xxii SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



Dictionnaire de Physiologic Par Charles Richet, avec la collaboration 

 de MM. P. Langlois et L. Lapicque, etc. Tome II., fascicules 

 2 et 3. Tome III., fascicule 1. Paris: Ancienne Librairie 

 Germer Bailliere et C ie - Felix Alcan, Editeur. 1897-98. 



One of the most salient features of the above portion of this 

 work is the unequal nature of the articles. It may be that, perhaps, 

 this is due in great measure to the method of production, viz., the en- 

 trusting of special sections to special authors. And yet it is a method 

 which, properly carried out, seems capable of giving the very best 

 results, and in text-books and important works on science at the pres- 

 ent time the method is being adopted more and more frequently, 

 and often with great success. 



Nevertheless it is unavoidable that the method should sometimes 

 fail, and this more particularly if the very fullest instructions have not 

 been provided for the separate authors as to the scope and length of 

 their respective sections, and in the earlier portions of a work like 

 the present one might expect to find a certain disproportion in the 

 articles, but in later parts — and the work has now reached the eighth 

 fasciculus — one is justified in expecting to find more uniformity. 



Such however is not the case, and we can only regret the cir- 

 cumstance. 



In the article headed " Calcium," occupying seventeen pages, there 

 appears a good discussion of this metal, its occurrence in the organism, 

 its relations to the skeleton in various animals, vertebrate and inver- 

 tebrate, and its absorption and excretion. 



No discussion of its role in coagulation is given, this being deferred 

 to the articles on Milk, Coagulation, and Blood. 



The article on the Cell is particularly disappointing, for we looked 

 forward to finding a thoroughly good discussion of this most in- 

 teresting subject. 



The article occupies only forty pages, and compares very unfavour- 

 ably with the two very lengthy dissertations on the Brain, which covers 

 486 pages, or with the Heat, which occupies 190 pages. Moreover, we 

 do not consider that the best use has been made even of this limited 

 space. Section 1 of the article bears the title " Morphology," and 

 occupies three and a half pages. The nucleolus is described as usually 

 occupying an excentric position in the nucleus, as being rounded or 

 oval, and more highly refractive than the latter ; as staining more 

 intensely than the nucleus, as comporting itself differently to certain 

 reagents, as having an unknown significance, as disappearing during 

 cellular division to reappear in the young cells, and — that is all ! 



The centrosome is treated with scarcely more ceremony, and this 

 in spite of the date — 1897 — on the cover of the book. 



We wish to enter an objection against the practice — very much to 

 the fore in this article — of printing the same figure twice or three times, 

 on each occasion with a new number and with no indication that it has 



