53^ Books Received [April-July 



bands; chromatology of plants and animals, pigment structure; Chlorophyll 

 in plants and animals, symbiosis; hemoglobin, components and derivatives; his- 

 tohematins and myohematin; quantitative spectrum analysis, the spectrophotom- 

 eter; fluorescence and phosphorescence ; pigments of vertebrate and inverte- 

 brate bile, and of urine; invertebrate pigments generally. There are 21 excellent 

 illustrations, especially of absorption spectra. Gies. 



Anesthesia. By James T. Gwathmey, anesthetist to the N. Y. Skin and 

 Cancer, St. Vincent, Red Gross and Columbia Hospitals, in collab. with Charles 

 Baskerville, prof. of chemistry, Coli, of the City of N. Y. Pp. 945—4^4 X JYa ', 

 $6.00, cloth. D. Appleton and Co., New York, 1914. A süperb volume. Anes- 

 thesia is given masterly treatment along the lines of its history, physiology, chem- 

 istry, Utility and practice. Several of the chapters on special features of the 

 subject are written by experienced specialists. The book is exhaustive and 

 practical from the points of view of the anesthetist and surgeon, for it in- 

 cludes füll consideration not only of the many methods of anesthesia and of 

 the individual anesthetics, but also of the technic for special Operations, the 

 treatment before, during and after anesthesia, and even the medico-legal Status 

 of the anesthetist. Pharmacologists and biochemists will readily detect the 

 band of Prof. Baskerville, the book being notable for the thöroughness and 

 reliability of its chemical treatment. There is an encyclopedic chapter entitled 

 "' a list of anesthetics" (pp. 688-840), which alone makes the book a necessity 

 in every biochemical laboratory. There are special chapters on such collateral 

 subjects as electric analgesia, sleep and resuscitation ; mental influence in 

 anesthesia; hypnosis in anesthesia. There are 253 illustrations, most of them 

 Photographie reproductions of apparatus and surgical procedures. Gies. 



Nucleic acids: Their chemical properties and physiological conduct. By 

 Walter Jones, prof. of physiol. chemistry, Johns Hopkins Med. Seh. Pp. 118 — 

 4HX7H; $1-10 net. Longmans, Green and Co., London, 1914. (One of the 

 Monographs on bio chemistry.) Another invaluable presentation of available 

 data in an important field. " The nucleic acids constitute what is possibly the 

 best understood field of physiol. chemistry, yet . . . no treatise has yet appeared 

 (except this) which deals exclusively with this subject. Our Information must 

 be acquired either from widely scattered and often conflicting original articles 

 which reveal order only by the application of critical ability, or from incidental 

 chapters of general texts which appear to have been added more for complete- 

 ness than for Information which they contain. Under these conditions the 

 appearance of a special volume is rather to be expected than explained." The 

 author treats comprehensively nuclein, nucleoprotein, nucleic acid ; thymus nucleic 

 acid; yeast nucleic acid; the metabolism of nucleic acid, pyrimidins and purins; 

 nuclease and purinases; and purin derivatives in human urine. An appendix 

 gives a series of practical methods. As usual with the Monographs on bioi 

 chemistry there is a very valuable bibliography and a fine index. The first 

 edition of this monograph will certainly be " out of print " very soon. Gies. 



The nature of enzyme action. By W. M. Bayliss, prof. of general physiol- 

 ogy, Univ. Coli., London, sd ed. Pp. 180— 4|^X7^; $1.50 net. Longmans, 

 Green and Co., London, 1914. (One of the Monographs on biochemistry.) 

 The most valuable book in English on enzymes. The author has incorporated 

 the gist of the many recent discoveries on reversibility, on corabination between 



