146 
WAL ORE 
| DecEMBER 13, 1906 
careful perusal of their statements is that a competent 
and impartial body is required to, and could, draw up 
a schedule of substances and quantities which, on a 
‘review of all the evidence, might provisionally be con- 
sidered as reasonably safe to use. The .presumption 
should be that nothing ought to be added to food until 
it has been proved harmless; not, as at present, that 
a manufacturer may add anything he likes until it has 
been shown to be injurious. 
Coming now to the remainder of the volume : colour- 
ing matters and mineral poisons, which may occur in 
food and drink, are dealt with in the third part, and 
the following section—a long and important one—is 
-devoted to the study of unsound food. Notes on the 
principal diseases of animals and upon post-mortem 
appearances are appended, and directions are given 
for the bacteriological examination of shell-fish and of 
millk and other dairy produce, as also for the detection 
of toxins and ptomaines in foodstuffs. 
The concluding section is devoted to the chemical 
examination of foods for preservatives and colouring 
matters, with a chapter on legal points. For the most 
part the analytical processes described are well-known 
methods, conveniently collected here, but otherwise 
calling for no special comment. In passing, however, 
it may be remarked that mannitol is easier and cleaner 
to use than glycerol in the volumetric determination of 
-beric acid. 
On the whole the volume is a trustworthy production, 
and may be accepted as the most useful compendium 
of the subject yet published. C. SIMMoNnpDs. 
MATHEMATICS OF BODILY MOVEMENTS. 
Theoretische Grundlagen fiir eine Mechanik der 
lebender Kérper. By Otto Fischer. Pp. x+372. 
(Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1906.) Price 14 marks. 
FAMILIARITY with the structure of the human 
body is but rarely combined with a competent 
knowledge of mathematics. So far as one may judge 
from published works, Prof. Otto Fischer is the sole 
representative of this combination of talents in 
Europe. But his attainments, from their very singu- 
larity, carry with them certain disadvantages; 
although he has diligently applied the methods of the 
mathematician to the elucidation of the movements 
of the human body for the last twenty years, he has 
raised neither rival, disciple, nor critic; his many 
publications have failed, apparently, to attract the 
attention of writers of text-books on anatomy and 
physiology. Prof. Fischer expresses the hope that his 
boolx will appeal to mathematicians and physicists on 
the one hand, and to anatomists and physiologists on 
the other; he has employed the most intelligible 
anatomical terms and descriptions for the benefit of 
the first, and reduced the necessary mathematical 
formule to their simplest expression for the second. 
Notwithstanding these attempts to form a common 
ground where mathematicians and anatomists may 
meet on equal terms, the writer of this notice finds 
the mathematics of this work difficult and wholly to 
be taken on trust, and he believes the vast majority 
of anatomists will experience a similar difficulty. 
NO. 1937, VOL. 75 | 
Nor does he believe that the pure mathematician will 
easily understand the action of such muscles as the 
“jliacus,’’ ‘short head of the biceps,’’ or ‘‘ semi- 
membranosus,’’ nor have a definite conception when 
he is told that the centre of gravity for the head lies 
between the ‘ sella’? and ‘‘ posterior per- 
forated lamina.”’ 
dorsum 
The initial difficulties which the mathematician and 
anatomist will experience in studying this book may 
lead to its great merit being overlooked. In medical 
text-books the actions of muscles and of joints are 
described in crude snatches; when the student has 
finished his study he has no knowledge of the 
mechanism of the body as a whole. Prof. Fischer's 
aim is to give a picture of the living, moving body 
as a complete machine; to estimate the manner 
which the muscles work in producing definite 
movements of the body, and the amount of force ex- 
pended in the production of these movements. For 
the purpose of his investigation he has divided the 
body into fourteen segments or masses, viz. the head, 
trunk, upper arm, fore arm, hand, thigh, leg, and 
foot; each of these he treats as a rigid mass; he 
estimates the centre of gravity for each. The centre 
of gravity for the trunk he found to be situated near 
the front of the upper border of the first lumbar 
vertebra. The mass or weight of each of these parts 
is estimated—the trunk forming, in the average body, 
rather more than two-fifths of the whole. The 
methods applied to the study of machines cannot be 
used for the human body, where the joints have no 
fixed axes or fixed points. These difficulties Prof. 
Fischer seeks to overcome by establishing  theo- 
retical fixed axes and fixed points for the various 
joints; he simplifies his problems, too, by the use of 
what he terms ‘‘ mass systems.’? Although Prof. 
Fischer has not been altogether successful in reaching 
the non-mathematical mind, we are certain he has 
given us in this unique book matter which both 
physicist and biologist may study with advantage. 
in 
GOETHE AS MINERALOGIST AND 
GEOLOGIST. 
Goethes Verhdltnis zur Mineralogie und Geognosie. 
Rede gehalten zur Feier der akademischen Preis- 
verteilung am 16 Juni, 1906. By Dr. G. Linck. 
Pp. 48. (Jena: G. Fischer, 1906.) Price 2 marks. 
HE poetic genius and fascinating personality of 
Goethe have so dazzled the world that the 
ordinary reader of ‘* Faust’’ has never so much as 
suspected that-its author could claim to be a distin- 
guished man of science. Some, perhaps, who have 
studied the life of the poet may be aware of his dis- 
coveries in biology and his speculations in botany; 
others, again, may have heard of his excursion into the 
field of optics, and may have marvelled at the amazing 
aberration of his genius which led him to regard his 
unhappy attack on the Newtonian theory of colour as 
the proudest and most valuable achievement of his life ; 
but that he accomplished anything of worth in 
mineralogy and geology is known to very few. 
It is, therefore, well that the professor of mineralogy 
