"Introduction to Modern Genetics"

Abstract

WE are surprised at the review of Waddington's “Introduction to Modern Genetics” by Dr. F. W. Sansome in NATURE of June 17, p. 1002. We are at a loss to know what the reviewer means when he says that Waddington's book does not “contain a balanced statement of modern genetics”. It appears to us to be much the most satisfactory book on the subject written in recent years. Doubtless the scope could have been enlarged (for example, the treatment of adaptation and the mechanisms of speciation seems in places inadequate), and equally doubtless a book written ten years hence would adopt a different balance of subjects. Meanwhile, however, the most conspicuous feature of recent advance in genetics has been the laying of a firm cytological foundation, and in our opinion it is important that this should be fully presented at the outset in any text-book. Physiological genetics has not yet reached the point at which simple general principles have emerged; but even so, Waddington's treatment of it appears to be the best available in any general text-book.