October 22, 1903] 



NATURE 



595 



form a suitable introduction to the study of physio- 

 logical chemistry, but would have come more fittingly 

 after the student knew a little about the nature of the 

 simpler fats. There is, moreover, little or no indica- 

 tion of the relative importance of the substances de- 

 scribed; the space devoted to cystin and cerebrin, for 

 instance, is entirely disproportionate to their import- 

 ance. 



The description of the analytical methods is most 

 slipshod ; they are usually given in telegraphic or note- 

 book English ; they are interlarded with questions, 

 " why is this? " or " what does this mean? " which, 

 in the case of the majority of students, will remain 

 for ever unanswered, for nine out of ten will never 

 take the trouble to "consult this or that text-book," 

 or " ask the instructor," which is the only answer the 

 present work affords. 



The omission of small but often important points 

 is not confined to the description of the more com- 

 plicated methods of analysis, but is seen also in those 

 V hich are elementary; thus in the directions given for 

 t!i' making of haemin crystals, the application of heat 

 umitted; in the description of the Adamkiewicz 

 , the student is left in doubt as to whether the 

 ^i\uxylic acid to which the reaction is due is contained 

 ill the substance to be tested or the reagents added. 

 Ill the description of the biuret reaction, no indication 

 i- given of its value as a diagnostic test between the 

 n I rive proteids and the products of proteolysis; in the 

 ription of the nitric acid test for proteoses, the most 

 I acteristic p>ortion of the test, namely, the reappear- 

 ' of the precipitate on cooling, is omitted; the only 

 riments relating to blood-clotting are those con- 

 ..>^cted with the inhibitory influence of oxalates; those 

 who follow the directions given for the performance 

 of Hopkins's method of uric acid estimation will fail 

 because of the omission of small details; in Gmelin's 

 test for bile pigments the important detail that fuming 

 nitric acid m.ust be used is left out ; directions are given 

 for testing for iron in the liver, but no directions for 

 the preliminary removal of blood from the organ ; uric 

 acid is spoken of as the result of metabolism of the 

 white blood corpuscles, but the essential fact is omitted 

 that it is from their nuclei, and the nuclei of other cells 

 also, that this substance originates. We are told that 

 ammonium urate is apt to be mistaken for globulin 

 in urine, but no means are furnished of distinguish- 

 ing the two; and in another part the student is led 

 to suppose that true peptones may appear in the urine. 

 The only method given for the estimation of urea is 

 the hypobromite process, and the apparatus recom- 

 mended, that of Doremus, is one of the least satis- 

 factory for the carrying out of this test, the importance 

 of which is now mainly historical. 



Such are a few of the faults of omission with which 

 the pages abound. Let us next turn to instances of 

 faults of commission, the actual mistakes with which 

 the book bristles. The coagulating points of the 

 muscle proteids are wrongly given, and the most im- 

 portant proteid of all, myosmogen, is altogether left 

 out; histone is classified with the native albumins, and 

 globin with the globulins ; for the performance of the 

 biuret test, heating is recommended ; in the phenyl- 

 hydrazine test for dextrose, it is stated that crystals 

 NO. 1773, VOL. 68] 



only appear on cooling; indol and tryptophan are 

 spoken of as synonymous; starch is stated to be con- 

 vertible into sugar by acid in a few minutes ; in the 

 preparation of serum globulin, water is recommended 

 for washing the precipitate ; the sugar formed by the 

 pancreatic juice is stated to be glucose; to obtain the 

 iodine reaction with glycogen boiling with the re- 

 agent is the means adopted; the yellow colour of urine 

 is ascribed to a mixture of several pigments not yet 

 isolated, to which are added in brackets the astonish- 

 ing words "called by Garrod urochrom." Albumose 

 is stated to be a normal constituent of blood; at least 

 that is how I read it, though I admit the passage 

 is so obscure that it might equally well read the other 

 way ; the old misstatement that gelatin does not give 

 Millon's reaction is perpetuated; students are led to 

 suppose that the reaction of normal human urine is 

 alkaline ; at all events they are told to ascertain whether 

 the alkalinity is due to fixed or volatile alkali ; and as 

 a final instance of the careless way in which the book 

 has been prepared, the name of v. Fleischl is per- 

 sistently misspelt. This does not by any means ex- 

 haust the list of glaring errors with which the book 

 abounds, but enough has been said to show that this 

 is an unsafe work to place in students' hands. 



W. D. Halliburton. 



POPULAR AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGY. 



The Insect Folk. By Margaret Warner Morley. 

 Pp. vi + 204; illustrated by the author. (Boston and 

 London : Ginn and Co., 1903.) Price 2s. 



Ways of the Six-Footed. By Anna Botsford Com- 

 stock, B.S., Lecturer in Cornell University Ex- 

 tension. Pp. xii+152. (Boston and London: Ginn 

 and Co., 1903.) Price 25. 



THESE are two popular publications on the insects 

 of North America, and may conveniently be 

 noticed together, though, except that they are uniform 

 in size and appearance, and are both by ladies, there 

 is little resemblance between them. 



The first is for young children, and seems to be 

 intended partly as a reading book, for it is in very 

 simple language, and is mostly in words of one or 

 two syllables, and all long or technical words are ex- 

 plained in a glossary at the end of the book. 



We are pleased to see that children are advised to 

 keep insects under observation, and not to kill them, 

 except in the case of those which are injurious. 



Neuroptera, Hemiptera, and Orthoptera are the 

 orders dealt with, and the first chapter is on dragon- 

 flies, which are more numerous and of more varied 

 colours in .America than in Europe. 



We may, perhaps, quote one of the longer sentences. 



" I once went up the side of a beautiful mountain in 

 North Carolina, where was such a mighty host of 

 cicadas in the trees that I could not hear my com- 

 panion speak, and a little way off the noise sounded 

 like a torrent of rushing water." 



Notwithstanding the simple style of the book, the 

 authoress has contrived to include in it a good deal of 

 information that will be new to most people who are 

 not fairly well acquainted with entomology; and part 



