5i6 



NA TURE 



[June 30, 1910 



former sense during- his absence; that is, that he has 

 had a memory image of him?" 



For my part, I cannot doubt this. 



Prof. Wheeler attempts to explain away the 

 evidence on which good naturalists — Leuckart, 

 Romanes, and others — have relied, and in several 

 cases it seems to me that he does so satisfactorily. I 

 do not myself regard the supposed case of ants drop- 

 ping- intentionally from ceilings on to food as definitely 

 proved, but when Prof. Wheeler explains, or attempts 

 to explain, it away by suggesting that "it may be a 

 much more frequent method among ants of clearing 

 vertical distances than has been supposed," one cannot 

 but ask how it originated, and how it became 

 so frequent. 



The evidence, indeed, is contradictory, and difficult 

 to reconcile. This applies not merely to the facts 

 recorded by different observers. I have myself met 

 with cases apparently showing intelligence, and others 

 which seemed to imply the very reverse. Might not, 

 however, the same be said in the case of man him- 

 self? 



In conclusion, I may say that the illustrations are 

 numerous — nearly 300 — well chosen, and most of them 

 good. Prof. Wheeler is much to be congratulated on 

 having produced an excellent work, for which 

 naturalists will, I am sure, be grateful. 



AVEBURY. 



PRACTICAL METHODS FOR THE BIO- 

 CHEMICAL LABORATORY. 

 Handbuch der hiochemischen Arbeitsmethoden, By 

 Prof. Emil Abderhalden. I., Erster Band, allge- 

 meiner Teil, erste Halfte. Pp. iv + 512. Price 18 

 marks. II., Zweiter Band, spezieller Teil, erste 

 Halfte. Pp. iv + 496. Price 18 marks. (Berlin and 

 Vienna : Urban and Schwarzenburg, 1909.) 

 'T^HESE two volumes form the first consignment of 

 J- a comprehensive handbook of practical methods 

 for the biochemical laboratory, which is being written 

 by no fewer than sixty-four contributors under the 

 guidance of Prof. Emil Abderhalden. 



The second halves of each of the present volumes 

 are promised shortly, and the third volume within the 

 year. When it is remembered that the editor is also 

 engaged upon research work in the laboratory, as well 

 as his many contributors, and is, moreover, editing 

 an equally colossal work now appearing, one can but 

 wonder at the rapidity of German cooking of literature 

 of this sort. 



It is a pity that the articles are not published 

 separately, as monographs for those specially inter- 

 ested in the individual subjects, for this would save 

 purchasers buying a great deal of matter which they, 

 in most cases, do not want in order to possess a 

 much smaller part of value to them. 



As it stands the work has no general interest, and 

 while it may be serviceable in parts as a reference 

 laboratory book, it will scarcely prove attractive or 

 profitable for the private purchaser. 



One wonders, in looking over the table of contents of 

 the present and contemplated volumes, why the pre- 

 tence is made that it is issued in three volumes, since 

 NO. 2122, VOL. St,] 



by the simple device of making two halves of each 

 of these divisions it comes to be in six volumes. 

 It might equally well have been issued in one volume 

 of six parts, each part forming a good sized volume; 

 or in two volumes each of three parts ; or in six 

 volumes each of one part ; or there might have been 

 another and even better alternative. 



The work can only be intended for the assistance 

 of the research worker in a biochemical laboratory, 

 and, looking at the matter from his point of view, it 

 is surprising that the editor has allowed the first of 

 the present volumes to appear in his work. All that 

 is novel or interesting to the researcher in bio- 

 chemistry of the five hundred pages it contains might 

 readily, and with great gain in interest and utility, be 

 compressed into fifty pages. As it stands it looks like 

 nothing inore than a glorified collection of catalogues 

 of dealers in laboratory supplies ; with the names of 

 the dealers and prices of the commodities left out, 

 much to its disadvantage. Scores of pages are sacri- 

 ficed to drawings, photographs, and descriptions of 

 apparatus with which we all have been familiar from 

 our youth onwards in our everyday laboratory work. 

 The first article in the volume dealing with this kind 

 of thing occupies 282 pages ; the new matter in it could 

 easily be put into thirty pages. If the prices and 

 makers' names were given, it might be of some ser- 

 vice in the laboratory; as it is, to order any of the 

 newer apparatus which suited any particular pur- 

 pose, one would have to refer from the present work to 

 the original paper by the inventor of the apparatus, 

 where possibly the information might be obtained. 



In striking contrast with this article of 282 pages 

 is the one succeeding it, of less than seven pages, on 

 the ultra-microscope, written by Fr. N. Schulz, of 

 Jena. Knowing the valuable work of this author in 

 the particular field in question, one expected something 

 good here ; but there is nothing new. It might almost 

 be a reprint, as are the illustrations in it, of one of- 

 the advertisements of Carl Zeiss advertising the instru- 1 

 ments. t 



There follow on this all too short article a number | 

 of lengthy ones on ultimate organic analysis, ash 1 

 determinations, &c. Nearly all this matter has been 

 written many times before, is contained in all prac-f 

 tical works on organic chemistry, and is familiar to' 

 any but the merest tyro in biochemical work. For' 

 example, illustrations with descriptions of the com-^ 

 bustion furnace and the combustion tube and its fill-f 

 ing are given ; eighteen pages are used up in descrip-l 

 tions of the Kjeldahl method for determining nitrogen,',; 

 and illustrations are given of most of the modifications,: 

 which perverted human ingenuity and waste of genius' 

 have given rise to for carrying out that somewhat: 

 simple method of analysis. Fourteen pages in a special!: 

 article go to a description of specific-gravity methods—: 

 why not instead refer the reader to an elementary work 

 on physics? 



The second of the two volumes before us will be oli 

 more service to the biological chemist whose path is 

 touched by the articles contained therein ; these articles,: 

 deal with the preparation, separation, and qualitative;; 

 and quantitative estimation of the important lower ancji 



