^74 



NA TURE 



[December 22, 1904 



OVE BOOK SHELF. 



Morphologic iind Biologic der Zellc. By Dr. 



Alexander Gurwitsch. Pp. xi.\ + 437. (Jena: 



Gustav Fischer, 1904.) 

 We are told in the preface that this book is intended 

 lor the use of beginners. The author must, however, 

 have had Macaulay's omniscient schoolboy looming 

 large in his imagination when he thus appraised the 

 character of his completed work. Many of the topics 

 discussed are quite the reverse of elementary, and the 

 general treatment adopted throughout is lacking in 

 that quality of lucidity which is essential to success, 

 especially in a work that is written for the use of 

 beginners. The fact is the author has attempted too 

 much, and although his book mav be serviceable to 

 readers already tolerably familiar with cytology, it can, 

 we imagine, hardly hope to appeal to the class for 

 which it is stated to have been designed. 



The general plan of the work is somewhat novel and 

 has much to recommend it, whatever one may think 

 of the manner in which Dr. Gurwitsch has actually 

 e.Kccuted his task. Thus, whilst a considerable de- 

 scription of cell-structure is naturally included, it is 

 on the physical and physiological aspects of the 

 problems that attention is mainly concentrated. .Some 

 of the sections, in particular those dealing with 

 inetabohsm, are suggestive and well worth reading, 

 although one not seldom misses expected allusion to 

 recent vvork. Indeed, it almost seems at times that 

 the author is rather needlessly attacking positions 

 which have already ceased to possess any real import- 



.A considerable number of pages are devoted to the 

 subject of nuclear and cell division, as well as to a dis- 

 cussion of conflicting theoretical explanations of the 

 process of mitosis. The advanced student will here 

 find much to interest him if he will take pains to dij? 

 It out. But the whole question of reduction is omitted 

 on the ground that the author regards it as foreign to 

 the main purpose of his book. We cannot but regret 

 his decision, since the processes therein concerned 

 serve to throw light on many difificulties connected 

 cleared"u° "''"'•'' ""'°"^ "'"''' '"'^ "°' °'herwise easily 

 The last portion of the book is given up to a dis- 

 cussion as to whether the cell is to be regarded as an 

 elementary organ sm or as the unit of organisation" 

 and the question is treated both from the view of the 

 Protozoa and Metazoa. The discussion is difficult to 

 01 ow, and the answer really depends on what mean- 

 ing IS attached to the somewhat elusive definitions 

 employed. It is, of course, obvious that the signifi- 

 cance attaching to the unit will not ahvavs be the same 

 ilV,u '"^ '"^r ? different value for the morphologist 

 and the physiologist respectively 



""a" u?"]""' *■'"' ''*"^' '^^^ b'^k as a whole possesses 

 undoubted merits, ,t nevertheless strikes us as the 

 result of a premature effort. There is much evidence 

 o undue haste, for example in the amazing number 

 of glaring typographical errors ; the names of authori- 

 ties quoted, no less than ordinarv words, repeatedly 

 assume an unfamiliar appearan'ce. But however 

 irritating this may be to the reader, it would after all 

 nr.l ? ^'"^ matter if the subject as a whole had been 

 presented in a well digested fashion. J. B. F. 



A New Geometry for Senior Forms. By S. Barnard, 

 M..\ and J. M. Child, B.A. Pp. xv + 331. 

 M.ondon : Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1904.) Price 



This text-book is intended primarily for the use of 

 students who are reading for the Oxford and Cam- 

 bridge local examinations; the London intermediate 

 examinations; mathematics, stages iii. and iv.. South 

 NO. 1834, VOL. 71I 



Kensington, and examinations of like nature. The first 

 half of the book is a very happy combination of practical 

 work and deductive reasoning. Much scale drawing 

 is done, it is to be hoped with proper appliances in a 

 proper manner, and teachers and students can select 

 from a large number of graphical exercises appearing 

 at short intervals, many of which have been taken by 

 permission from recent examination papers. Trigono- 

 metrical ratios for acute angles are introduced and 

 formula established j-elating to triangles, a short table 

 of sines, cosines, and tangents being employed for 

 numerical calculations. This section also deals with 

 the geometry and mensuration of the simple solids, 

 the formulae used being all proved. The prismoidal 

 formulcB and suggestions for the treatment of irregu- 

 larly shaped figures seem unfortunatelv to have been 

 overlooked. There are a few pages on the geometry 

 of plane motion where the idea of a vector might have 

 been appropriately and very usefully introduced. 



The second or " theoretical " half of the book is 

 mainly concerned with the formal establishment of 

 theorems relating, amongst other matters, to the con- 

 nection between algebra and geometry (after 

 Euclid ii.), to circles, to ratio, proportion, and similar 

 figures, and to solid geometry as in Euclid xi. A 

 little modern geometry is given, but there is no 

 description of how form and position in space are de- 

 fined and exhibited bv scale drawings. 



The authors have produced one of the best of the 

 new text-books which are following closely the progress 

 of reform rather than leading the way. The volume 

 can be heartily recommended to students who are pre- 

 paring for mathematical examinations under recently 

 revised schedules. 



Studien iiber die Albuminoide mit hesondercr Bcriick- 

 sichtigung des Spongin und dcr Keratine. (Studies 

 on Albuminoids, with Special Reference to Spongin 

 and the Keratins.) By Dr. Eduard Strauss. Pp. 128. 

 (Heidelberg : C. Winter, 1904.) Price 320 marks. 

 This little book does not treat, as its title might lead 

 some to suppose, of the albuminous substances in 

 general, but of that limited group of them to which 

 the term albuminoid is usually restricted by physio- 

 logists. This group includes spongin, cornein, gor- 

 gonine, onuphine, conchiolin, spirographin, and silk, 

 which are products (mainly skeletal in function) 

 of the invertebrate world; and collagen, reticulin, 

 elastin, and the keratins, w'hich are found among the 

 vertebrata. One notes in this list the absence of 

 chitin among the invertebrate products, the reason 

 being that this material has now been shown not to be 

 a member of the proteid group at all. Reticulin, also, 

 which is mentioned, and was originally described by 

 Siegfried, does not really exist. Miss Tebb con- 

 clusively proved it to be an artifact from collagen, and 

 this view is accepted by Dr. Strauss. 



The first seventy pages deal with a general account 

 of these substances taken one by one. The remainder 

 of the book deals with some original work on the 

 digestion products of spongin and the keratins. The 

 proteoses so formed were separated by Pick's method, 

 and their properties differ somewhat from, though in 

 the main resemble, the similar products of proteolysis 

 derived from other and better known sources. .Among 

 them two gluco-albumoses arc described. Iodine 

 occurs not onlv in gorgonine, the organic substratum 

 in certain corals, but also in spongin. 



This contribution to science is interesting, but deals 

 with such a small corner of biochemistr}' that it will 

 appeal to very few. We doubt whether it is wise to 

 magnify its importance by making it the subject of a 

 special book. The first part of the work is dealt with, 

 though perhaps not quite so fully, in all text-books of 



