LITERARY NOTICES. 



131 



volume. In order to bring that treatise up 

 to the present state of knowledge on the 

 subject, Dr. Sternberg has added cluipters 

 on " Technology," " Germicides and Anti- 

 septics," " Bacteria in Infectious Diseases," 

 and " Bacteria in Surgical Lesions." Under 

 the first head he describes methods of ob- 

 taining both natural and artificial culture- 

 fluids uncoutaminatcd, and gives directions 

 for arranging culture-vessels and for ex- 

 amining the bacteria. His list of antisep- 

 tics includes some sixty substances, and he 

 gives, besides the results of his own extended 

 and careful tests of their powers, some re- 

 sults obtained by other investigators. 



The diseases which have been supposed 

 to depend upon the action of some micro- 

 organism are also passed in review, and 

 an abstract is given of what has been ob- 

 served in regard to each. Dr. Sternberg 

 reproduces from an earlier paper his state- 

 ment of the a priori argument in favor of 

 the existence of a yellow-fever germ, and 

 then considers the experimental evidence 

 ■which supports that view. "It must be 

 admitted," he says, " that this is very un- 

 satisfactory." His personal investigations 

 are recorded in the "Preliminary Report of 

 the Havana Yellow-Fever Commission of 

 the National Board of Health," from which 

 he quotes at length. "Having reported," 

 he continues, " my own failure to find the 

 yellow-fever germ, I must now refer to the 

 recent announcements of its discovery in 

 Mexico by Dr. Carmona, and in Brazil by 

 Dr. Frcire." In regard to the latter he 

 says : " The writer is not prepared to esti- 

 mate the value of the evidence here oifered, 

 inasmuch as we are not informed whether 

 the yellow-fever blood used in the first in- 

 oculation experiment was obtained post 

 mortem or ante mortem. . . . 



" Hineman, a very competent German 

 physician practicing in Vera Cruz, has not 

 been more successful than the writer in 

 finding the Pcrnospera hitca of Carmona, or 

 Cryptococcus xanthogenicus of Freire, in 

 the blood of yellow-fever patients before 

 death. He examined the blood of patients 

 in the last stage of the disease, taking blood 

 from the hand, thinning it with artificial 

 serum, and bringing it at once under the 

 microscope. He says ; ' In nine cases so 

 examined not the slightest deviation from 



normal blood could be found, ... No or- 

 ganisms were found.' " The volume is il- 

 lustrated with twelve heliotype plates and 

 thirty woodcuts, and contain^ a bibliographi- 

 cal list. 



Flowers and theik Pedigrees. By Grant 

 Allen, author of " Colin Clout's Calen- 

 dar," " Vignettes from Nature," " The 

 Evolutionist at Home," etc., etc. New 

 York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 266. 

 Price, $1.50. 



This is a very choice book, the best of 

 an excellent class. England has at present 

 no writer at all comparable to Grant Allen 

 in the power of popularizing biological sub- 

 jects. He is a thorough and accomplished 

 student in a broad range of modern subjects 

 involving the phenomena of life and mind, 

 and their interpretation by the principle of 

 evolution. He is as far as possible from 

 being a mere compiler of other men's opin- 

 ions, but gives a stamp of originality to his 

 work, throwing light upon the subjects he 

 treats by new suggestions, ingenious expla- 

 nations, and the presentation of his top. 

 ics in fresh aspects and new relations. He 

 is, moreover, a writer of remarkable per- 

 spicacity and attractiveness, pleasant, easy, 

 humorous, and a perfect type of the high- 

 grade popularizer of science. 



If this is warm praise, the book before 

 us justifies it. It is spoken of by the Eng- 

 lish press in terms of very unusual commen- 

 dation, and we entirely agree with one of 

 them, which declares the volume to be " as 

 interesting as any novel from the first page 

 to the last." 



We can do the author no better justice, 

 and convey to our readers no clearer idea of 

 the import of the book, than to reproduce 

 its explanatory introduction : 



Our beautiful green England is carpeted, more 

 than any other country in the world, perhaps, save 

 only Switzerland and a few other mountain-lands, 

 with a perpetual sward of vivid verdure, interspersed 

 with innumerable colors of daisies, and buttercups, 

 and meadow-sweet, and harebells, and broader 

 patches of purple heather. It is usual to speak of 

 tropical vegetation, indeed, with a certain forced ec- 

 stasy of language ; but those who know the tropics 

 best know that, though you may find a few excep- 

 tionally large and brilliant blossoms here and there 

 under the breadth and shade of equatorial forests, 

 the prevailing tone is one of monotonous dry green- 

 ery ; and there is nothing anywhere in very south- 

 ern climes to compare, as to mass of color, with our 

 Scotch hill-sides, our English gorse-clad commons, 



