NATURE 



[May 5, 1904 



hope rises in the biologist's breast that the secret of 

 life is going to be discovered. Always, however, resi- 

 dual phenomena are detected, and there is a retreat to 

 some form of vitalism. Prof. Neumeister gives a 

 scholarly survey of the history, expounding the posi- 

 tions of Johannes Miiller, Von Baer, Lotze, Du Bois- 

 Reymond, Fechner, Wundt, Bunge, and many more. 

 His own position, which closely resembles that of 

 Johannes Miiller, may be briefly stated as follows : — 

 Truly vital phenomena cannot be interpreted in terms 

 of physico-chemical categories; life is an inter-relation 

 of the physical and the psychical — an inseparable, un- 

 knowable inter-relation ; there are no forces operative 

 in protoplasm which are not operative in non-living 

 matter, but in all active protoplasm there are psychical 

 qualities of a transcendental character. 



Biologists will probably be most interested in the 

 section of the book that deals with protoplasm, and the 

 many conceptions of it that have been suggested, e.g. 

 by Nageli, Kiihne, Biitschli, Pfliiger, Pfeffer, Verworn, 

 Hofmeister, Hertwig, and Ostwald. Neumeister deals 

 at especial length with the Hofmeister-Ostwald theory, 

 which practically reduces metabolism to a series of 

 fermentations. As a chemical physiologist the author 

 attacks this theory with might and main, and comes to 

 the conclusion that ferments have really nothing to do 

 with the essential activity of protoplasm, their activity 

 is intracellular, not intraprotoplasmic, they are only 

 the " chemical tools " made by and used by proto- 

 plasm. What then is protoplasm? A peculiar 

 chemical system of very diverse protein-substances, 

 along with certain other compounds the molecules of 

 which by a unique interaction give rise to ps3'chical 

 and material processes quite inseparable from one 

 another, in a way that we cannot hope to understand. 

 " Ins Innere der Natur dringt kein erschaffener Geist." 



J. A. T. 



The Fat of the Land. The Story of an American 

 Farm. By J. W. Streeter. Pp. xi + 406. (New 

 York : The Macmillan Co. ; London : Macmillan and 

 Co., Ltd., 1904.) Price 6s. 6d. net. 

 Many ways have been adopted of teaching agriculture, 

 but we do not think we have before met with an account 

 of the management of a farm thrown into the form 

 of a tale — a romance some readers would be unkind 

 enough to call it. The book describes how an 

 American doctor, warned for I'easons of health to 

 abandon a city life, purchased a neglected farm and 

 by a liberal exercise of capital, energy and business 

 capacity, made it both pay its way and provide him 

 at the same time with health and pleasure, so that the 

 family all lived on " the fat of the land." The main 

 text is sound enough, that the farm should be regarded 

 as a factory converting raw material into finished pro- 

 ducts and that skill and knowledge can always find 

 a satisfactory market by the production of the best, but 

 we doubt if the demonstration will prove convincing 

 or even suggestive to the practical man. 



The book reminds us irresistibly of the " Swiss 

 Family Robinson," and bears about the same relation 

 to agriculture as that friend of our childhood did to 

 serious natural history-. 



Die Dissozuerung und Umwandlung chemischer 



Atome. By Dr. Johannes Stark. Pp. vii + 57. 



(Braunschweig : F. Vieweg und Sohn, 1903.) Price 



1.50 marks. 



This little book from the fluent pen of Dr. Stark, of 



Gottingen, is a reprint of three articles in the Natur- 



wissenschaftliche Rundschau. Its object is to exhibit 



a comprehensive view of the application of the electron 



theory to the group of phenomena which may be 



characterised as subatomic transformations, and to do 



NO. 1 80 1, VOL. 70] 



this in terms which may be understood by any person 

 of intelligence. On the whole this object is success- 

 fully accomplished. 



The author shows how the discovery of Rontgen 

 rays and of the Zeeman effect, together with the deter- 

 mination of the mass of the particles forming the 

 kathode rays, have led, in the hands of J. J. 

 Thomson, to an entire change in our ideas of atomic 

 structure. He follows out the bearing of this idea on 

 the phenomena of conduction in metals, in solutions 

 and in gases, and shows how the brilliant researches 

 of Rutherford and of Rutherford and Soddy on radio- 

 activity led them to consider that this phenomenon was 

 caused by the transformation of one element into 

 others, a result which was finally established by the 

 discovery of Ramsay and Soddy that the radium eman- 

 ation turned into helium. 



The book is clearly written, and its value is increased 

 by a chapter of references at the end. It may con- 

 fidently be recommended to all interested in the recent 

 developments of physical theory. O. W. R. 



Nature's Story of the Year. By Charles A. Witchell. 



Pp. xii + 276; illustrated. (London: T. Fisher 



Unwin, 1904.) Price 55. 

 " Observers of Nature," says Mr. Witchell in his 

 preface, " belong to one of two classes — the scientific 

 and the imaginative." Mr. Witchell himself belongs 

 to the latter category, for, to make use of his own 

 words, he depicts " some curious incidents in Nature 

 in a frame of imaginative colouring." The book will 

 probably give readers a general interest in natural 

 phenomena, for there is no attempt systematically to 

 describe the plant and animal life to be found in the 

 country at different seasons of the year. The author 

 directs attention to anything that happens to have 

 impressed him, and his facts and fancies are expressed 

 in pretty terms. 



Essays and Addresses. By the late John Young, 

 M.D., Regius Professor of Natural History in the 

 University of Glasgow. With a Memoir. Pp. 

 xlii+i4j. (Glasgow: James Maclehose and Sons, 

 1904.) 

 This small collection of essays and addresses is issued 

 by the committee in charge of the memorials of the 

 late Prof. Young. The biographical sketch with 

 which the volume commences is by Dr. Yellowlees, 

 and it is a pleasing narrative of a well-filled life. The 

 history of the years when Young was on the Geo- 

 logical Survey is particularly attractive, though 

 throughout the narrative the reader is impressed with 

 Young's untiring energy. The committee has 

 selected the following essays and addresses for pub- 

 lication : — "Three English Medical MSS.," "A Dis- 

 course," "The Making of a Book," "The Scientific 

 Premonitions of the Ancients," " Jewish Mediciners," 

 and the " Address on the Hunterian Library." 



The Globe Geography Readers. Senior. Our World- 

 wide Empir-?. By Vincent T. Murch^. Pp. 392. 

 (London : Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1904.) Price 

 25. 6d. 

 The latest of Mr. Murch6's books is one of his best. 

 It provides a simple, interesting account of the 

 countries and peoples of the Britisli Empire which 

 should make the boys and girls who study it interested 

 in different parts of the world. The volume is pro- 

 fusely illustrated with sixteen full-page coloured 

 plates and an unusually large number of black and 

 white pictures There is no rigid adherence to geo- 

 graphical information alone; the historical facts 

 necessary to make up a complete description of a 

 country are included judiciously. 



