504 



NATURE 



[August 28, 19 19 



In concluding, we would ally ourselves with 

 M. Termier in his admiration for this monumental 

 treatise and, adopting as nearly as possible his 

 own words, we may say : " Such a work is destined 

 to endure, not for an age, but for all time. If it 

 grows old it does so only very slowly, and pre- 

 serves in its old age the majesty and beauty of 

 things imperishable." W. J. Sollas. 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY. 

 (i) Fats and Fatty Degeneration: A Physico- 

 Chemical Study of Emulsions and the Normal 

 and Abnormal Distribution of Fat in Proto- 

 plasm. By Prof. Martin H. Fischer and Dr. 

 Marian O. Hooker. Pp. ix+ 155. (New York : 

 John Wiley and Sons, Inc. ; London : Chapman 

 and Hall, Ltd., 1917.) Price 95. 6d. net. 

 (2) Practical Physiological Chemistry. By 

 Sydney W. Cole. Fifth , edition. With an 

 introduction by Prof. F. G, Hopkins. Pp. xvi + 

 401. (Cambridge: W. Heffer and Sons, Ltd.; 

 London : Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, 

 and Co., Ltd., 1919.) Price 155. net. 

 (i) T' IKE Prof. Fischer's earlier studies on 

 -L' oedema and nephritis, this work on 

 fatty degeneration and allied topics is suggestive 

 and stimulating, but unsatisfactory. As before, 

 we have, in the first place, a study of phenomena 

 produced in vitro, in this case on the formation 

 of various types of emulsion and on the factors 

 leading to their stabilisation or " breaking." The 

 observations are of no particular novelty, 

 but they are well arranged from the point 

 of view of popular demonstration. Pass- 

 ing to the condition in which fat is held 

 in the protoplasm of the normal cell, and of 

 that which has become the subject of fatty de- 

 generation, the authors emphasise, with justice, 

 the fact that the latter may contain actually no 

 more fat than the former. This consideration 

 gives an opening to Prof. Fischer's predilection 

 for facile analogy. The comparison between the 

 appearance in obvious droplets of fat previously 

 invisible, and the "breaking " of a fine emulsion, 

 is obvious and suggestive. But the recognition 

 of a superficial similarity is a long way from a 

 scientific demonstration, of identity. On the 

 authors' own showing, it is difficult to see why 

 the post-mortem development of acidity, which is 

 far in excess of any which can occur during life, 

 does not produce the appearance of extreme fatty 

 infiltration in every cell submitted to histological 

 examination. 



The mimicry of mucous secretion, by the effect 

 of water on an emulsion of powdered gum in oil, 

 has about the same scientific value. But the 

 method surely leads the authors beyond all per- 

 missible limits in. the chapter on "The Mimicry 

 of Some Anatomical Structures." The suggestion 

 that a soap solution beaten to fine foam with air 

 looks, under the microscope, " not unlike a micro- 

 scopic section of lung," or that the figures pro- 

 duced in the drying of an oil-in-soap emulsion 

 NO. 2600, VOL. 103] 



S 



" remind one of the rods and cones of the retina,"" 

 seems to be much on the same level as a child's 

 discovery of trees in a frosted window-pane, or of 

 animal forms in the clouds. Are the authors 

 trying to play Hamlet to the reader's Polonius, or 

 do they wish to be taken seriously? 



(2) Mr. Cole's valuable book, after being out of 

 print for more than a year, now reappears in a 

 fifth edition, with extensive revision and additions. 

 The new chapter on the properties of solutions 

 contains a full account of the method of deter- 

 mining hydrogen-ion concentrations by means of 

 standard solutions and the range of indicators now 

 available. This, like many other items in the 

 book, will be of value to workers in many depart- 

 ments of biological science in which quantitative 

 chemical methods are required. The instructions 

 for preparing collodion sacs for dialysis, in the 

 same chapter, could be improved by including 

 some of the technical advances made in recent 

 years by Walpole and by Brown. A properly 

 made membrane of this kind surely becomes im- 

 permeable rather than porous on drying. 



A large part of the book is still devoted to 

 quantitative methods, and these are described wit 

 admirable clarity of detail. While the range 

 alternative methods in some instances might be 

 thought to overburden a student's course, it 

 greatly enhances the value of the book to the 

 worker in a clinical or research laboratory. 

 There is internal evidence, in almost every 

 description of a method, that the working has 

 been confirmed by personal experience; the book 

 abounds in those valuable hints and practical 

 details which come only from actual trial, and 

 the absence of which renders many a laborious 

 compilation so unsatisfactory. The directions for 

 preparing certain amino-acids may be mentioned 

 as remarkably good in this way; and, since this 

 chapter is admittedly beyond the scope of ordinary 

 class-work, it may be hoped that Mr. Cole, in 

 a future edition, will increase the obligation of 

 those needing pure amino-acids for bacteriological 

 and other work, by extending the list of prepara- 

 tions. H. H. D. 



OUR BOOKSHELF. 

 L'Insidia Sottomarina e Come fu Debellata, con 



Notizie sul Recupero delle Navi affondate. By 



Rear-Admiral E. Bravetta. Pp. vii + 461. 



(Milan : Ulrico Hoepli, 1919.) 

 Of the hundreds of war-books published purport- 

 ing to explain in a popular manner the work of 

 the Allied Navies in tracking down and destroying:! 

 U-boats, there are few, if any, which tell the 

 public of the means adopted. Most books of the 

 kind are merely suggestive, and much is left to 

 the imagination. The present volume, by Admiral 

 Bravetta, who is probably Italy's most distin- 

 guished writer on naval affairs, is far in advance^ 

 of existing works of a similar kind. 



So far as is permitted by reasons of military 

 secrecy. Admiral Bravetta explains first of all the 

 functions of the submarine, how this type of craft 



