually adopted, for this does not 

 lend itself well to the needs of a text-book on 

 a descriptive science. 



Hertwig, on the other hand, has a rather 

 heavy, colorless style, and in the translation all 

 of the faults of the original are exaggerated. 

 Indeed, the work has suffered terribly in the 

 attempt to dress it in a new language. An ex- 

 ample or two must be given. Thus Hertwig 

 says, very truly, that the latent properties of the 

 cell which become evident only during develop- 

 ment "nennt man [in Germany] Anlagen." 

 What, on the other hand, will be the astonish- 

 ment of the cytological reader of the transla- 

 tion to learn (page 335) that [presumably by 

 the English-speaking cytologists] they are called 

 fundamental constituent attributes ! In other 

 places the translator appears as ignorant of Ger- 

 man as of biology. Thus in one place Hertwig 

 says : " Eine tiefere Bedeutung gewannen diese 

 Thatsachen aber erst, als am Ende des 18. 

 Jahi-hunderts sich eine mehr philosophische 

 Betrachtungsweise der Natur Bahn brach." 

 This might be translated thus : These facts [of 

 the cell] did not acquire a deeper significance, 

 however, until the end of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury, when a more philosophical manner of re- 

 garding nature began to predominate. The 

 translator makes it read (page 2): "Much 

 greater importance, however, was attached to 

 these facts after the investigations, which 

 were carried on in a more philosophical spirit 

 by Bahn [!] towards the end of the eighteenth 

 century, were published." It is unnecessary to 

 state that the philosophic ' Bahn ' does not fig- 

 ure in Engelmann's Bibliotheca. Numerous 

 other instances might be given of sentences in 

 which the original meaning is wholly distorted 

 and which are even, in themselves, meaning- 

 less, and scores of others in which the greatest 

 liberties have been taken with the original, 

 causing the author to say what he certainly 

 would have avoided saying. The translation 

 is, on the whole, wretchedly done, and bad and 



