Abstract
THIS little work represents a fairly successful effort to put in simple language the complex problems of heredity so far as they have yet been analysed. The author discusses the evidence that cytology has been able to furnish in connection with the theories of variation, and he especially deals with the views of Weismann and of De Vries as to the meaning of variation as expressed in terms of the cell. His attitude towards the mutation theory of De Vries is rendered clear by the following sentence from p. 69, “Wenn man nicht auf dem Standpunkt der ‘intracellularen Pangenesis’ steht, so kann man nicht einsehen, warum zwischen kleinen und grossen Abänderungen, also zwischen allmählicher und stossweiser Veränderung, eine strenge grenze gezogen werden soll.” But the question here raised is not ne dependent on theory or hypothesis; it is a question of fact, and the existence of opposite opinions merely demands a more thorough investigation at the hands of persons unbiased by prejudice. Perhaps, as was formerly the case with the inheritance of the so-called “acquired characters,” much of the prevalent opposition to the theory of mutation rests on a misunderstanding of the main idea embodied in the word itself.
Die Vererbungslehre in der Biologie.
By Dr. H. E. Ziegler. Pp. 74; with 59 figures in the text and 2 plates. (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1905.)
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Die Vererbungslehre in der Biologie . Nature 73, 318 (1906). https://doi.org/10.1038/073318b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/073318b0