and Laboratory Methods. 1863 



GENERAL PHYSIOLOGY. 



RAYMOND PEARL, University of Michigan. 



Books and Papers for Review should be Sent to Raymond Pearl, Zoological Laboratory, 

 University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich. 



Zeitschrift fuer Allgemeine Physiologic. Dr. This most recent addition to the al- 

 Max Verworn. Bd. I, Hefti. Jena., 1902. ready long list of biological journals 

 Verlag von Gustav Fischer. 1 • • /- , 1 1 



makes in its first number an extremely 



good impression. It appears at a fortunate time and can certainly lay claim to 

 a field not covered by any previously existing periodical. At no time in the his- 

 tory of biological science has there been so widespread an interest in the prob- 

 lems of " general physiology " as at the present. Important investigations along 

 this line are being prosecuted all over the world, and the number of investiga- 

 tors giving their attention to general physiology is constantly increasing. It 

 seems eminently fitting then that this work should have a journal entirely de- 

 voted to its contributions, and this need the "Zeitschrift fiir Allgemeine Physi- 

 ologic " seems destined to fill very satisfactorily. 



The editor, Prof. Verworn, opens the number with an " Einleitung " of 

 eighteen pages, in which he sums up the present status of the science of physi- 

 ology, and sharply defines the lines on which the " Zeitschrift " is to be con- 

 ducted. In this introduction Verworn answers in a very convincing way some 

 of the criticisms which have been made against his own work, and admirably de- 

 fends his standpoint. A practical point which will be noted with pleasure by 

 Americans is that the " Zeitschrift " will publish contributions in any of the four 

 ordinary languages of science: German, English, French and Italian. Besides 

 accounts of original investigation a portion of each number is to be devoted to 

 reviews of the current literature of general physiology, and also frequent 

 " Sammelreferate " of the literature of special lines of work are promised. 



The original papers in this first " Heft " are nearly all of a high order of excel- 

 lence. The first of these is by Hans Winterstein, and is entitled, "Zur Kennt- 

 nis der Narkose.*' It gives the results of an investigation of the phenomena of 

 narcosis studied by Verworn's method of substituting for the blood of the circu- 

 lation, some other fluid whose effects on the organism, or the specific parts of 

 the organism, it is desired to test. The most important result of Winterstein's 

 work is the demonstration that in narcosis, not only the processes of dissimila- 

 tion, but also those of assimilation, are paralyzed. 



The second paper is in its general implications one of far reaching signifi- 

 cance. It is entitled, " Neue Versuche zur Physiologie der Befruchtung," and 

 is written by Dr. E. von Dungern. It is devoted in the main to a discussion of 

 the causes of the specific nature of the process of fertilization. Why cannot the 

 egg of the starfish be fertilized by the spermatozoa of the sea urchin ? Briefly, 

 the author finds the principal reason to be that the starfish egg contains sub- 

 stances which are extremely poisonous to the spermatozoa of sea urchins, tut are 



