Referee's report by Walter Frank Raphael Weldon, on a paper 'Certain laws of variation' by H M Vernon

Description

Sectional committee: Botany

The first part of this paper contains valuable experimental results, showing the relation between temperature, salinity et cetera and the rate of growth in young Echinoid larvae before metamorphosis. This is a continuation of work described by the author in other papers published by the Society, especially Philosophical Transactions and it should be published in the Proceedings. This part of the paper ends with the first paragraph of page 22 of the manuscript. From that point on the paper contains an attempt to formulate a law expressing the relation between an animal and its environment, which seems fundamentally untrue, and he is strongly of the opinion that the portion of the paper from page 22 to the end, should not be published in any form.

He asked the author to communicate to the Society a paper essentially similar to this. After reading it, he refused to communicate any statement of a general law, so crude and unsatisfactory as this. He advised Vernon to omit the general part of his paper. No general law of variation is demonstrated in the manuscript as it stands. The title of the paper should be changed before publishing the first part.

[Published in Proceedings of the Royal Society, 1900].

Endorsed on recto as received 30 March 1900.

Reference number

RR/15/126

Earliest possible date

29 March 1900

Physical description

Letter on paper

Page extent

2 pages

Format

Manuscript