SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES 
RELATING TO 
ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY 
(principally inverteerata and cryptogamia), 
MICROSCOPY, Etc. 
Including Original Communications from Fellows and Others .* 
ZOOLOGY. 
VERTEBRATA. 
a. Embryology, f 
Mechanics of Development.:): — E. W. M. has a review of Prof. 
Roux’s collected works. He points out that, although Prof. Roux must 
be regarded as the founder of that branch of zoological research which is 
called the Mechanics of Development, his works are comparatively little 
known in this country, and the English reader may be surprised to see 
the two huge tomes which bear Prof. Roux’s name. Even the writer’s 
own countrymen have not been in the habit of reading his publications 
with the care which he thinks they demand. One reason for this is the 
marked prolixity of the author, and, as the reviewer remarks, it is the 
first duty of every writer to put his results as briefly as is consistent 
with clearness. 
Prof. Roux first shows the extreme difficulty of accounting by simple 
natural selection for the numerous adaptations carried out into the 
finest detail which are met with in all the organs of the vertebrate body. 
The reviewer admits that Prof. Roux has brought together a most 
powerful case against the doctrine of the all-sufficiency of natural 
selection, and he feels sure that his arguments will awaken a sympathetic 
chord in the minds of many — if not most — zoologists, amongst whom 
there is a great feeling that we want something more than natural 
selection. The reviewer docs not appear to think that Prof. Roux’s 
supplementary hypothesis is at all satisfactory, though he confesses 
there is much about it which induces one to wish that it were true. 
Parts, however, are regarded as absolutely unsupported, and others as 
* 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 tho 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. 
f This section includes not only papers relating to Embryology properly so called, 
1 ut also those dealing with Evolution, Development and Reproduction, and allied 
subjects. * Nature, liv. (1S96) pp. 217 -9. 
