Review of Heredity and Mendel's principles of heredity.
J. B. Miner · Journal of Educational Psychology · 1911
In these two books one gets a fresh, comprehensive and accurate survey of heredity, supplemented by the most elaborate contribution to its most important recent phase, Mendelism.No better books have been published in recent years for the teacher or student who desires to get in touch with current biological work.Thomson's treatment of heredity is broad enough to include the microscopic study of the germ cells, the experiments in breeding and the results of the statistical method.A feature of the book is a bibliography of 58 pages, classified by author and by subject.The position of the author is indicated by his acceptance of De Vries' origin by mutation without going to the extreme of regarding it as the sole method of origin; his cautious recognition of Medelian principles to explain part, but not all, of inheritance, and his desire to harmonize these results with the conclusions of the statistical school.His whole-hearted acceptance of Weismann, who, he considers, has done as much for heredity as Dalton did for chemistry, is accompanied by an extended and considerate attention to other conceptions that give an impression of conservative fairness which is imperative in a writer who attempts to summarize so broad a field.The analysis of the problem of the transmission of acquired characters, or modifications, as he terms them, and the review of the evidence for and against this conception, is probably the most elaborate to be found anywhere.It occupies 86 pages, nearly a fifth of the book.The discussion is very keen and clarifies the problem from nine specific misunderstandings.Thomson's final chapter on the relation of biological conclusions to social questions is a suggestive essay in which the author shows (508)