Abstract
WHILE, perhaps particularly in Great Britain, most of the recent work on the reproductive cells has been concerned with the intimate structure of the chromosomes and their behaviour during fertilization and division, and with the consideration of certain extra-nuclear structures, Golgi bodies, etc., the questions of the history of the germ cells themselves and their relationship to the corresponding cells of their parents have continued to occupy the attention of zoologists. The time was ripe, therefore, for a review of these lines of research, and it has been provided by Prof. L. Bounoure, who is well known for a succession of papers in this field. Previous workers, including Jäger, who first used the expression “Continuität des Keimplasmas” in 1877 and not Weismann as is generally believed, had put forward speculative theories on the subject. The first to realize the problem definitely and to investigate it scientifically was M. Nussbaum in 1880. The present volume, after a historical introduction, reviews the whole subject of the origin of the germ cells and germinal continuity in an exhaustive manner throughout the animal kingdom. The account is fully documented by quotations of the crucial statements and contains discussions of the theoretical questions involved. It is a most useful and readable publication.
L'Origine des cellules reproductrices et le problème de la lignée germinale
Prof.
L.
Bounoure
Par. (Collection des actualités biologiques.) Pp. xii + 272. (Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1939.) 100 francs.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
L'Origine des cellules reproductrices et le problème de la lignée germinale. Nature 146, 822 (1940). https://doi.org/10.1038/146822c0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/146822c0