October 31, 1918] 



NATURE 



[6 



nol always well 1 hosen. There are other evidences 

 .,1 hasty writing. There is a large 1 

 in die appendix. Mass is defined as the densit) 

 of unit volume! "The unit of force is that force 

 which, acting for one second on a mass oi oni 

 produi es an ai 1 eleration of one centi- 

 metre " (p. 500). 



ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY. 

 Studies in Electro-physiology (Animal and Vege- 

 table). By A. E. Haines. Pp. xxix + 291. 

 G. Routledge and Sons, Ltd., 1918.) 

 Price 12s. 6d. net. 



THE author of this book was trained as a sub- 

 marine-cable engineer, and many years ago, 

 while engaged in cable testing, he observed an 

 unexpected deflection of the galvanometer, 

 h he finally traced to the disturbing electrical 

 i, of his own body. An interest in electro- 

 phvsiology vvas thus aroused, and he was led to 

 undertake a series of experiments which, in his 

 own words, "convinced me that a force re- 

 sembling electricity, if not identical with it, was 

 constantly generated in the body." He followed 

 this up by making numerous observations on 

 plants and on the human body in health and 

 disease, and this book is the result. 



tunately, the author has had no training 

 in biology, and he altogether fails to realise the 

 difficulty of making advances in any field of scien- 

 tific work without a good knowledge of general 

 principles and of the results attained by previous 

 workers. His attempts to acquaint himself with 

 the literature of the subject have certainly, in 

 some directions at least, been unfortunate. Using 

 as a basis first a quotation from a text-book of 

 botany which was out of date many decades ago, 

 then a paragraph from Sachs's well-known work 

 published in 1882, and, finally, the absence of any 

 reference to the subject in a more recent 

 elementary text-book, he arrives at the conclusion 

 that there have been practically no observations 

 on "vegetable electro-physiology." Had the 

 author no plant physiologist among his acquaint- 

 ances who could have referred him to the works 

 of Jost and of Pfeffer? In Pfeffer's w-ork he 

 would have found a risumi of the subject, and 

 he would have realised that there was nothing 

 new in the observations which he made in the 

 vear 1900 of the electric current to be obtained 

 from an apple. That a difference of potential 

 exists between different organs of the same plant 

 and between different parts of the same organ and 

 even of the same cell has been known for a long 

 time. 



The author is sadly led away by analogy of the 

 .rudest description. The book is dedicated to the 

 medical profession, but the extraordinary com- 

 parison of animal and vegetable structures shown 

 on pp. 120-26 will scarcely appeal to its members. 

 One finds a ganglion-cell compared with a ger- 

 minating spore of Yaucheria, a transverse section 

 of a spinal cord compared with a bean root, a 

 transverse section of a sciatic nerve compared 

 NO. 2557. VOL. 102] 



with a single parenchyma-cell from a bean seed, 

 and a muscular fibre mpared with a scleren- 

 chyma-fibre. These comparisons are supposed to 

 indicate "the universality of the la", which governs 

 all things," but it is not quite clear what that 

 law is. 



In the latter part of tin 1>. -1; the author 

 attempts to explain the structure of muscle, of 

 nerve, of the eye, etc., on a purely 1 le i al theory 

 in which hypothesis and analogy .11; r to play 

 the main part. In dealing with the eye the possi- 

 bility of photochemical action is not mentioned. 

 In the theory of muscular action put forward, the 

 contraction is supposed to be due to the attraction 

 between plates in the sarcomeres, the plates being 

 alternately charged and discharged as a result of 

 the current passing through the motor nerves. In 

 this theory, which scarcely seems electrically sound, 

 the source of the energy required for con- 

 traction lies outside the muscle, apparently in 

 the brain or spinal cord. In these circumstances 

 it is difficult to see how even the most sedentary 

 of us escapes "brain fever." The author refers 

 the paucity of results attained by physiologists in 

 this special field of work to the fact that "these 

 great men . . . were not, any of them, trained 

 submarine-cable electricians." He apparently 

 fails to realise that — since the problem is a 

 "border-line" one — such a suggestion lays him 

 open to a very obvious retort. V. H. B. 



OUR BOOKSHELF. 



The War and the Coming Peace: the Moral Issue. 

 By Prof. Morris Jastrow, jun. Pp. 144. (Phila- 

 delphia and London: J. B. Lippincott Co., 

 1918.) Price 55. net. 

 A war that involves almost four-fifths of the 

 entire world must surely have issues deeper than 

 race-antagonisms, conflicting national ideals, and 

 commercial rivalries. According to Prof. Jastrow, 

 the fundamental issue is moral — "the recognition 

 on the part of the world that an attempt to carry 

 out national policies through the appeal to force, 

 or even by threat of force, is a cardinal sin against 

 the moral conscience of mankind." In practice 

 and even in profession Germany stands for the 

 "might is right " doctrine, but civilisation has 

 increasingly meant the replacement , of physical 

 power by factors of a higher order. " Civilisation 

 means the gradual elimination of mere brute force 

 as the weapon to carry out man's destiny." 

 Taking a rather one-sided and traditional view of 

 Nature's strategy, the author sees an inherent 

 contrast between it and the conscious direction 

 of civilisation, and as a modern Zoroastrian he 

 hears in the rattling of the sabre the voice of 

 Ahriman. He gives powerful and solemn warning 

 against the sin, which is not confined to Germany, 

 ..I employing the power of Ahriman to bring about 

 tin- triumph of Ahuramazda. He hopes that the 

 liberal and wholesome elements in Germany may 

 eventually save Germany from the domination of 

 a militarist group and fal als. The primary 



