240 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



Mendelism. By B. C. Punnett. Cambridge : Macmillan & Bowes. 



This little book refers to the evolutionary processes observ- 

 able in organic nature, and enunciates a theory which is a clear 

 challenge to what has been styled " the all-sufficiency of natural 

 selection." It leaves " natural selection " as a giant factor in 

 organic evolution, but not the sole one. It postulates the view 

 that "the small fluctuating variations are not the material on 

 which selection works." Bateson, ten years ago, drew attention to 

 Discontinuity in variation as not being an unusual phenomenon. 

 This consideration in the hands of De Vries produced the Muta- 

 tion theory, and Mendel has demonstrated the fact that "the 

 mutation when once it has arisen is not likely to be swamped by 

 inbreeding with the normal form, provided that it is not injuri- 

 ous to the species." 



But Mendel's contribution to the study of evolution is far 

 from recent, and represents a piece of work— for it is based 

 on actual experiment— that remained practically unknown for 

 five-and-tbirty years. It was given to the world six years 

 subsequent to the publication of Darwin's great work on ' The 

 Origin of Species,' and appeared as a paper in the Proceedings 

 of the Natural History Society of Briinn, under the title "Ex- 

 periments in Plant Hybridization." 



Gregor Mendel, the future Abbot of Briinn, prepared this 

 paper in the cloister, which reminds us of Borelli writing his 

 ' De Motu Animalium ' under somewhat similar circumstances. 

 Mr. Punnett has given us some interesting traits in the life of 

 Abbot Mendel. His thoughts had travelled far beyond the 

 cloister ; besides his experiments on plants he is known to have 

 carried out others on bees, but of these no record apparently 

 exists ; he was a meteorologist, and also interested in sun-spots, 

 while for a time he was " the manager of a bank." Mr. Punnett 

 has produced a particularly concise statement of the experiments 

 which have prompted the teachings of what is styled "Mendelism," 

 and has contributed a valuable addition to our ever increasing 

 evolutionary literature. 



