January 12, 1922] 



NATURE 



37 



\ie\vs without reference to his work. In the book 

 before us he includes «, detailed account of his ex- 

 periments on the origin of somatic sex-characters, 

 and uses these as the main support of his theory. 

 ' )ne must admit that explanation on other lines is 

 xtraordinarily difficult. The discussion of the 

 • igin of the scrotum on pp. 147 and 148 is of much 

 iiterest, although, no doubt, objection may be taken 

 to the view of its origin as a kind of traumatic 

 hernia. 



Space forbids detailed reference to the many other 

 facts of importance brought forward, such as the 

 difference between specific and adaptive characters, 

 the origin of new dominants, the presence of useless 

 characters, continuous and discontinuous variations, 

 and so on. Loeb's " tropism " theories are adversely 

 criticised. The facts and views put forward cannot 

 he neglected by investigators of the problems of 

 heredity, and the book as a whole requires careful 

 consideration. It is of particular value in bringing 

 to notice a theory which was previously known to 

 an inadequate degree, and, although modifications 

 will doubtless need to be made, the various facts 

 and theories contained in the book must not be 

 forgotten in the formation of a complete theory of 

 heredity. Dr. Cunningham's theory has the un- 

 doubted merit of suggesting new forms of experi- 

 ment, and everyone will agree with the opinion ex- 

 pressed on p. 64: "Further light on the sex 

 problem, as in many other problems in biology, 

 can only be obtained by more knowledge of the 

 physical and chemical processes which take place 

 in the chromosomes and in the relation of these 

 structures to the rest of the cell." 



W. M. Bayliss. 



Medicinal Chemicals. 



Organic Medicinal Chemicals (Synthetic and 

 Natural). By M. Barrowcliff and F. H. Carr. 

 (Industrial Chemistry.) Pp. xiii + 331. (Lon- 

 don: Bailli^re, Tindall, and Cox, 1921.) 

 155. net. 



I\ writing this book Messrs. Barrowcliff and 

 Carr had in mind the production of a critical 

 ompendium of methods for the manufacture of 

 ■ rganic medicinal chemicals, which would be use- 

 iLil to teachers and to those occupied in research 

 work in the industry itself. The idea was to 

 -estrict attention to those published processes 

 hich seem capable of industrial application and 

 ,ire therefore of first importance when improve- 

 ments are under consideration. 



It may be said at once that for the ends in view 

 the volume leaves little to be desired. The 

 information g-iven is well selected and reasonably 

 NO. 2724, VOL. 109] 



complete, though it clearly does not exhaust the 

 authors' knowledge of the subject : the descrip- 

 tions are clear and easy to follow. 



Considerations of space are no doubt respons- 

 ible for the brevity exhibited in some cases ; thus, 

 under pilocarpine there is no reference to the alka- 

 loids which accompany it in jaborandL though any 

 attempt to make pilocarpine is sure, sooner or 

 later, to bring the operator into contact with 150- 

 pilocarpine. The authors have every excuse for 

 not embarking on a critical rdsuind of the tangled 

 chemistry of digitalis by way of introduction to 

 their description of the manufacture of the various 

 products which appear in commerce as active 

 principles of this drug; nevertheless, there can be 

 no question that such a resume would have been 

 useful. It should be added, however, that the 

 authors have only themselves to thank if their 

 readers prove exacting in such matters, because in 

 most cases they have provided excellent sum- 

 maries of the kind indicated, which serve to 

 emphasise the few cases in which they are 

 lacking. 



The subjects dealt with are grouped for the most 

 part according to therapeutical applications — e.g. 

 aucesthetics, narcotics, analgesics— though this 

 arrangement is departed from when it is more 

 convenient to group together a series of related 

 substances such as the naturally occurring alka- 

 loids and organo-metallic compounds. As already 

 indicated, little that is essential has been omitted, 

 but it might have been a good plan to refer quite 

 briefly at the end of each section to any particu- 

 larly promising drugs suggested by recent 

 investigations. Thus, under local anaesthetics, 

 mention might have been made of benzyl alcohol 

 and certain of its homologues and derivatives, 

 since these are already coming into use, at any rate 

 in the United States, as a result of the work of 

 Macht and his collaborators. 



A drug which is not referred to, but is of 

 special interest at the present time, is santonin, 

 for the plant from which it is made grows in 

 Soviet Russia, and there also is the only factory 

 producing the drug. The plant is, however, now 

 being grown experimentally in the United States, 

 and a possible new source of supply has been 

 found in India. Santonin is one of the best-known 

 anthelmintics, a group of drugs which merits more 

 attention than has been given to it by British 

 chemists. The British Empire probably possesses 

 among its coloured populations in the tropics more 

 victims of hookworm, tp mention onlv one of this 

 group of parasites, than any other country, with 

 the possible exception of China, and, like China, 

 it is largely dependent on public-spirited citizens 



C 



