(1) Lectures on Sex and Heredity delivered in Glasgow, 1917–18 (2) Eugenics and Environment (3) La Sélection Humaine

Abstract

THESE three books illustrate three somewhat different methods of setting the problem of eugenics before the general reader. The aim of the excellent little book by Prof. Bower, Prof. Graham Kerr, and Dr. Agar is to set forth the indispensable facts and principles, and leave the reader to draw the moral. It is not perhaps intended to deal with eugenics at all, but it is one which enthusiasts for eugenic propaganda will find very valuable. It consists of six lectures on the more elementary facts of sex, reproduction, and heredity in plants and animals. The first four lectures, two on plants and two on animals, deal with the subject in the two kingdoms in similar fashion, beginning with examples of reproduction and conjugation (syngamy) in the Protista, and passing through the simpler Metaphyta and Metazoa to the more complex phenomena of the highest plants and animals. No one who has a natural interest in living things, but has had no systematic training in biology, can fail to find these lectures interesting; those on plants are perhaps unnecessarily technical here and there, but with the assistance of the excellent illustrations any reasonably educated person should find them easy and interesting to read.

(1) Lectures on Sex and Heredity delivered in Glasgow, 1917–18.

By F. O. Bower J. Graham Kerr W. E. Agar. Pp. vi + 119. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1919.) Price 5s. net.

(2) Eugenics and Environment.

By Prof. C. Lloyd Morgan. Pp. 82. (London: John Bale, Sons, and Danielsson, Ltd., 1919.) Price 2s. net.

(3) La Sélection Humaine.

By Prof. Charles Richet. (Bibliothèque Scientifique Internationale.) Pp. iii + 262. (Paris: Librairie Félix Alcan, 1919.) Price 6.60 francs.