214 



NATURE 



[April 21, 1910 



of the present knowledge concerning snake venoms, 

 Noguchi's publication merits high praise, and it pos- 

 sesses in addition a vitality which can belong to such 

 a work only when its author has taken a living part 

 in the researches by which this knowledge has been 

 acquired. 



It is impossible here to do more than indicate the 

 scope of the book. The earlier sections deal especially 

 with the morphology and geographical distribution of 

 venomous snakes, and with the description of their 

 poison apparatus. The toxic secretions, their physical 

 and chemical properties, and the effects of various 

 physical and chemical agents upon them are then dis- 

 cussed. A summary is given of the symptoms pro- 

 duced by snake-bite in man and by experimental 

 poisoning in animals, and the intimate nature of these 

 effects on the different systems is then taken up in 

 detail. The last sections deal with the problems of 

 immunity to venoms — artificial immunisation, the 

 specificity and therapeutic value of antivenins, the 

 interaction between venom and antivenin, natural 

 immunity, and the treatment of snake-bite. 



It may be pointed out that the logical sequence of 

 the last chapters is marred by the somewhat irrelevant 

 interpolation of sections on the effects of venom on 

 cold-blooded animals, plants, &c., between the chapter 

 on natural immunity and that on the treatment of 

 snake-bite. We believe improvement would be 

 obtained by considerable rearrangement of the order 

 of the sections. 



The book contains many excellent illustrations, 

 especially of the different species of venomous snakes, 

 their anatomical features, and the pathological changes 

 induced in the tissues by venoms. Several of the illus- 

 trations are reproduced from Fayrer's classic work, 

 but many are original. For a book so well illustrated, 

 the binding, in the form we have seen it, is inadequate. 



As being the most important practical outcome of 

 the researches epitomised in this publication, the pro- 

 blems concerned with the treatment of snake-bite call 

 for special mention. In regard to the nature of anti- 

 dotism, Noguchi definitely adopts the view, first pro- 

 pounded, and supported by convincing proof, by 

 Fraser, that this antidotism is not of the nature of a 

 vital action, but of a chemical reaction, between the 

 antivenin and the venom. This view has subsequently 

 bsen adopted by Calmette, who at first insisted on its 

 being a vital process, and also by Ehrlich in relation 

 to the closely allied antidotism of pathogenic toxins 

 by antitoxins. In its relation to venoms it has also 

 received further support from experiments by Martin 

 and Cherry, and by Stephens and Myers, respectively 

 summarised in pp. 248 and 140 of Noguchi's book. 



With respect to treatment, the author chiefly favours 

 specific treatment by antivenins, and expresses the 

 hope and expectation that sufficiently powerful anti- 

 venins may yet be produced to cure more severe cases 

 of snake-bite than can yet be done. He emphasises 

 the necessity, as Fraser had experimentally demon- 

 strated, of using large quantities of antivenin, a 

 general principle now being extended to the thera- 

 peutic use of antitoxins in disease. He places in a 

 subordinate position all non-specific agents, such as 

 permanganate of potash or chloride o' gold, the anti- 

 XO. 21 12, VOL. 81I 



dotal effects of which he believes to be very restricted, 

 but still of some value as being quickly and conveni- 

 ently applicable. 



We may further mention that the book contains a 

 good workable bibliography. It is a book which will 

 be of great service to future investigators. 



THE EVOLUTION OF MAN'S STRUCTURE, 

 History of the Human Body. By Prof. H. H. 



Wilder. Pp. xii+573. (New York : Henry Holt 



and Company, 1909.) Price 3 dollars. 



PROF. WILDER defines the twofold purpose of 

 his book, as, ''first, to present the results of 

 modern anatomical and embryological research rela- 

 tive to the human structure irij,a form accessible to 

 the general student, and, secondly, to furnish students 

 of technical human anatomy with a basis upon which 

 to rest their knowledge of details ; " and there can be 

 no doubt that, as the founder of a village newspaper 

 would express it, he has '"supplied a long felt want." 



So much technical knowledge has to be acquired by 

 the modern medical student in the brief span of time 

 between matriculation and graduation that there is 

 an ever-insistent tendency to curtail the preliminary 

 scientific subjects in the medical curriculum. The 

 effects of a scamped education in biology are becoming 

 more manifest every year in the writings of anatomists 

 and physiologists, when, as so often happens, the i 

 results of long and arduous researches are thrown 

 away for the lack of a modicum of zoological or 

 morphological knowledge. 



Prof. Wilder's book, if placed in the hands of the 

 medical student, will help him to bridge the gap 

 between his biological and anatomical studies, and, < 

 in the later stages of his career, will help to' save him 

 from solecisms such as are being perpetrated far too 

 frequently at the present time. 



The wide scope of the work is indicated by the 

 titles of its chapters, which deal with " the continuity 

 of life," '"the phylogenesis of vertebrates," "the onto- 

 genesis of vertebrates," the integumentary, skeletal, 

 muscular, digestive (and respiratory), vascular, uro- 

 genital, and nervous systems, the sense-organs, and 

 " the ancestry of vertebrates," and an appendix on the 

 classification of vertebrates. 



The first chapter explains the fundamental prin- 

 ciples implied in the terms phylogenesis and onto- 

 genesis, which form the subjects of the second and 

 third chapters respectively. 



The account given in these three chapters (a) of the 

 factors which played some part in the evolution of 

 man, and (b) of the line of man's ancestry, is lucid, 

 and, on the whole, satisfactory. The author has en- ; 

 tirely failed, however, to realise and to set forth the a 

 immense importance which must be assigned to the " 

 Dipnoi in supplving evidence for explaining the evolu- 

 tion of the Amniota. 



In chapters iii. to xi. (inclusive) the author has 

 clearly stated the facts of comparative anatomy which 

 throw light upon the morphology of the various 

 systems of the human body, which I have already 

 enumerated. These portions of the work are of con- 

 siderable value, not only to the student of human 



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