May 20, 1922] 



NA TURE 



639 



not one to touch 

 With beauty this long battle for the light ? 



The blind, blood-battered kings 

 Move with an epic music to their thrones, 

 Have you no song, then, of that nobler war ? 



. . . for, in these wars. 

 Whoever wins a battle, wins for all. 



And then of Copernicus. The first effect of the new 

 theory was to dwarf the importance of man, to make 

 him " creep like ants upon our midget ball of dust, 

 lost in immensity." But this is not the true or final 

 issue : 



This new night was needed, that the soul 

 Might conquer its own kingdom and arise 

 To its full stature. 



F. S. Marvin. 



Biochemistry.^ 



Biochemistry : A Study of the Origin, Reactions, and 

 Equilibria of Living Matter. By Prof. Benjamin 

 Moore. Pp. vii + 340. (London: Edward Arnold, 

 1921.) 215. net. 



AS is pointed out in the preface, this book does 

 l\. not claim to be a general text-book of bio- 

 chemistry. Hence, it is necessary, in t-he first place, 

 to indicate the nature of its contents. The first two 

 chapters are new ; they deal with " biotic energy " 

 and with the relation of life to light. There is much 

 of interest and of suggestive thought for workers in 

 that field of vital phenomena discussed in these chapters. 

 The author's views on " biotic energy " are well known. 

 We may note that, while being an independent form 

 of energy, this is supposed to be quantitatively con- 

 \ertible into the " inorganic " forms of energy and to 

 obey the laws of energetics. This being so, it is 

 difficult to see what is gained by the assumption, 

 unless it implies the function of a directing agency 

 or " entelechy." Perhaps the author has in his mind 

 something of the kind, since he speaks of " biotic 

 energy " as controlling the chemical reactions in the 

 living cell. A mild criticism may be made in this 

 connection of the somewhat hazy and unintelligible 

 nature of occasional statements in the book. This 

 is doubtless due to oversight ; but if one were able 

 to attach a more definite meaning to certain expres- 

 sions, it is likely that they might prove more useful 

 than appears at first sight. 



The following six chapters deal with photo-synthesis. 

 They are practically reprints of the author's papers 

 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society. While these 

 experiments are of much interest, and will repay 

 perusal, some doubt may be expressed as to the need 



• This review was written before the lamented death of Prof. Moore, the 

 author of the work to which it refers. 



for repetition of experimental detail, since the original 

 papers are accessible elsewhere. With regard to the 

 formaldehyde theory of carbon assimilation in plants, 

 it may be remembered that Prof. Moore's experiments 

 did much to give reasonable ground for holding this 

 view, which has recently been made still more accept- 

 able by the work of Baly, Heilbronn, and Barker. 

 The assimilation of atmospheric nitrogen by the cell 

 of the green plant under the influence of light, how- 

 ever, requires more convincing evidence than has been 

 brought forward as yet. 



The remaining chapters are reprinted and re-edited 

 from " Recent Advances in Physiology " and " Further 

 Advances in Physiology." The reader will be glad 

 to have these articles again made available, but it is 

 to be regretted that the opportunity was not taken 

 to bring them more adequately up to date by correct- 

 ing statements which no longer represent what is known 

 on the subject. It may savour too much of " asking 

 for more " if the opinion be expressed that readers 

 would have been grateful for some account of the 

 views of Langmuir on adsorption and catalysis, and 

 of those of Bancroft on the latter. The application 

 of the modem conception of " activity coefficients " 

 to physiological phenomena is also a matter worthy 

 of consideration. 



Prof. Moore gives much destructive criticism of 

 the assumption of a semi-permeable membrane on 

 the surface of cells. It may be pointed out here 

 that physiologists at the present day do not suppose 

 such a membrane to be a permanent inert structure, 

 but to be formed from the protoplasm in equilibrium 

 with it and therefore liable to be affected by all kinds 

 of functional change. Thus it becomes permeable in 

 the state of activity of the cell, and most of Prof. 

 Moore's arguments lose their weight. 



There are certain interesting papers by the author 

 which might well have been included in the present 

 volume of reprints, such as those dealing with the 

 osmotic pressure of colloids. This would have been 

 a convenience to many workers. 



When we find a section on the nervous mechanism 

 of secretion amongst the questions dealt with in the 

 book, we are naturally led to ask, what does the 

 author understand by " biochemistry " ? His bio- 

 chemistry appears to be identical with what is properly 

 called " physiology." The latter, however, as taught 

 in the medical schools, is apt to be more or less limited 

 to human or applied physiology, so that it was natural 

 to institute a body of doctrine which should include 

 the chemical phenomena of the lower animals and 

 plants. But a complete physiological science includes 

 these. Indeed, it is impossible to consider apart from 

 one another the chemical and physical aspects of vital 



NO. 2742, VOL. 109] 



