RECENT WORK IN AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE. 



AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY— AGROTECHNY. 



Chemical calculations, R. H. Ashley {Neio York: D. Van tiostrand Co., 1915, 

 pp. X-\-216). — The author has written this text-book for the needs of tlie student 

 who will later find occupation in chemical laboratory work. The topics dis- 

 cussed are as follows : Ratios, approximate numbers, interpolation, heat, spe- 

 cific gravity, gas calculations, calculation of atomic weights and formulas, 

 gravimetric analysis, volumetric analysis, and use of specific gravity tables and 

 acid calculations. Many original problems are given in each chapter relating 

 to the subject matter discussed. 



Chemical constitution and physiological action, L. Spiegel, trans, and enl. 

 by C. LuEUEKiNG and A. C. Boylston {New Yorlc: D Van Nostrand Co., 1915, 

 pp. V-{-155). — This volume discusses the relation between chemical constitution 

 and physiological action under the headings of general considerations, inorganic 

 compounds, organic compounds of the aliphatic and aromatic series, and nitro- 

 gen compounds. 



The specificity of proteins and carbohydrates in relation to genera, species, 

 and varieties, E. T. Reichert (Amer. Jour. Bot., 3 {1916), No. S, pp. 91-98). — 

 This article briefly reviews the material previously noted (E. S. R., 31, p. 804). 



It is indicated that through these studies a strictly scientific basis for the 

 classification of plants and animals has been found. " There are manifestly 

 certain sti'iking applications that are of the greatest fundamental importance 

 in the study of phylogeny, mutations, reversions, sex, malformations, phenomena 

 of heredity in general." The discovery of the existence of highly specialized 

 stereoisomers has revealed the most remarkable and unsuspected phenomena of 

 living matter, and one which leads directly to the constitutions of various forms 

 of protoplasm and the peculiarities of vital phenomena that are dependent on 

 these differences. 



The physiological relation of plant carotinoids to the carotinoids of the 

 cow, horse, sheep, goat, pig, and hen, L. S. Palmer {Jour. Biol. Cliem., 21 

 {1916), No. 1, pp. 27-32). — In continuation of the work previously noted (E. S. 

 R., 31, p. 273) the author reports the results of a study of the carotinoids in 

 various animals. 



It is concluded that a definite physiological relation exists in all species of 

 animals between the pigmentation of tissue fat with carotinoids and the 

 presence of these pigments in the blood serum. Those species whose tissue fat 

 is colored with carotinoids (cow, horse, and hen) carry the pigments in the 

 blood serum. Species whose tissue fat is characterized by being colorless 

 (swine, sheep, and goat) carry only insignificant traces in the blood serum 

 even under the most favorable conditions. 



An abundance of carotin in the blood serum and in the tissue fat is not 

 deemed a specific characteristic of the ruminants, as is indicated by its absence 

 from the blood serum and tissue fat of sheep and goats and its presence in 

 the horse. 



411 



