44 



NATURE 



{May 1 8, 1876 



paper on which the letter has to be impressed is nearly 

 over the middle of the lever-circle. The depression of 

 the key first moves the paper into the exact pooition and 

 then prints the letter, figure, or stop. An independent 

 key produces the blank between each two words. 



The method of inking is excellent and unexpected. A 

 strip of fine fabric, saturated with the ink is carried 

 between two rollers so arranged that it intervenes between 

 the paper to be printed on and the centre of the lever- 

 circle. The type-carrying hammers do not, therefore, 

 strike the paper itself at all, but only the ink-saturated 

 bind, which, as a result of the percussion, comes in con- 

 tact with the recording paper, btU only in the parts 

 where contact is tnade, which are nothing more nor less 

 than those corresponding to the configuration of the letter 

 or figure employed. There is a simple shifting apparatus 

 to carry this inking band from one roller to the other, and 

 afterwards back again, which prevents the same part 

 from being struck too often, 



A side lever shifts the paper at the end of each line, 

 and a small bell is struck to warn the operator when this 

 has to be employed. 



Into further detail we need scarcely enter. The whole 

 instrument is not larger than a sewing-machine. Its cost 

 is twenty guineas. It only writes in capitals, the total 

 number of keys being forty-four, arranged in four rows of 

 eleven in each. Its simplicity is the best guarantee of its 

 durability. 



As to the " typoscript " (in contradistinction to the 

 manuscript of ordinary handwriting), there is no com- 

 parison between its clearness and that of average pen- 

 manship. It has, in fact, all the appearances of print, 

 with its many advantages as regards legibility, com- 

 pactness, and neatness. Errors, if detected soon enough, 

 can be corrected by the repetition of the word or sen- 

 tence, and the subsequent obliteration, upon reperusal, of 

 the faulty lines. The ink employed can be transferred 

 like transfer ink. 



The principal question which this beautiful and in- 

 genious little instrument suggests to our minds is, whether 

 it would not be better for every one of us to learn the 

 Morse telegraph language, and employ it for writing upon 

 all occasions instead of the cumbrous letters now in 

 vogue. Thought is more quick than formerly. Germany 

 is rapidly rejecting its archaic type ; why should we not 

 go further and write in Morse, where spots and horizontal 

 lines do duty for all necessary signs, and type-writers of 

 the simplest form would be required ? 



ORIGIN OF LIFE 



On Fermentation. By P. Schiitzenberger, Director at the 

 Chemical Laboratory at the Sorbonne. With twenty- 

 eight Illustrations. (Henry S. King and Co., 1876.) 



Sitr la Generation des Ferments. Par E. Fremy, Membre 

 de I'Academie des Sciences, Professeur de Chimie 

 k I'Ecole Polytechnique et au Museum d'Histoire 

 Naturelle. (G. Masson, Editeur, Libraire de I'Aca- 

 (, dmie de Mddecine : 1875.) 



Evolution and the Origin of Life. By H. Charlton 

 Bastian, M.A., M.D., F.R.S., Professor of Pathological 

 Anatomy in University College, London. (London : 

 Macmillan and Co., 1874.) 



THE work on fermentation is one of the International 

 Scientific Series. Starting with a thoroughly philo- 

 sophical conception of his subject, the author points out 



that from our present stand-point of knowledge, all those 

 phenomena classed together under the name fermenta- 

 tion, are but special cases of the chemical phenomena 

 of life. To life, however, we are not to attribute any 

 extra-material force or influence. Though the force that 

 can reduce the complex chemical edifice called sugar in 

 a certain determinate direction, is manifested only in the 

 living cell of the ferment, yet this " is a force as material 

 as ail those we are accustomed to utilize." "In other 

 words, there is really no chemical vital force. If living 

 cells produce reactions which seem peculiar to themselves, 

 it is because they realise conditions of molecular mecha- 

 nism which we have not hitherto succeeded in tracing^ 

 but which we shall, without doubt, be able to discover at 

 some future time." In the book will be found a clear and 

 concise statement of our present knowledge of fermenta- 

 tion, and a brief history of the progress of opinion and 

 research. The outstanding questions (and there are 

 many) and diverse opinions are presented with scientific 

 impartiality, as is also contradictory evidence. It is 

 gratifying to observe how such rival theories as those of 

 Liebig and Pasteur on the nature of fermentation can bd 

 swallowed up in a larger conception, and one at least of the 

 combatants conclude that both may be right. " Fermenta- 

 tion," says Liebig, "is a movement communicated by in- 

 stable bodies in process of chemical transformation." " I 

 maintain," says M. Pasteur, " that the chemical act of fer- 

 mentation is essentially a phenomenon correlative to a vital 

 act." " So be it," replies Liebig, " ' a vital act ' is a pheno- 

 menon of motion ; your special views fall within my theory." 

 Necessarily large space in this work is given to the exten- 

 sive and splendid researches of M. Pasteur, whose views 

 the author follows in the main, though not at all times able 

 to fi.nd them quite self-consistent or consistent with 

 admitted facts. On the great question of most general 

 interest — What is the origin of ferments? he adopts the 

 conclusions of M. Pasteur. , 



The origin or generation of ferments is the subject ot 

 the work by M. Fremy, who has long and ably contested 

 the theory maintained by M. Pasteur. According to this 

 last distinguished chemist, all ferments are the offspring 

 of living things similar to themselves ; and when these 

 organisms appear in any liquid, such as milk, or the juice 

 of the grape, it is because the germs or eggs of these 

 creatures have in some way been introduced into the 

 liquid. M . Pasteur has made a great many interesting 

 and most important experiments which to his mind de- 

 monstrate the doctrine of panspermism. The demonstra- 

 tion, however, is not universally accepted ; and M. Fremy 

 is among those who find it possible to admit the accuracy 

 of most, if not of all, M. Pasteur's experiments without ac- 

 cepting his conclusions, while they in their turn bring 

 forward observations and experiments which they hold to 

 be quite irreconcilable with the hypothesis that ferments 

 are always produced from germs of similar organisms. 

 We can in no way refer to the innumerable experiments ; 

 we may, however, try to give in a few words some faint 

 conception of the character of the discussion." 



Whence, for instance, come the well-known organisms 

 which appear in the expressed juice of the grape, and 

 are invariably associated with alcoholic fermentation ? 

 " From germs that have found access to the liquid," says 

 M. Pasteur. " No," replies M. Fremy, " they are evolved, 



1 



