REVIEWS 



The Fats. By J. B. Leathes, M.A., M.B., F.R.C.S. Monographs on Bio- 

 chemistry. Edited by R. Aders Plimmer and F. G. HOPKINS. (London : 

 Longmans, Green & Co., 1910. Price 4s.) 



In somewhat doubtful EngUsh we are told, in the opening sentence of the 

 General Preface to this series of Monographs on Biochemistry, that the subject 

 "is enlarging its borders" to such an extent that no single text-book "can 

 adequately deal with it as a whole." This undoubtedly is true : monographs such 

 as have been projected should therefore be of utmost use to earnest students ; 

 unfortunately the editors have not yet been very successful in accomplishing the 

 object they have in view— the books issued are not all readable and interesting 

 to the extent that is desirable. The latest addition to the series appears to us 

 to be one of the least successful — to speak plainly, it is a careless production, 

 disappointing particularly because the author gives us far too little of himself. 

 No one is more at home with the fats and yet he brings us into close quarters 

 with them and tells us things of real consequence from a biochemical standpoint 

 only in the last brief chapter of the book. 



In his few lines of preface. Dr. Leathes says that the field of biochemical work 

 to which the book refers needs workers who may be either physiologists who 

 have " trained themselves chemically or chemists who are alive to the legitimate 

 aspirations of biology." We fear the former will gather scant chemical comfort 

 from the book ; as to the latter, they will have considerable difficulty in arriving 

 at any clear understanding of what may be "legitimate aspirations of biology," 

 owing to the cryptic character of the language in which much of the information 

 is conveyed. On reading the last chapter, it is impossible not to be struck by 

 the extent to which the descriptions given are rendered obscure by loose expressions 

 and the too frequent use of the "jargonese" in which physiologists perhaps more 

 than any other class of scientific worker are prone to indulge. Neither chemist 

 nor biologist will gain much from the slim account of the composition of the fats 

 given in chapter i. ; moreover, it is full of unessential things and unsystematic ; 

 not the slightest reference is made to Haller's all-important work on the ether- 

 isation of fatty acids by alcoholysis of fats. Chapters ii. and iii., in which the 

 extraction and estimation of fat and the character and properties of fats are 

 considered, although all too short, are of more value, as they contain many 

 practical hints derived from the author's wide experience : they are marred, 

 however, by slovenly writing. The following is a choice example taken from a 

 page full of verbiage: "The flask is heated on an asbestos board 12 cm. in 

 diameter, with an opening in its centre 5 cm. in diameter, with a small flame, 

 till the insoluble acids are melted, and then more strongly." If an author, two 

 editors and a printer's reader cannot do better than this, they should give up 

 book- making. The effect on students of such construction, of such punctuation, is 

 disastrous — how are they to form their style with examples of this kind before them? 



Chapter iv. on the physiology of fats is the really important section of the 

 volume and all Oliver Twist's feelings of desire for more come over us when 

 we read it. Had this last chapter been expanded into a complete essay, so as 

 to make clear the many issues of biological importance connected with fats, a 

 really useful monograph would have been produced. 



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