Books Received 251 



The BiocHEMiCAL Bulletin promptly acknowledges here the receipt of pub- 

 lications presented to it. Reviews are matter-of-fact Statements of the nature 

 Books received ^"^ contents of the publications referred to, and are 

 intended solely to guide possible purchascrs. The wishes 

 or expectations of publishers or donors of volumes will be disregarded, if they 

 are incompatible with our convictions regarding the interests of our colleagues. 

 The sises of the printed pages are indicated, in inches, in the appended notices. 



Handbook of colloid-chemistry. The recognition of colloids, the theory 

 of colloids, and their general physico-chemical properties. By Wolfgang Ost- 

 wald, privatdoz., Univ. of Leipzig. First English ed.; translated from the ßd 

 German ed., by M. H. Fischer, prof. of physiol., Univ. of Cin., with the assistance 

 of Drs. R. E. Oesper, mstr. in ehem., N. Y. Univ.; and Louis Berman, staflE 

 physician, Mt. Sinai Hosp., N. Y. City. Pp. 278— 7%x4y8; $3-00. P. Blakiston's 

 Son & Co., Phila., 1916.— Most valuable and reliable book in English on this 

 important subject. Of particular interest to, and significance for, biochemists 

 because of the eminent Position, as a colloid-chem. investigator, of its biochem. 

 translator. The successive chapters deal with (i) general Constitution of col- 

 loid Systems, (2) relations between the physical State and the general properties 

 of colloid Systems, (3) general energetics of the dispersoids, (4) distribution of 

 the colloid State and the concept of colloid chemistry, and (5, 6) mechanical 

 properties of colloid Systems (59 illustr.). 



Translator's preface. " The day is past when the importance of colloid- 

 chem. to the worker in the abstract or applied branches of science needs em- 

 phasis. The endeavor of the 'pure' chemist to reduce all substances to 

 crystalloid form and from the knowledge of their behavior to re-synthesize the 

 phenomena of nature has been a good one, but the limitations of such a point 

 of view have grown daily more apparent. It happens that nature has chosen the 

 colloid form in which to show her face. Crystalloid behavior is the exception, 

 colloid behavior the rule, in the cosmos. Whether we deal with the regions 

 above the earth, as the color of sky, the formation of fogs, the precipitation of 

 rain and snow, or with the earth itself in its muddied streams, its minerals and 

 its soils, or with the molten materials that lie under the earth, the problems of 

 colloid-chem. are more to the fore than have ever been the crystalloid ones. 



" To the abstract thinker in science colloid-chem. therefore, because of its 

 universality, represents the larger field. But the practical worker knows, too, 

 that in a better knowledge of the properties of those very materials which the 

 orthodox chemist has too often cast aside in his jellies, pastes and glues, is 

 found the explanation of so much that interests him. Is it any wonder, then, 

 that colloid-chem. appeals to the agriculturalist, the metallurgist, the dealer in 

 precious stones, the tanner of skins, the manufacturer of wood pulps and paper, 

 the dyer, the histologist, the steel worker, the weaver of textiles, the smelter, 

 the manufacturer of paints? 



" Not only the inorganic world but the organic also has chosen the colloid 

 realm in which to manifest itself. Living matter, whether of plants or animals, 

 and under normal or pathol, conditions, is ehem. in a colloid matrix ; whence 

 colloid-chem. comes to concern every botanist and zoologist, the physiologist, 

 the pathologist and the practical man in medicine and surgery. 



"Under the circumstances, does this volume, known the world over as the 

 authoritative and classical text, need an introduction to any of our people who 



