Allgemeines. 531 
in division may turn out to be relatively simple, at any rate in their 
broader features.” In relation to the question of the structure of the 
nucleus the conclusion is drawn that the facts of inheritance of 
characters presuppose an “architectural complexity” in protoplasm 
and are not to be explained as the outcome of dynamical conditions. 
“The nucleus itself appears to be the seat of a complex Organisation 
which is superadded to its Chemical composition.” The question of 
the existence of material units which are responsible for the sum of 
characters of the individual are discussed together with the question 
of the sorting-out process in the heterotype division and its relation 
to mendelian phenomena. Stress is laid on the fact that only half 
the double number of chromosomes is necessary for normal ontogeny 
as is shown by the parthenogenetic development of animal eggs and 
the phenomena of apospory in plants. The view is put forward 
that the agents or primordia which determine the characters 
probably act by definitely influencing the course of Chemical 
reactions that proceed within the living protoplasm somewhat after 
the fashion of ferments.” 
The difficulty of producing abnormalities by artificial means is 
well known and this is probably to be explained by the difficulty 
of affecting the higher metabolism. “The properties of structure and 
form are to be interpreted as the necessary result of the action of 
particular substances on the protoplasm, and these cause it to assume 
those definite attributes which we term specific on account of their 
constancy through a larger or smaller ränge of individuals. But this 
constancy of form must then be the result of a corresponding 
definiteness in the series of changes undergone by the raw materials 
supplied as food in their upward transformations; each stage in the 
process limits the possible ränge of those that follow; and thus it 
becomes increasingly difficult to modify the final result.” Exceptional 
developments of the type of insect galls are of extraordinary 
importance in relation to any endeavour to probe the mysteries of 
Organization. The secretion of the insect can clearly produce no 
permanent change in the organizing apparatus of the protoplasm 
since the growth is at once arrested on the removal or death of 
the insect. But whether the influence is one that more directly 
affects the physical state of the apparatus or whether it acts more 
directly by introducing new substances into the final Chemical 
reactions are questions which at present do not admit of an answer. 
Attention is also called to the well-known “lithium larvae” of Herbst 
(produced from echinoderm eggs which segment in water to which 
lithium salts have been added) which are as constant and specific 
in character as the different galls produced on an oak leaf by 
various insects. 
The author concludes thus: “The problems that rise up before us 
are seen, as we become able to get at close quarters with them, 
to resolve themselves more and more into questions of Chemistry 
and physics. I believe that it is only by the help of these elder 
branches of Science that the accurate formulation, to say nothing 
of the final solution, of the problems will be achieved. A recent 
writer has suggested that life is not the cause of the reactions 
underlviner the phenomena of life. Nevertheless the reactions that 
go on in the living body are obviously guided as to the particular 
directions they take by the apparatus or mechanism of the individual 
organism. When the conditions for the manifestation of life, and 
all that it implies, are satisfied, what will be produced depends 
