August 7, 1890J 



NATURE 



339 



the original text is closely followed and accurately- 

 rendered, the result is, unlike some translations, such 

 pleasant reading that the student will scarcely realize 

 that it is a translation. But in justice to the author it 

 must be said that this is also partly due to the simple 

 style and language of the original, and to the lecture-form 

 of its arrangement. 



The aim of the author has been to deal with such por- 

 tions of the subject as are " ripe for a connected account," 

 omitting " all disconnected facts and rnere descriptive 

 matter" and all descriptions of analytical methods; to 

 provide such references to the literature of the subject as 

 shall more particularly suffice to put the student on the 

 track of the remainder ; and thus as a whole to tell the 

 reader what is most certainly known, and to enable him 

 to pursue further any points in which he is specially in- 

 terested. In all this the author has been very successful, 

 and particularly with respect to the references to original 

 memoirs, which are quoted judiciously and comprehen- 

 sively. The work is divided into twenty-one lectures. 

 Of these the first propounds the author's views as to the 

 "aims and prospects of modern physiological research," 

 and consists of a somewhat remarkable protest against 

 the modern tendency to regard cell-activity as the ex- 

 pression and outcome of chemical, physical, and mech- 

 anical processes. It is indeed a distinct return to the 

 vitalistic views of the past, and urges the existence of 

 some psychological factor of activity, based on the belief 

 that " for the moment it is not apparent how any further 

 progress of importance can be made with the help of 

 chemistry, physics, and anatomy only ; " and concludes 

 by saying that " what these sciences fail to achieve will 

 stand out more prominently, and thus the mechanical 

 theories of the present will assuredly carry us eventually 

 to the vitalism of the future." There are probably few phy- 

 siologists who will agree with this view. Most will rather 

 hold with Heidenhain {Pfliiger's Archiv, xliii., SuppL- 

 Hft. p. 63) that, granted the existence of the psycholo- 

 gical factor, still it must produce its recognizable effects 

 by purely chemical, physical, and mechanical means, 

 and accept those views of the " activity " of a cell which 

 stand out so clearly in his masterly work on secretion. 



The second and third lectures treat of the chemical 

 elements which constitute living organisms, their circula- 

 tion through the vegetable and animal kingdoms, the 

 principle of the conservation of energy as applied to 

 living things, and, finally, the correlation of plants and 

 animals. The next three lectures deal with the organic 

 food- stuffs and foods, their composition, importance, and 

 function, in connection with nutrition. In these a clear 

 and comprehensive account is given of the various 

 ■endeavours which have been made to determine the 

 molecular weight of proteids. The sections on the role 

 of gelatin and cellulose, and of a vegetarian diet in 

 general, are most instructive, and there is a very full 

 statement of the physiology of the organic compounds of 

 iron, leading up to the author's views as to the mode of 

 action of iron-salts in the treatment of chlorosis. Lecture 

 VII., on the inorganic food-stuffs, contains an interesting 

 and valuable account of various salts, more particularly 

 those of sodium and potassium, in their relationship to 

 nutrition; and Lecture VIII. concludes this part of the 

 subject by treating of subsidiary articles of diet, such as 

 NO. 1084, VOL. 42] 



tea, coffee, alcohol, bouillon, &c. Digestion and the ab- 

 sorption of digestive products form the subject-matter of 

 Lectures IX.-XII. In these the well-selected and copious 

 references to the literature of the subject will be found to 

 be by no means the least valuable part. Lecture XIII., on 

 the chemistry of blood and lymph, will probably disappoint 

 those who turn to it for an account of the clotting of blood. 

 Perhaps Prof, Bunge thinks the subject not yet "ripe 

 for a connected account," and this is, perhaps, to a 

 large extent true. Still, he would have done well to 

 treat it from a general point of view, rather than almost 

 entirely with regard to the part played by the leucocytes : 

 some account at least of the work of Hammarsten and 

 the translator seems called for in connection with this 

 part of the subject. The gases of the blood, and their 

 relation to the processes of external and internal respira- 

 tion, are dealt with in the next two lectures. These ca!ll 

 for no special remark apart from saying that the fact that 

 the oxidations of the body take place in the tissues might 

 have been more decisively brought out. Existing views 

 as to the condition of CO2 in the blood are clearly 

 stated. Lecture XVI. gives an admirable exposition of 

 recent work and existing views as to the seat and mode 

 of formation of the nitrogenous products of metabolism, 

 followed, in natural sequence, by a chapter on the func- 

 tions of the kidneys and chemistry of urine. Hepatic 

 metabolism is the subject of Lecture XVIII. In this the 

 questions which arise with regard to its glycogenic 

 activity are scarcely so clearly put forward as might be 

 expected. On the other hand, the older and current 

 views on fat-formation are well explained in Lecture XX. 

 The remaining lectures (XIX. and XXI.) deal with the 

 source of muscular energy and diabetes respectively. 



It is well for those English students who cannot read 

 the original that this interesting and instructive work by 

 Prof. Bunge has, in this well-turned version, been made 

 accessible to them. We cannot conclude better than by 

 hoping it may attain the recognition and approval in this 

 country which it so fully deserves from every point of 

 view, and which it appears to have already secured in 

 the original, judging by the speedy issue of the second 

 edition, of which the copy here reviewed is a translation. 



THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 

 The Advancement of Science : Occasional Essays and 

 Addresses. By E. Ray Lankester, M.A., LL.D., 

 F.R.S. (London: Macmillan'and Co., 1890.) 



UNDER this title. Prof. Ray Lankester has repub- 

 lished a number of essays, which have appeared at 

 intervals during the last eighteen years. All of them are of 

 more or less permanent interest, and we are glad to have 

 them presented to us in the convenient form of a well- 

 printed octavo volume. While some of the essays are 

 somewhat too technical for the general reader, the 

 majority are of great and very general interest, well 

 worthy of being read and thought over by all. 



These essays are nine in number. The last treats of 

 the history and scope of zoology, and is reprinted from 

 the last edition of the " Encyclopaedia Britannica " ; it 

 forms a most excellent treatise on the subject, and fairly 

 though briefly sketches the history of zoology from the 



