Referee's report by Sydney John Hickson, on a paper 'A biometrical study of conjugation in paramaecium' by Raymond Pearl

Description

Sectional Committee: Zoology

In answer Hickson thinks the paper should not be printed in Philosophical Transactions. It contains a record of long and skillful investigations but he feels that it is open to so much adverse criticism as regards it methods and conclusions, that he cannot recommend it for publication as making a distinct step in the advancement of natural knowledge. Discusses the author's adoption of a view which he believes is fundamentally erroneous; that the essential feature of conjugation is the interchange of nuclear material. Explains that he thinks it quite possible that during conjugation there is a process of equalisation which Pearl thinks is improbable. Pearl seems unacquainted with Hickson's paper in the 'Quarterly Journal of Microbial Science' and some other recent literature which has an important bearing on this point.

Even if Pearl has proved his point that equalisation does not occur after conjugation has set in, the work is unsatisfactory from other points of view. Namely that all the measurements were made of specimens that were killed and preserved. Does not consider that the author has in any sense proved the existence of a definite conjugation type. Cannot understand that the result has any bearing on current views regarding the theoretical relation of Protozoa to evolutionary problems.

[Published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 1906].

Endorsed on verso as received April 1906.

Reference number

RR/16/356

Earliest possible date

April 1906

Physical description

Standardised form (type A)

Page extent

4 pages

Format

Manuscript