REVIEWS 699 



process for the preparation of intracellular products. A fourth series of lectures is 

 devoted entirely to the toxins and antitoxins. 



The subjects chosen by the author have been introduced and treated in an 

 interesting manner, but criticism in detail is somewhat disarmed by the statement 

 of the editor, that he has hesitated to make alterations either in the matter or the 

 wording unless obliged. As the first series of lectures was delivered as long ago 

 as February 1901, many of the statements contained therein can scarcely be taken 

 to represent quite modern views on the subjects treated. This remark refers 

 more especially to the account given of the chemistry of the cell and the com- 

 position of the protein constituents. 



Other statements require, again, amplification. Thus, for example, on p. 89 

 it is stated that a-glucoside is attacked by the ferment of yeast, whereas the 

 /3-glucoside is left intact. To the general reader without special chemical know- 

 ledge, to whom this book should appeal, the terms a- and 3-glucoside are meaning- 

 less. No doubt, in the course of the lectures, an explanation was added which did 

 not appear in the manuscript, and the book would have been of greater value had 

 such additional explanations been added in the form of footnotes. 



A large part of the lectures is taken up with a description of fermentative 

 processes, and the account given of the various enzymes and their action is, for the 

 most part, admirable. The book, as a whole, can be recommended to the general 

 reader who wishes to follow some of the more modern developments of biology, 

 especially that part which relates to the investigation of disease. 



S. B. SCHRYVER. 



Animal Life. By F. W. Gamble. [Pp. xvi. + 305, with 63 illustrations.] (Smith, 

 Elder & Co., 1908. 5^.) 



Dr. Gamble's " excuse " for writing this book is " the want of a small work 

 dealing with the adaptations and factors of animal life in a broad and connected 

 manner." We can assure him that no apology is needed ; there is no other work 

 in our language that covers quite the same ground, or that gives so wide a survey 

 of the problems of animal life in the same compass. In the opening chapters are 

 discussed the contrast between animal and plant life, the fulness of the earth, and 

 the general organisation and classification of animals. The succeeding pages are 

 devoted to the mechanical problems of movement, the search for food, the demand 

 for oxygen, and the response and orderly adaptation to surroundings. The eighth 

 chapter is perhaps the most remarkable in the book, for here the author, in dealing 

 with the colours of animals, has introduced work which has not previously found its 

 way into books readily accessible. It would be hardly fair to give away the secret 

 of this chapter, but we strongly advise all who are interested in animal coloration 

 to read what Dr. Gamble has to say concerning the evolution of red and yellow 

 fatty pigments, and the association of these colouring matters with stores of reserve 

 food. The influence of light upon the activity of these pigments is most interesting 

 and suggestive of further research along similar lines. 



The two last chapters are concerned with the welfare of the race and its bearing 

 on the individual, and with the life-histories of insects. In dealing with these 

 last the author allows himself to enter into fuller detail of structure than he has 

 elsewhere adopted ; and many of the problems of nutrition and respiration which 

 we had missed in the chapters assigned to these topics are relegated to this section. 

 The arrangement thus selected is probably the wisest, and much repetition is 

 thereby avoided. It is hardly necessary to state that the keynote throughout is 



