56 



NATURE 



[May 8, 1879 



Cocoas," the natural history, the various modes of prepa- 

 ration, the chemical composition, the physiological action, 

 and the dietetic uses being in each case satisfactorily and 

 pretty fully discussed. 



" The Sweets we Extract" have several chapters devoted 

 to them, in which the chemistry of the sugars is treated 

 of, and the various methods of preparing cane, maple, 

 beet-root, and even manna and milk-sugar are fully 

 described. 



"The Liquors we Ferment " include " The Beers," "The 

 Wines," and " The Brandies." Under each head we find 

 an amount of general information relating to modes of 

 manufacture, to chemical composition, and to habits of 

 various nations, which is truly remarkable. 



" The Narcotics we Indulge in " have eight chapters 

 devoted to them, the subjects treated of being the follow- 

 ing : — tobacco ; the hop and its substitutes ; the poppy 

 and the lettuce ; Indian hemp ; the betel nut and the 

 peppcrworts ; 'coca ; the Siberian fungus, and the minor 

 narcotics. Then follow " The Odours we Enjoy," " The 

 Smells we Dishke," and "The Colours we Admire." 

 The last-named chapter is entirely new, and we shall 

 therefore notice it at somewhat greater length than its 

 predecessors. 



It appears to us rather a mistake to have classed the 

 blood colouring matter under the heading of " The Colours 

 we Admire ;" beautiful though the colour of blood may 

 appear to be to the physiologist, we doubt very much 

 whether most persons would not object to the statement 

 implied in the classification adopted. As the proximate 

 principle which confers upon the coloured blood cor- 

 puscles their remarkable function as the oxygen-carriers 

 of the body, it ought in our opinion to have been relegated 

 to the chapter which treats of " What we Breathe and 

 Breathe for." In connection with haemoglobin, though 

 not in the chapter now under discussion, we find one 

 of the really few inaccurate statements with which we 

 have to charge Mr. Church. " But if the carbon-contain- 

 ing substances derived from man's food are burnt through- 

 out his body, and if this burning takes place because of 

 oxygen brought from the lungs, how and in what forms, 

 may we ask, are the products of this burning, being no 

 longer of use, conveyed out of the body ? The very 

 haemaglobin which has brought the oxygen carries away 

 the chief product of the burning — namely, carbonic acid 

 gas." This is not correct. 



Haemoglobin possesses no special power of absorbing 

 carbon dioxide, and the greater part of this body as it is 

 formed, is taken up by the liquor sanguinis in which it is 

 held partly in a state of solution and partly of feeble 

 chemical combination. We observe that Prof. Church 

 applies to the blood colouring matter the term haemaglobin 

 instead of h:Em(7globin. The second is the now universally 

 adopted way of spelling the word ; it is a barbarously 

 coined word and can only be preferred to the etymologi- 

 cally more correct haemato-globulin on the score of use 

 and wont j the change made by Mr. Church is, however, 

 surely no improvement, as it is the stem (aJ/xoT-) and not 

 the nominative case (aifia) which should be incorporated 

 in the compound word. In the words "haemorrhage," 

 " haemorrhoidal," "haemoptysis," we have at least the 

 sanction of old usage given to the coiners of " hxmo- 

 globin." 



After shortly describing haemoglobin Mr. Church refers 

 to Turacin, a very remarkable red colouring matter con- 

 taining 8 per cent, of copper, which he discovered several 

 years ago in the pinion feathers of the Plantain eaters. 

 "The existence of an animal pigment so rich in copper 

 as turacin, offers many interesting problems for study. 

 Traces of this metal seem generally diffused in most 

 vegetables and many animals ; but here are more than 

 traces — weighable and visible quintities." The sheets of 

 the book had probably passed through the press before 

 the announcement of Dr. Frederique's recent discoveries 

 had been made in reference to the blood of the octopu?, 

 which would otherwise have probably been noticed. Dr. 

 Frederique, of Ghent, in the first place confirmed the 

 observations made by previous writers as to the colour of 

 the blood of the octopus ; in this creature the arterial 

 blood is blue, whilst the venous blood is colourless. On 

 agitating the venous blood with oxygen or atmospheric 

 air it becomes blue ; conversely on treating the blue 

 arterial blood with reducing agents or heating it in the 

 vacuum of a mercurial pump it loses its blue colour. The 

 colour is found by Frederique to be due to a complex 

 body containing copper, to which he has given the name 

 haemosyanin, which appears to have an analogous consti- 

 tution to haemoglobin ; like this body it is decomposed 

 easily and yields a proteid body and a colouring matter 

 which contains all the copper of the original substance. 

 This copper containing proximate principle is dissolved 

 in the plasma and is undoubtedly the oxygen carrier of 

 the blood of the octopus. 



The chapter on " The Colours we Admire " closes with 

 a succinct account of the synthesis (by Graebe and Lieber- 

 mann) of alizarin, the madder pigment, and by a notice 

 of recent researches on the constitution of certain of the 

 coal-tar colours. 



Did space permit we should notice the concluding 

 chapters, of which some are mainly devoted to certain 

 physiological topics, others to a recapitulation on " The 

 Circulation .of Matter." We trust, however, that the 

 sketch which we have given will suffice to give some idea 

 of the wide scope and deep interest which attaches to 

 Mr. Church's admirable edition of " The Chemistry of 

 Common Life." A. G. 



SILURIAN FOSSILS 



A Monograph of the Silurian Fossils of the Girvan 

 District tn Ayrshire, with Special Reference to those 

 contained in the " Gray Collection." By H. Alleyne 

 Nicholson, M.D., D.Sc, F.R.S.E., Professor of Natural 

 History in the University of St. Andrews, and Robert 

 Etheridge, Jun., F.G. S., Acting-PalaJontologist to the 

 Geological Survey of Scotland. Fasciculus I. Rhizo- 

 poda, Actinozoa, Trilobita. Pp. 135, PI. i.-ix. (Black- 

 wood and Co., 1878.) 



TH E authors of this monograph state in their preface 

 that they have been enabled to undertake their task 

 through the aid rendered to them by a grant from the 

 Government fund administered by the Royal Society, and 

 we cannot but feel in examining this first instalment of 

 the result of their labour that the pecuniary assistance 

 has been in this case exxeedingly well bestowed. 



