BOOKS AND CURRENT LITERATURE 



Methods in Physiology of Nutrition. — As the title of this book 1 

 indicates it deals exclusively with those aspects of plant physiology 

 more directly related to nutrition, and is more especially concerned in 

 presenting the methods of the chemist. More than ever, one infers 

 from a reading of the captions, does the trend of modern plant physi- 

 ology direct itself toward the domain of chemistry. The book, the 

 author hopes, occupies a position intermediate between biochemical 

 books on the one hand and those dealing in the more usual way with 

 plant physiology. As the tendency for the biochemist is less strong 

 toward physiology than is salutary, any influence to bring him to make 

 use of the point of view of the physiologist is to be properly appre- 

 ciated. To this end the author has made use of a physiological classi- 

 fication of his material and has displayed the chemical methods, which 

 constitute the bulk of the text, under the appropriate physiological 

 headings. One must not think however only of in vitro chemistry, 

 in a narrow sense. For example, the botanist as chemist must not 

 only determine the composition of mixed gases, but he must set up an 

 experiment with the living plant in order to get the gases for deter- 

 mination. Grafe has made a large effort to bring together all these 

 coordinate methods, and the amount delivered to the botanical con- 

 stituency is really quite great — 494 pages and roughly 230,000 words 

 —thoroughly enough done to be of a good deal of value. The author's 

 claim to have treated all the material he presents, critically upon the 

 basis, with few exceptions, of tests in his own laboratory, is a very 

 large one, and the reviewer, for one, cannot but feel some disquietude 

 at the bigness of the task, and is impelled to raise the question whether 

 one student can cover such a far-spread field critically. The internal 

 evidence indicates a negative reply. For example the chapter on the 

 tannins may be cited. The brief treatment assumes the efficacy of 

 present methods of tannin-extraction, and takes no account of their 

 total inadequacy for any physiological studies. Nor is any refer- 

 ence made to the useful and exhaustive bibliographic studies of Dek- 



1 Grafe, Victor, Ernahniiigsphysiologisches Praktikum dcr Hoheren Pflanzen. 

 Pp. 404, figs. 1S6. Berlin, Paul Parey, 1914. (Mk. 17.00.) 



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