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VERWORN ON GENERAL PHYSIOLOGY. 



Allgemeine Physiologie. Ein Grundriss der Lehre vom 



Leben. Von Max Verworn. (Jena : Fischer, 1895.) 



THIS handsome and well-illustrated volume of some 

 six hundred large octavo pages, by a young German 

 physiologist already favourably known by his special 

 researches, is a mbilious in design but praiseworthy in 

 purpose. The aut hor complains of the too narrow 

 iharacter of most of the physiological inquiries and 

 writings of the present time ; and not without some jus- 

 tice. A cursory reader of a modern text-book of physi- 

 ology (of my own, for instance), might easily come to the 

 conclusion that most of our current physiological doc- 

 lines had been arrived at by the exclusive study of the 

 rog, the rabbit, and the dog, with occasional help from 

 hat of the horse, of a fish, of a bird, and of man. All 

 ;he wealth of opportunity for observation and experiment 

 offered by the innumerable other forms of life, seems to 

 )e neglected. And there follows naturally the inference 

 that physiology would gain a healthier tone and broader 

 ^rasp, by widening the field of its study. Years ago the 

 Ljreat Johannes Miiller, in his immortal work, took such 

 I broad survey; later on. Carpenter followed the same 

 course in his " Comparative Physiology," a work to which 

 [, at least, owe much ; and now Dr. Verworn attempts 

 to present, in a general view, the light which the multi- 

 tudinous special researches of more recent days have 

 shed on the fundamental phenomena of life. 



A very little reflection will show that when the mean- 

 ing of the term physiology is carried beyond the bounds 

 which academic conditions have fixed for it, it becomes 

 difficult to say what parts of the knowledge of living 

 beings are not embraced by it. A physiologist, with- 

 drawing himself from the immediate demands of the 

 schools, and brooding over the many aspects of his 

 science, cannot help feeling that all inquiries into the 

 phenomena of life end by taking the form of physiological 

 Miquiries. While morphological facts may ,in the first 

 instance, and for a while, be regarded by him chiefly 

 as helps towards the solution of special physiological 

 problems, he cannot help believing that the ulti- 

 mate interpretation of the phenomena of form must 

 be based on the principles of that fundamental phy- 

 siology, which, for want of a better word, we may call 

 molecular. And, even at the present time, imperfect as 

 physiology as yet is, some of us may think that some 

 modern morphological speculations have gone astray, 

 through heed not being given to what even a narrow 

 imperfect physiology is already able to teach. 



Hence, Dr. Verworn, taking as the title of his book 

 " General Physiology," has naturally been led to dwell 

 on many topics which are not to be found in a treatise 

 of narrower scope. After a very brief historical sketch, 

 and a chipter on the composition or nature of living 

 matter, in which he discourses on the "cell" and its 

 constituents, and on the physical and chemical properties 

 of living matter, as well as on the differentials of living 

 and lifeless matter, he proceeds to the consideration of 

 NO. 1327, VOL. 51] 



the elementary phenomena of life. These he treats 

 under the heads of change of substance (metabolism), 

 change of form, in which such topics as heredity, 

 adaptation, cell division, reproduction and the like 

 are dealt with, and change of energy. Then follows 

 a chapter on "The General Conditions of Life," in 

 which, among other matters, he treats of the origin 

 of life on the globe, and the history of death. " Stimuli 

 and their effects" are next discussed, and the final 

 chapter is headed the " Mechanism of Life." 



Even six hundred goodly pages furnish all too small a 

 room for such a treatment of each of the many and 

 varied topics handled in them as would in each case 

 appear adequate to those who had made them the 

 objects of special study. Moreover, the author, as he 

 states in the preface, has striven to write in such a way 

 that the reader should not be easily wearied ; and the 

 practised writer knows that a simple way of not weary- 

 ing the reader is by a light touch, so to brush away all 

 difficulties as to lead the reader to think he grasps 

 clearly that which, in reality, no one truly understands. 

 The author further, as he also states, addresses himself 

 not to physiologists, or even to biologists, exclusively, but 

 also to the cultured general reader ; and when a dis- 

 cussion about an abstruse physiological topic has to be 

 so conducted as to please the ear of the cultured general 

 reader, the special physiologist naturally finds the dis- 

 cussion spoiled by things which to him seem essential, 

 being left out, and by things which to him seem unim- 

 portant, or even irrelevant, being dwelt upon at length. 

 It would be ungracious, therefore, to find fault with the 

 particular way in which the author handles that or that 

 of the many themes with which he deals. For the same 

 reason, hesitation may be felt in objecting to the pro- 

 minence given in the work to definitions, some of which 

 a captious critic might urge had something of the mark 

 of barrenness, or to the frequently occurring judicial 

 "summing up" in paragraphs emphasised by spaced 

 type ; or to the abundant " generalisations," some of 

 which may be contested, while others appear to draw 

 perilously near to platitudes. The work, as a whole, 

 must commend itself highly to those morphologists who 

 desire to learn the more general and fundamental results 

 of recent physiological inquiry ; for the author has woven 

 into his work the very latest news from the physiological 

 laboratory. On the other hand, the physiologist, whose 

 activity has been too much limited to the study, by 

 complicated instruments of precision, of the phenomena 

 of the higher animals, who has moved too exclusively in 

 what some take pleasure in hall-marking as " horological 

 physiology," will largely profit by having his attention 

 directed to the many physiological questions which arise 

 in the course of morphological investigations, started by 

 observations recorded, for the most part, in periodicals 

 or works not falling within his ordinary reading. As 

 especially interesting, perhaps, may be mentioned the 

 chapter on stimuli and their effects, as illustrated by the 

 study of the simplest forms of life, and the discussion on 

 the part played by nuclei in the development of physio- 

 logical phenomena, in both of which matters the author 

 is able to appeal largely to his own observations. \'ery 

 suggestive also is the exposition of the doctrine of 

 assimilation and dissimulation and of its applications, 



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