(1) Three Lectures on Experimental Embryology (2) L'Œuf et les Facteurs de l'Ontogénèse

Abstract

THESE two volumes, although they deal with the same subject, are of very different character. Dr. Jenkinson's work aims at being a condensed compendium of the most recent results obtained in this division of zoology. Prof. Brachet's primer, on the other hand, gives a fascinating: account of the gradual building up of our knowledge of the mechanisms underlying the development of the egg. He rigidly limits himself in this case to the instances necessary to illustrate his points. The substance of Dr. Jenkinson's book was delivered as three lectures in University College, London, and all zoologists will be grateful to Mrs. Jenkinson for publishing these lectures. Dr. Jenkinson was one of the many men of science who have sacrificed their lives on behalf of their country, but in the division of science which he represented his loss was felt as a peculiarly cruel blow, for experimental embryology has few representatives in England, and amongst those few Dr. Jenkinson was one of the most prominent. From the account of his life by his friend, Dr. Marett, which is contained in this volume, we learn that Dr. Jenkinson began his career in the university by the study of classics and of ancient philosophy, and that he was drawn to the study of biology, not primarily through the love of natural history, but because he regarded the study of the laws of life as the modern counterpart of the questions which had occupied the minds of the ancient philosophers. We can now understand a feature which puzzled many admirers of Jenkinson's “Experimental Embryology,” published some years ago, viz. the disproportionate space allotted to the discussion of the views of Aristotle, a subject which to most biologists has only a meagre academic interest.

(1) Three Lectures on Experimental Embryology.

By Dr. J. W. Jenkinson. With a Biographical Note by Dr. R. R. Marett. Pp. xvi + 130. (Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1917.) Price 7s. 6d. net.

(2) L'Œuf et les Facteurs de l'Ontogénèse.

Par Prof. A. Brachet. Pp. viii + 349 + xii. (Paris: O. Doin et Fils, 1917.) Price 6 francs.