un 
fe) 
TE! IMG TR IS 
| NOVEMBER 15, 1906 
with its value in its original form, who will find in 
it valuable additions, interpolated in brackets and in 
an appendix, which tale account of the recent pro- 
gress of the science. 
The newly issued third (and last) volume deals 
with the great subjects of movement, the production 
of heat, light and electricity, and the sources and 
transformations of energy in plants. As in the former 
volumes, the width and accuracy of the author’s 
acquaintance with the literature of the subjects under 
treatment are marvellous, and scarcely less so is the 
arrangement by which it is made available 
The book demands continuous and close 
from its readers, for it is crowded with 
information condensed so far as it can be without 
sacrificing clearness. Dr. Ewart deserves thanks for 
the excellence of the translation, a task the difficulties 
of which can be appreciated only by those that have 
attempted to translate a German scientific work into 
good English, and have experienced how hard it is 
to do so. He deserves thanks also for wise reticence 
as regards the introduction of new technical terms, 
the employment of which is a very real obstacle to 
the progress of science unless they are required to 
ensure accuracy. Most parts of botany have suffered 
more or less from this evil, and it is thus all the 
greater a pleasure to mark its absence from so funda- 
power of % 
to others. 
attention 
mental a work as this. 
The treatment of each subject is exhaustive and of 
much interest. While it demands the reader’s un- 
divided attention throughout, there is a noteworthy 
freedom from obscurity in the language, for which 
thanks are due to both the author and the translator. 
Under movement, the causes and mechanism are 
first discussed in preparation for the consideration of 
the varied kinds of movements in detail. These are 
distinguished into movements of curvature, tropic 
movements, and locomotory and protoplasmic move- 
ments. Under the first head are included autonomic 
movements, the movements of climbers and twiners, 
those due to mechanical and chemical stimuli, photo- 
nastic, thermonastic, and hydronastic curvatures, and 
the movements connected with dehiscence and dis- 
persal. Tropic movements are treated in a general 
way, and thereafter, under the various forms, the 
conditions for and the mechanism of each are dealt 
with. The movements of protoplasm and its re- 
actions to stimuli are placed under the third head, 
whether shown by locomotion of the entire cell or by 
movements of the protoplasm within the cell wall. 
The production of heat, light, and electricity by 
plants is thereafter discussed, and this is followed by 
a chapter on the sources and transformations of 
energy in plants, in which it is stated that, ‘* apart 
from the locomotory movements which are absent 
from most plants, as many external manifestations 
of energy are shown in the vegetable kingdom as 
among animals.’’ How widely different is such a 
view from that which regarded plants as little more 
than inert things, possessed of life and able to grow 
and to reproduce themselves, but far indeed beneath 
animals in their powers of response to external 
stimuli. 
NO, 1933, VOL. 75] 
A brief but very valuable appendix summarising 
the more important literature on the subject pub- 
lished since the completion of the German edition 
and an excellent index conclude the worl. 
It will be seen from this brief abstract that this 
volume deals with subjects of extreme interest, in 
which great progress has been made towards a fuller 
understanding of plants as living organisms sensitive 
to influences from without, and adapting themselves 
to their environments. The modern conception of the 
study of plants has become very much widened and 
deepened from that which prevailed when that study 
appeared to content itself with description and classifi- 
cation. Yet there is a danger lest even advance may 
lead to narrowness of view through the impossibility 
of acquiring a personal knowledge of more than a- 
limited part of the science of botany. The dis- 
advantages of too great specialisation are to be 
dreaded, and the benefits conferred by Dr. Pfeffer’s 
‘““Physiology of Plants’’ will be felt by systematists 
and morphologists not less than by physiologists. 
From it they can gain a clear view of the plant as a 
living organism, and can estimate the value of such 
knowledge in relation to their special fields of study. 
Such a survey will probably bring to light new prob- 
lems awaiting solution, and will leave the impression 
that though much has been accomplished deeper 
problems of life remain unsolved, and that the field 
of investigation only widens indefinitely. To what 
has been gathered in its field no better guide can be 
obtained than that under review. 
STEAM AND HYDRAULIC. TURBINES. 
(1) Steam Turbines, with an Appendix on Gas Tur- 
bines, and the Future of Heat Engines. By Dr. A. 
Stodola. Translated by Dr, Louis C. Loewenstein. 
Second edition, enlarged and revised. Pp. xix+ 
490. (New York: D. Van Nostrand Co.; London: 
Archibald Constable and Co., Ltd., 1906.) Price 
21S.) net. 
(2) Steam Turbine Engineering. By T. Stevens and 
H. M. Hobart. Pp. x+814. (London and New 
York : Whittaker and Co., 1906.) Price 21s. net. 
(3) Modern Turbine Practice and Water-power Plants. 
By John Wolf Thurso. Pp. xxii+244. (London : 
Archibald Constable and Co., Ltd., 1906.) Price 
16s. net. 
(4) Hydraulic Motors with Related Subjects, including 
Centrifugal Pumps, Pipes, and Open Channels. 
By Prof. Irving P. Church. Pp. ix+269. (New 
York: John Wiley and Sons; London: Chapman 
and Hall, Ltd., 1905.) 
(5) Turbines. By W. H. Stuart Garnett. 
283. (London: George Bell 
Price 8s. 6d. net. 
(6) Modern Steam 
Liddell. Vol. i. The Schulz Steam Turbine. 
Max Dietrich. Pp. 73. (London: A. Owen 
Co. and T. Fisher Unwin, 1906.) Price 5s. 
(1) HIS is the second edition of Dr. Loewenstein’s 
authorised translation of the second edition 
of Dr. Stodola’s well-known treatise. The first 
edition of the translation was recently fully reviewed 
Pp. xiv+ 
and Sons, 1906.) 
Edited by Arthur R. 
By 
and 
Turbines. 
