NA TURE 



465 



THURSDAY. FEBRUARY 9, 191 1. 



STUDIES IN PHYSIOLOGY. 



Physiology the Servant of Medicine, being the Hitch- 

 cock Lectures for 1909, delivered at the University 

 of California. Berkeley, Cal. By Dr. Augustus D. 

 Waller, F.R.S. Pp. viii+ 143. (London : Univer- 

 sity of London Press and Hodder and Stoughton, 

 1910.) Price 55. 



WHATEVER may be the place of lectures in the 

 education of youth, the endowments of lecture- 

 ships for occasional addresses by distinguished men 

 have proved of eminent service. And this not in 

 science only, as the GifTord, Bampton, and other 

 lectures bear witness. Of such happy advantage this 

 bright little book is one more instance. Such 

 an invitation serves both as a stimulant and a pur- 

 pose to a man of science or learning, in the phrase 

 of Prof. Waller (p. 66), to bring to "a kind of nodal 

 point, or focus, several lines of thought"; and, more- 

 over, to set forth for the intelligent world some 

 summary of a life's impressions, which otherwise he 

 might never have been led to do; and, as should be 

 in such a work, this set of lectures contains matter 

 of both practical and of theoretical value — matter, that 

 is of both immediate and of future service to 

 mankind. 



Many of us in times past have wasted some little 

 sympathy — quite uncalled for — with ardent physio- 

 logists, such as the late Burdon-Sanderson and our 

 present author, who. in spite of laborious work in the 

 field of electric biology, did not for a time seem to be 

 engaged on a ver\- remunerative task. In the field of 

 therapeutics, for example, electric work seemed — apart 

 from certain points or diagnosis — not to come to verv* 

 much; But no one can read these lectures without 

 being reinforced in the better judgment that if the har- 

 vest seemed long in coming it is now fuM of reward ; 

 and this little book, by a master of the subject, 

 shows us lucidly and in perspective the useful and 

 interesting results which are being attained. In 

 the first lecture we read, from the starting point 

 of the isolated muscle, the effects of ether, alcohol, 

 and chloroform, in the electrical language of the 

 cardiac muscle, as illustrated in part by the " torture " 

 of "Jemmy." The point of view of this chapter is 

 to illustrate how chemical changes in living tissues 

 are signified and can be measured by the electrical. 

 Lecture ii., starting from the isolated nerve, reads 

 the language of nervous matter in the same mani- 

 festation. Lecture iii. is pharmaceutical, with a 

 notable discussion of anaesthetics. Lecture iv. is 

 full of facts and arguments on the photo-electrical 

 response, not of the retina only, but also of green 

 leaves and animal and vegetable tissues generallv. 

 The breadth of view, and this evocation of answers 

 from all sides of nature, speak eloquentlv of the 

 various and comprehensive talents of the author. 

 Lecture v. may be for him the acme of his treatise, 

 for in it he develops and emphasises his well- 

 known contrast of the precious uses of general 

 anaesthetics, with the intimate perils of their ordinary 

 NO. 2154, VOL. 85] 



application ; but in no pessimist spirit, in the assur- 

 ance rather that under scientific guidance these uses 

 can be had without the perils. How great under 

 rule of thumb these perils have been, and still may 

 be he does not hesitate to declare with the authority 

 which belongs to one in whom to the talent of scien- 

 tific discover}' are added the practical dexterity of the 

 mechanic and the enthusiasm of humanity. Prof. 

 Waller believes that he has eliminated "idiosyn- 

 crasy " ; and he anticipates a like dismissal for the 

 "status lymphaticus." The last chapter — an appen- 

 dix—is reserved for some notes and general reflec- 

 tions arising out of what has gone before, reflections 

 full both of insight and accomplishment. 



I had marked many passages for especial notice, 

 but I see that in such a quest I should soon trespass 

 beyond my limits. I will rather engage the reader of 

 this notice to procure the little book for himself, 

 advice which I offer, not only to medical, but fo 

 all readers of N.ature; for it is the note of a master 

 of his subject that in addressing a larger public he 

 can make it intelligible to ever}- trained mind what- 

 ever its pursuits. And the paragraphs are full of 

 happy and illuminating sidelights ; for instance, on the 

 "line of beauty" (p. 65), I have heard Watts say 

 more than once that for the painter the line of beauty 

 is one which cannot return into itself. From the 

 time of Haller, or indeed from Harvey, physiology has 

 been ver\- fortunate in its exponents, a good fortune 

 which it still enjoys. Clifford Allbutt. 



THE PINES OF AUSTRALIA. 

 A Research on the Pines of Australia. By R. T. 

 Baker and H. G. Smith. (Technological Museum, 

 N.S.W., Technical Education Series, No. 16.) Pp. 

 xiv + 460. (Sydney: William A. GuUick, Govern- 

 ment Printer, 1910.) 

 THE joint authors of this book are both officers 

 of the Technological Museum of New South 

 Wales, acting in the botanical and chemical depart- 

 ments respectively, and also joint authors of a similar 

 "research" on the genus Eucalyptus, published some 

 years ago. Beginning with the title of the present 

 work, we question its appropriateness, though there 

 mav be local considerations which justify its adoption. 

 To what extent the names " Moreton Bay Pine," 

 "Cvpress Pine," &c., are used, outside of books, is 

 uncertain. Here, in the northern hemisphere, the 

 term pine is by no means applied uniformlv. but its 

 use is restricted to the Abietaceae, no member of which 

 is a native of Australia. A criticism of this kind is 

 easily put forward, but it is difficult to find a more 

 suitable and popular name, as the family designation, 

 Coniferae, is equally open to objection, in view of a 

 classification based on relatively recent researches. 

 Mr. Baker, however, might have consistently used 

 the term Coniferae, inasmuch as he accepts and em- 

 ploys the classification and terminology of Bentham 

 and Hooker's "Genera Plantarum," in which the six 

 groups, Cupressineae, Taxodieae, Taxeae, Podocarpeae, 

 Araucarieae, and Abietineae are regarded as tribes of 

 one family or natural order — the Coniferae. All these 

 groups, except the last, are represented in the indi- 



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