SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES 
RELATING TO 
ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY 
(principally invertebrata and cryptogamia), 
MICBOSCOPY, Etc. 
Including Original Communications from Fellows and Others .* * * § 
ZOOLOGY. 
VERTEBRATA : — Embryology, Histology, and General. 
a. Embryology, t 
Epigenesis or Evolution.:}; — Under tliis title Mr. G. C. Bourne has an 
interesting review of Prof. Hertwig’s recent work on preformation or 
epigenesis. He agrees with Hertwig that Weismann’s explanation is 
nothing more than a renunciation of an explanation ; his doctrine of 
determinants leads into an invisible world in which there is no foothold 
for research. For this reason, if for no other, Mr. Bourne welcomes 
Prof. Hertwig’s invitation to return to the paths of epigenesis. He 
urges that a theory which has a formal answer for every question, which 
regards everything that we can see and lay hold of as predetermined and 
unalterable, which relegates the causes of phenomena to the unseen and 
unknowable — such a theory, if accepted as true, does not stimulate but 
stifles enquiry. Mr. Bourne points out further that Hertwig has failed 
to supply an acceptable alternative to Weismann’s scheme. But his 
attempts indicate the paths along which research may be conducted, and 
he is very right when he claims that it is the great merit of his 
conception of the developmental processes, that it opens the gates once 
more to research. 
A review of Hertwig’s book is also published by Herr Y. Wagner.§ 
Blastocysts of Mammalia, jj — Prof. A. W. W. Hubrecht doubts the 
accuracy of Hr. Robinson’s speculations, and finds decisive contradictory 
* The Society are not intended to be denoted by the editorial “ we,” and they do 
not hold themselves responsible for the views of the authors of the papers noted, 
nor for any claim to novelty or otherwise made by them. The object of this part of 
the Journal is to present a summary of the papers as actually published , and to 
describe and illustrate Instruments, Apparatus, &c., which are either new or have 
not been previously described in this country. 
t This section includes not only papers relating to Embryology properly so called, 
but also those dealing with Evolution, Development and Reproduction, and allied 
subjects. X Nature, li. (1895) pp. 265-8. 
§ Zool. Centralbl., i. (1894) pp. 747-9. \\ Rep. Brit. Assoc.. 1894, pp. 681-3. 
