5 o2 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



ously given as 1087* C, while on page 75 the " Dellwick-Fleischer" gas producer 

 is described under the heading " English Method." 



A. Scott. 



Fats and Fatty Degeneration : a Physico-Chemical Study of Emulsions and 

 the Normal and Abnormal Distribution of Fat in Protoplasm. By 

 Dr. Martin H. Fischer and Dr. Marian O. Hooker. [Pp. ix + 155, 

 with illustrations.] (New York : John Wiley & Sons ; London : Chapman 

 & Hall, Ltd., 191 7. Price 9*. 6d. net.) 



The title of this book suggests a treatise on pathology, but, as indicated by the 

 subtitle, it contains a critical study of the conditions favouring the production and 

 breaking of emulsions and the application of these conditions to the explanation 

 of the pathological changes observed in fatty degeneration. A large amount of 

 experimental evidence from artificial emulsion is brought forward in support 

 of the argument that fatty degeneration is in reality a physical and not a chemical 

 problem. Thus, for example, the " cloudy swelling " of the pathologists, which is 

 the precursor of fatty degeneration, is explained as the distension resulting from 

 the increased hydration of a lyophilic colloid, while the softening accompanying 

 fatty degeneration is regarded as resulting from the reduction in viscosity 

 following from the breaking of a stiff emulsion. Some of the conclusions arrived 

 at experimentally are applied to explaining the natural formation of milk and also 

 to the production of stable artificial emulsions and milk substitutes. Two sections 

 are devoted to the mimicry of mucoid secretion and anatomical structures 

 respectively. In the latter section several very striking artifacts are described on 

 the lines of Biitschli, Leduc, and others. 



In writing this monograph the authors have followed a plan adopted on a 

 previous occasion — namely, of opening with an introductory chapter or 

 "Argument" ; it is explained that this contains an abstract of the entire volume, 

 designed for those u who have not time to read the whole book " ; this latter 

 phrase may possibly apply to the American reading public, but we doubt whether 

 any serious reader in this country who has perused this chapter will be able to 

 resist the temptation of reading the whole book. We commend the writing of 

 such a summary, but not from the point of view of a time-saver, but rather as a 

 means of whetting the appetite. The whole subject is presented in a most 

 attractive manner, and the book will bear reading more than once, especially as it 

 is not of very large compass. We have only one fault to find ; many of the 

 photographic illustrations of glass vessels containing artificial emulsions appear to 

 have been taken with complete disregard for colour contrast, and it looks as 

 though much better results might have been obtained with the use of ortho- 

 chromatic plates ; but this is, after all, only a minor defect in an otherwise most 

 interesting and instructive volume, which should be widely read by all who are 

 in any way interested in the subject of colloids. 



P. H. 



The Physical Chemistry of the Proteins. By T. Brailsford Robertson, 

 Ph.D., D.Sc, Professor of Biochemistry and Pharmacology in the Univer- 

 sity of California. [Pp. xv + 483.] (New York : Longmans, Green & Co., 

 1918. Price 255-. net.) 



The key to this book is given in the quotation which the author makes from Sir 

 J. J. Thomson's Corpuscular Theory of Matter : 



