CURRENT: LIEERATURE 
BOOK REVIEWS 
Experimental genetics 
When one of the foremost investigators in any science has the additional 
ability which enables him to write a clear, well balanced textbook, it is only 
just that public appreciation should increase in geometrical proportion, for 
such proficiency is rare. For this reason the writer feels sure that he voices 
a unanimous sentiment among geneticists in thanking Dr. Baur for bringing 
up to date his Introduction to experimental genetics. The original edition, pub- 
lished in 1911, probably had fewer defects in judgment of values than any of 
the textbooks on the subjects that have been issued so frequently since 1900. 
The new edition, with 100 added pages, fully sustains this opinion. And such 
a seemingly odious comparison with other books is no disparagement of their 
value, for most other volumes on genetics have treated only particular phases 
of the subject. If any broad criticism can be made of either edition, it is that 
biometrical and cytological results have hardly been given the = they 
merit, though the present edition has partially abrogated this deficien 
he author follows the general plan of the first edition, the aaa 
pages being made necessary because of the numerous investigations of the 
past two years. The first two chapters lay a foundation for discussing the 
inheritance of acquired characters. In reality they are concerned with plant 
physiology and morphology from the genetic standpoint. By making use of 
elementary biometrical formulas, the changes during ontogeny due to varying 
external conditions are carefully explained, emphasis being laid on the varia- 
tion in ability to react to stimuli at different parts of the life cycle. Then 
follow two chapters in which the more modern experimental attacks on the 
inheritance of modifications are clearly and logically described and criticized. 
he next too pages are filled with Mendelian results. The elementary 
principles are described well and many new illustrations are used, but the more 
recent work is not adequately treated. For example, the marvelous work of 
Morgan in analyzing the germ plasm of Drosophila is hardly mentioned. One 
is the more astonished at this omission when he sees that several pages are 
given over to BATEson’s theory of partial coupling, a theory that cannot com- 
pare with Morcan’s for ingenuity, reasonability, and logical agreement with 
facts. 
* Baur, E., Einfiibrung in die experimentelle Vererbungslehre. Zweite Auflage- 
abo mit 131 Textfiguren und 1o farbigen Tafeln. Berlin: Gebriider Borntrac- 
ger. 1914. 
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