160 BOOKS AND CURRENT LITERATURE 



the other three manuals on soil bacteriology. The problems and 

 questions given at the end of every exercise are also more elaborate 

 and thorough than those of the other manuals. The references given 

 with every exercise, however, are by no means complete enough and 

 offer no improvement over those, for example, given in Burgess' Man- 

 ual of Soil Bacteriology. 



On the whole, Mr. Whiting's little book is well arranged, well print- 

 ed, and well bound and calculated to serve the student at the present 

 time. The writer of this brief review questions, however, the need for 

 another work of this kind now, even allowing for the slight improve- 

 ments which the book possesses over its predecessors. Soil biology 

 is admittedly a science in its formative stages, and if it was attempted 

 to prepare a new manual for every novel exercise or two as these ap- 

 peared every year, we should be swamped with such works in a short 

 time. The making of laboratory manuals can in my opinion easily 

 be overdone. Moreover, many of the subjects now included in such 

 manuals as the one under review are soon to be, if they are not already 

 obsolete and of little significance. — Charles B. Lipman. 



