1939] Books 163

Here is a source book, however, which fields, mastering 16th century Dutch as contains so much useful information, so part of the procedure. Now known as many definite and practical suggestions Leeuwenhoek 's "greatest living ad- that it is destined not merely to be read mirer, " Dobell does not find it necessary with interest but to be thumbed over and to claim that he invented the instrument. over by any biology teacher fortunate He expressly notes that all Leeuwen- enough to have a copy available. hoek's microscopes were simple lenses, HELEN J. MANK which had had a long earlier history and use, to Roger Bacon in the 13th century, DOBELL, C. Anthony Leeuwenhoekand if not even to classical times. Dobell does Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/abt/article-pdf/1/7/163/8985/4436920.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 His "Little Animals." Harcourt, not ask either that Leeuwenhoek be recog- Brace. 1932. nized as the first to use magnification for Most biology teachers have probably the examination of living things. He heard of Dobell's treatise on Leeuwen- notes that Malpighi, Hooke, Borell, and hoek, published in 1932 on the three others of his contemporaries had pre- hundredth anniversary of the Dutch ceded him by ten or fifteen years in using microscopist 's birth. This belated review some form of magnification in the study is prompted by two factors. First, while of living things. Leeuwenhoek, himself, the volume was published at a price of in one of his letters (1675), mentions seven dollars and a half, it has recently Swammerdam as describing certain been offered, as a publisher's remainder, minute animals of stagnant water. at two dollars and a half. At this price Furthermore, as Dobell notes, the Italian, it should certainly be in every high school Stelluti, had figured insect anatomy be- library, and every teacher's, if the sup- fore Leeuwenhoek was born, and Singer ply is sufficient. is authority that Galileo had noted the Second, this review may be made the compound eyes of insects by 1610, and is occasion for reference to the persistent to be counted "the effective inventor of fallacies regarding Leeuwenhoek which the compound microscope. " seem to be widely instilled in the field of Not to continue citations of what high school biology. They come to my Leeuwenhoek had not discovered, the attention both in the form of elementary things for which credit is due may be texts, and in the fixed ideas of many first cited. Dobell calls him the father of both term students in college biology. College bacteriology and protozoology. Follow- texts in biology, botany, and zoology seem ing his announcements of these micro- to be free of erroneous Leeuwenhoek organisms, their possible connection with data, as indicated by an examination of infections was immediately suggested. thirty-odd texts. By nearly all accounts, Leeuwenhoek was As Dobell writes, his interest as a bac- a careful observer, who made mistakes, teriologist and protozoologist was aroused but did not hesitate to correct them later, when on different occasions he found that and who clearly differentiated between Leeuwenhoek had been the first to see and his observations and his speculations. report the existence of bacteria, free- His observations had much to do also living protozoa, and parasitic protozoa. with interesting men of the day in what For twenty years he pursued the study we call microbiology. His contempo- of Leeuwenhoek's contributions in these raries, Malpighi, Grew, and Swammer- 164 The American Biology Teacher [April

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dam, were the founders of the micro- finest development of any living organ- anatomy of plants and animals. ism. Heredity alone is not responsible RALPH C. BENEDICT, for the problems of society-environment Brooklyn College is of great importance. Five billion dol- lars annually is too much to pay for those FASTEN, NATHAN. Principles of Genetics who falter in the ranks because of imper- and Eugenics. New York: Ginn and fections in heredity and environment. Company. 1936. 391 pp. This ever increasing debt can only be This text was prepared by Nathan lessened through proper education of the Fasten, Ph.D., Professor and Head of the public in the working principles of Department of Zoology of Oregon State Genetics and Eugenics. The author esti- College, for the elementary student in mates that there are some eighteen mil- Genetics and Eugenics, who desires brief lion defectives in the United States. His and accurate information in these studies. hope is to increase the normal and gifted, It is not necessary to have had an elabo- and at the same time decrease the abnor- rate course in Biology to understand the mal and deficient population. principles of this book. Special attention has been devoted to Throughout the treatise emphasis is the scope of eugenics, the Mendelian prin- placed on good heredity and good envi- ciples of Heredity, Variation, Environ- ronment as the fundamental bases for the ment and Applied ELgenies in relation