69 
Four Books on Heredity . 
author contrives to give a clear and connected account of the more 
intricate parts of his subject by means of a judicious selection of 
illustrative examples and the use of copious footnotes and references 
to facts and observations, deserving of notice, but subsidiary to the 
main line of argument. 
Goldschmidt claims for his “ Einfiihrung in die Vererbungs- 
wissenschaft ” no more than that it should present such a selection 
of material as will serve to illustrate all essential facts by at least 
one example. In spite of the modesty of this claim, the book 
contains a mass of information, certain aspects of the subject being 
treated more fully than by either Baiir or Haecker. At first sight 
the book has rather a formidable appearance with its long unbroken 
paragraphs, and the effect is heightened by the absence of headlines 
to the pages (for one who confesses to a constitutional dislike to 
using the index this is a serious matter). The impression so 
produced soon disappears as one reads; Goldschmidt puts his case 
clearly and carefully, but a more rigorous selection of material 
might, perhaps, have been advantageous in a book which is intended 
to be read straight through, while the method of citing authorities is 
not sufficiently precise for a book of reference. Thus, if one is 
anxious to consult a paper cited by Goldschmidt, one turns up the 
author’s name in the list of literature (a very copious one) with the 
risk of finding that the titles of the several papers cited do not give 
a sufficient guide to enable one to distinguish the article which is 
being sought. 
Mr. Darbishire’s book is of a different kind altogether from 
those noticed above. It provides an introduction to the facts 
discovered by Mendel, and their bearing upon the science of heredity, 
by opening the door “to an intimate familiarity with a few instances 
of the Mendelian phenomenon, and especially with those studied by 
Mendel himself. To this end I have given a fuller account of the 
phenomena discovered by Mendel than has yet appeared in popular 
form: the seven pairs of characters studied by him are all figured 
for the first time . . . .” 
Mr. Darbishire writes fluently but the book is not conspicuous 
for its simplicity or clearness. For ourselves, we have not found 
the author’s treatment of the problems which he discusses to be 
very illuminating, and we fear that the reader who makes his first 
acquaintance with Mendelism through Mr. Darbishire’s book may 
find some of his impressions a little vague. The illustrations 
are good and are fully adequate to the matter provided in the text, 
which receives a generous allowance of space in its 274 pages. 
R.P.G. 
