The Microscope. 61 



Microbes, Ferments and Moulds, by E. L. Trouessart. Internationiil 



Scientific Series. 13 mo., cloth, pp. 314, $1.75. New York: D. Appletou 



& Co. Detroit: Jolin Macfarlane. 



The questions connected with cryptogamic botany and micro- 

 bian pathology have ceased to belong alone to strictly scientific 

 inquiry. Practical hygiene, domestic economy, agriculture and 

 manufactures must deal with them, and every lawyer, agriculturist, 

 manufacturer and architect must study the functions that microbes 

 fulfill in nature. 



In the above work the author has given us a book that contains 

 an excellent account of the morphology and life history of all the 

 parasitic fungi known to science, written in a style intelligible to all. 



The introduction discusses the names that have been proposed 

 for the minute organisms that are on the border line between the 

 animal and vegetable kingdoms — the kingdom of Protista, of 

 Haeckel. The author prefers and uses the term microbe suggested 

 by Sedellot of Paris, March 11, 1878. We are with him in thinking 

 that this term should be adopted unreservedly into the English as it 

 has been into the French. The word only signifies a small living being 

 and decides nothing as to the animal or vegetable nature of the 

 organisms in question. The word micro-organism is well meaning 

 but cumbersome. The word bacteria is open to the objection that it 

 is the name of a species generalized and applied to an entire group. 



The body of the work is filled with material we should like to 

 discuss, did space permit. Chapters I, II and III deal with 

 parasitic fungi, moulds and ferments. Chapters IV to VII with 

 microbes proper. The chapter on the microbic diseases of wine 

 is of especial interest and of great value to the rapidly developing 

 wine industry of this country. The articles upon the microbes of 

 human diseases cover the ground concisely and well. For the 

 general reader it could not be improved. For the physician, as 

 an introduction to the study of the works of Klein, Koch or Stern- 

 berg, it is of the greatest value. 



Following is a chapter on laboratory technique. The conclusion 

 gives a brief summary of the various theories of the specific dis- 

 eases, bringing out in relief the great superiority of microbian 

 pathology. The work is profusely illustrated and printed in the 

 usual excellent style of the publishers. 



The Physician's Visiting List, published by Lindsay & Blakiston, 

 Philadelphia, presents the usual essential qualities with many new 

 features and still retains the convenient size that has made it 

 popular. 



