646 



NATURE 



[February 10, 19 16 



bestial thoughts to a pure mind, and such prac- 

 tices should be repressed with all the strength of 

 a controlling hierarchy— if such there be? It has 

 l>een well said that "a diagnosis in the Freudian 

 sense is a diagnosis of the mind that made it." 



In Dr. Stoddart's lectures there is much that 

 concerns the psychiatric specialist, as he is in- 

 terested in all the attempted explanations of 

 perversion, but there is little here for the scientific 

 seeker after truth. The first chapter deals with 

 fundamental psychical Instincts; the second with 

 the technique of psycho-analysis ; and the last with 

 its application. We are not in sympathy with 

 much that is said by Freud's English exponent, 

 and we assert from practical experience and a 

 definite knowledge of the effect of psycho-analysis 

 upon those among whom the craft is practised — 

 in so far as it is a probing for hidden and for- 

 gotten sexual occurrences — that it is repulsive, 

 disreputable, and ethically objectionable. 



Robert Armstroxg-Joxes. 



THE ENERGY CHANGES IN VITAL 

 PROCESSES. 

 Principles of General Physiology. By Prof. 

 W. M. Bayllss. Pp. xx + 850. (London: 

 Longmans, Green and Co., 191 5.) Price 215. 

 net. 



WITHIN recent years many workers in the 

 domain of physiology have made use of 

 the more modern physical and chemical methods 

 In their investigations, as is evident even from 

 the most cursory study of present-day physio- 

 logical and blo-chemlcal literature. Such a book, 

 therefore, as that which Dr. Bayllss has just given 

 us Is of Inestimable value to all who recognise 

 that an approach to the study of physiology 

 through the avenue of energetics is one that is 

 bound to prove of great value.. To deal satis- 

 factorily with the principles of general physiology 

 from this viewpoint requires, however, the ex- 

 penditure of so much labour that at first sight it 

 appears unlikely that one writer can take the 

 whole burden upon his own shoulders. Dr. 

 Bayllss has taken infinite pains in the preparation 

 of a well-reasoned presentation of the physico- 

 chemical laws which govern vital processes. 

 Every page shows evidence of a critical study of 

 the literature, much of which, at least until re- 

 cently, lay outside the region of the physiologist. 

 One of the great advantages which will result from 

 a careful study of this book will undoubtedly be 

 the direction of the attention of the reader to the 

 physico-chemical literature of which the writer has 

 made such good use. 



The first chapter deals with certain of the pro- 

 NO. 2415, VOL. 96] 



pertles of protoplasm, but naturally in a very 

 brief form, as the subject is discussed from a 

 variety of points of view in the subsequent chap- 

 ters. The next seven chapters, along with chapter 

 x., are in many respects the most valuable. They 

 deal with such subjects as the laws of energetics, 

 surface action, the colloidal state, permeability of 

 membranes, osmotic pressure, the action of 

 electrolytes, and catalysis and enzyme action. In 

 the very interesting chapter on surface action, the 

 properties of substances at their boundaries with 

 other phases, for example, surface tension and 

 electric charge, and their influence on solubility 

 and chemical reaction, are dealt with before taking 

 up the subject of adsorption. The parts played 

 by mechanical surface energy and the electrical 

 energy changes at a surface are carefully 

 differentiated, and in the study of the combined 

 effects of the two factors, the higher value of the 

 latter Is referred to. The changes subsequent to 

 adsorption, removal from surface to interior or 

 actual chemical combination, and the control of 

 the rate of chemical combination by the pre- 

 liminary adsorption process, are dealt with in a 

 most interesting fashion. The section on the 

 electrical charge on colloids and the part played 

 by electrolytic dissociation on the same is, as one 

 would expect, a most excellent one. That most 

 important subject in colloidal chemistry, namely, 

 the action of electrolytes on colloidal particles, re- 

 ceives due attention, the work of Hardy, Perrin, 

 Burton, and Mines being specially referred to. 



In dealing with the proteins from the physico- 

 chemical point of view, it might have been ad- 

 visable to give a rather more detailed account of 

 amphoteric electrolytes in order to lead up to such 

 subjects as the iso-electric point or zone and its 

 relation to the denaturation or coagulation zone. 



In the chapter on the permeability of mem- 

 branes and the properties of the surface of cells, 

 a very excellent account is given of our present 

 knowledge, but the subject requires so much 

 further work that the time has not yet come when 

 I a clear account of the various factors, physical and 

 I chemical, can be given. In the chapter on osmotic 

 pressure, and also later on In the chapter on 

 ; secretion, the writer refers to the influence which 

 would be exercised by differences in permeability 

 In various parts of the cell membrane ; for 

 example, the surface next the blood vessels com- 

 pared to the surface next the lumen of the tube. 

 A somewhat similar mechanism has been de- 

 scribed by Lepeschin in certain organs of plants. 

 The chapter on electrolytes and their action is 

 a most interesting one, but It would be advisable 

 for the reader to supplement it by a study of a 



