CURRENT LITERATURE. 
BOOK REVIEWS. 
Plant physiology. 
GERMAN PHYSIOLOGISTS all seem to have been resting on their oars, 
awaiting the forthcoming volumes of Pfeffer. Not since the publication of 
Sachs’s lectures has a book of any considerable size appeared in Germany, 
though Detmer’s work, a part of Schenck’s Handbuch, could be purchased 
separately. Dr. Ludwig Jost’ of Strassburg has been engaged for several 
years on a volume intermediate between the monumental work of Pfeffer and 
the brief treatment of physiology by Noll in the “Bonn” Lehréuch. 
Asa result of his labors we have a volume of almost 700 pages, treating 
in a critical and yet synoptic fashion the metabolism, the morphogeny, and 
the energetics of plants. The work takes the form of lectures, and by this 
device retains a vigor of phrase and fitness of description that is impossible 
in a more formal type of composition, The sentences are clear, direct, and 
forceful, and the style is consequently most attractive. In this it stands in 
sharp contrast with the work of Pfeffer, whose completion we note below. 
Jost gathers up the literature through 1902 and exhibits critical acumen 
in sifting the mass of data which have accumulated. “The section on metab- 
olism treats the usual topics, somewhat more space being given to the ash 
constituents of plants perhaps than the reliable data will justify. Under the 
heading carbon and nitrogen the author discusses photosynthesis and proteid 
making, as well as respiration, digestion, fermentation, and other processes. 
So general a heading, therefore, is hardly useful, since all the metabolism of 
plants is connected with these two elements. Unfortunately, the author con- 
tinues the use of the term “assimilation” for the synthetic processes which 
really precede true assimilation, and we have such divisions as Assimilation 
bet den Autotrophen and Assimilation bei den Heterotrophen, two processes 
which are so unlike that the identical terminology is sure to be confusing. 
A second section of the book treats morphogeny (Formwechsel) rather 
more fully than is usual, but not more so than is desirable ; to it almost one- 
third of the book is devoted. Besides the consideration of growth and 
development and the influence of external factors thereon, reproduction, 
heredity, and variation find adequate treatment. The section on reproduc- 
tion is not a mere description of reproductive organs, as is so commonly the 
case, but a discussion of the physiological processes that are connected with 
these organs. 
‘Jost, Lupwic, Vorlesungen iiber sip toa ease Imp. 8vo. pp. xiii + 695. 
figs. 172. Jena: Gustav Fischer. 1904. 413; bound M1 
390 [MAY 
