April 20, 191 1] 



NATURE 



^Z9 



In the final chapter causes of change in specific 

 characters are classified (chemical, mechanical, light, 

 heat, &c.), and finally a valuable discussion is given 

 of the three chief hypotheses of specific change — ger- 

 minal variation, transmission of somatic acquire- 

 ments, and parallel effects of environment on soma 

 and germ. The arguments for and against each are 

 set forth in tabular form, and it is concluded that 

 few, if any, observed facts are inconsistent with the 

 third hypothesis, while it has important experimental 

 and circumstantial evidence in its favour. 



L. D. 



REFERENCE BOOKS OF BIOCHEMISTRY. 

 Biochemisches Handlexikoii. Herausgegeben von 



Prof. Emil Abderhalden. 

 iv. Band, i Halfte : Proteine der hjianzenwelt, Pro- 



teine der Tierwelt, Peptone tiud Kyrine, Oxydative 



Abbanprodnkte der Proteine, Polypeptide. Pp. 352. 



Price 14 marks. 

 vii. Band, i Halfte : Gerhstoffe, Flechtenstoffe, 



Saponine, Bitterstoffe, Terpene. Pp. 538. Price 



22 marks. 

 (Berlin : J. Springer, 1910.) 



THESE two books form the first halves of vols. iv. 

 and vii. of a work in seven volumes on bio- 

 chemistry, which is intended, as the editor states in 

 the preface, to perform the same function for the bio- 

 chemist as " Beilstein " does for the organic chemist. 



Although the work is termed a hand-lexicon, the 

 articles are arranged as monographs, and there is no 

 discoverable system by which the reader may trace 

 out any detail to which he may want to refer in any 

 me of these long articles. There is no table of con- 

 tents nor any index to help one, and in any well- 

 regulated laboratory one might almost as well, so 

 far as trouble is concerned, search out the original 

 literature as refer to one of these articles. 



For example, one of the best articles in the two 

 half-volumes under review is that on the saponins by 

 Prof. Robert, of Rostock, occupying 84 pp., and 

 describing nearly as many members of the group as 

 there are pages in the article. There is no apparent 

 method in the arrangement of the description of the 

 members, and nothing to guide us as to where any 

 particular member is to be found. It so happens that 

 the writer is at present working at the biochemistry of 

 an important and well-known saponin occurring in 

 ivy-leaves, and therefore he looked keenly through 

 these 84 pp. to see if there was anything new about 

 it. The search was disappointing; after a long and 

 weary hunt not one word was to be found in the 

 whole article concerning it. This will never do in a 

 work intended to be the biochemical rival of 

 " Beilstein." In that work each volume carries its 

 index, and it is to be hoped that purchasers of the 

 present work will not have to wait longer than the 

 appearance of the second halves of the volumes for 

 the indispensable index. 



The two half-volumes which have so far appeared 

 form very dull, dry, and uninteresting reading even 

 for a " Handlexikon," and lack the saving virtues of 

 NO. 2164, VOL. 86] 



a lexicon of completeness and ready accessibility to 

 detail. 



It would have been an improvement if the articles 

 had been issued as separate monographs; and even 

 then one might question why it was necessary to write 

 some of them at all. Better monographs and more 

 complete have been compiled by other writers in 

 several of the subjects, and are well known and 

 accessible to all workers in biochemistry; and in cer- 

 tain of the others the subject of the monograph is 

 interesting to such a small circle of readers only that 

 it might still be allowed to rest in the original 

 archives, where the half-dozen workers on the subject 

 know quite well where to find the papers they 

 require. 



One wonders how many readers will take any deep 

 interest in the wonderfully detailed article of 112 pp. 

 from the pen of Dr. O. Hesse on " Die Flechten- 

 stoffe, " under which title, the author informs us at 

 the outset, we are to understand " organic compounds 

 which occur only in the ' Flechten ' or lichens, and 

 accordingly are peculiar to these plants." Again, of 

 the very few who have the requisite special training 

 to struggle through Dr. Hesse's article, how many 

 will ever require in the entire course of their lifetime 

 any of the wondrous detail of Dr. Robert's article on 

 saponins coming immediately after it? There is cer- 

 tainly a deep and abiding comfort in thinking upon 

 the amount of human lore in complete ignorance of 

 which one can pass happily and successfully through 

 this mortal life. 



Turning to the articles in the two half-volumes 

 which interest a wider circle of readers, such as those 

 in vol. iv., first part, on the vegetable and animal 

 proteins, their hydrolytic and oxidative products, and 

 the polypeptides, these may be described as some- 

 what more useful, although the cast-iron form into 

 which they are thrown robs them of much of their 

 interest. One becomes somewhat fatigued by the con- 

 tinuous repetition in mournful, broad-faced type of 

 Vorkommen, Darstellung, Bestimmung, Roagulations- 

 temperatur, physikalische und chemische Eigen- 

 schaften, physiologische Eigenschaften, u.s.w. If the 

 monograph form is to be selected for a hand-lexicon, 

 why not give some freedom to the authors to throw 

 the matter into their own form and style, and so 

 infuse some life into what they are writing, instead 

 of dissecting it out in this way like a dead body? 

 An index to each monograph would easily give orienta- 

 tion to anyone looking for a special detail. The cast- 

 iron plan pursued in the present work, moreover, 

 loses space instead of gaining it by continued reitera- 

 tion of the same facts for each member of a many- 

 membered class. For example, the actions of the 

 digestive juices upon polypeptides could be given in 

 tabular form in a space of one or two pages by put- 

 ting the whole thing connectedly and together ; instead 

 of this, practically the same statements are repeated 

 in describing each member of the legion of poly- 

 peptides. Again, in the article on the saponins, the 

 reaction of each individual to the generic colour-test 

 with concentrated sulphuric acid is given with tire- 

 some repetition, as well as many other matters of 



