J 
March 16, 1882} 
NATURE 
457 
scopic methods, photography and photometry, &c. In 
the third part additional data are given with reference to 
the sun, its temperature, spots, rotation, spectrum, &c. ; 
the chapter on Comets has been to a great extent re- 
written, and additional recent data given with respect to 
meteorites. Part 4, referring to stars and star-systems, 
astro-physical research, the development of our earth, 
&c., has also been considerably modified and added to. 
Several important modifications have also been made in 
the Appendix. The literature of the subject has been 
considerably extended and rearranged, while a series of 
_ biographical sketches of astronomers from the earliest 
-monia to a group | 
date down to the present time has been added, a feature 
of great interest and utility. As frontispiece there is a fine 
portrait of Sir William Herschel. These are a few of the 
modifications which have been made in the German 
edition of Prof. Newcomb’s work, some of which the 
author may consider it advisable to adopt in a new 
edition. 
The Chemical Cause of Life Theoretically and Experi- 
mentally Examined. By Oscar Loew and Thomas 
Bokorny. Svechure. (Munich, 1881.) 
THIS is a very important addition to our knowledge of the 
chemistry of plant life, or rather perhaps of the chemical 
reactions of “living” protoplasm. It is divided into two 
parts, a theoretical and experimental, following the idea 
first started by Pfliiger concerning ‘‘ physiological com- 
bustion in the living organism.” One of the authors has 
already (Pfliiger’s Archiv, xii. 510) enunciated an hypo- 
thesis as to the formation of albumin by condensation of 
aldehydic groups with amido groups. As Nageli has 
shown, various varieties of mould and Bacteria are able to 
build up the very complex albuminoid groups from rela- 
tively very simply constituted bodies like ammonic acetate, 
also from bodies like sugar, glycerine, &c , in the presence 
of ammonia or ammonia salts; it may be assumed that 
the same atomic group is split off and assimilated by the 
organism. The authors are of opinion that a group 
CHOH isomeric with formic aldehyde is the first or 
starting group in the formation of albuminoids. Such a 
group might possibly be formed, for example, by the 
oxidising action of moulds on acetic acid ; or it might be 
split off from compounds where it already exists, the 
neighbouring group becoming fully oxidised. Consider- 
ing that ammonic acetate and methylamine suffice under 
proper conditions for the building up of albuminoid 
groups, an otherwise constituted body than aldehyde.can 
scarcely be considered. As the proportion of carbon to 
nitrogen in albumin is as 4 to 1, four such aldehyde groups 
may be imagined to combine with one molecule of am- 
; H,N.CHCOH 
» which, although not 
CH,COH 
yet isolated would be an aidehyde of aspartic acid; anda 
3H,NCH.COH 
further condensation of | , to C,,.H,,N,0,, 
€H;.cOH 
and this again under the reducing action of sulphur to 
CroHy12N 1,509, two molecules of water being eliminated 
at each condensation. To prove the presence of an 
aldehyde group in living cells the reducing power of-that 
body on solutions of salts of several easily reducible 
metals was examined in detail. The most reliable and 
rapid indication of the existence of aldehyde groups was 
found to be a very dilute silver solution. This reagent 
was decided upon after a very thorough examination of a 
number of other metallic salts with aldehyde and other 
carbon compounds. The experiments with cell substance 
or protoplasm of Algz, &c., show that during the period 
of “living” the silver salt is always reduced to metal, 
but that when by any means heating or drying by the 
action of salts, &c.—which exert a dehydrating or anti- 
details are given on the last transit of Venus, on spectro- | septic action by which the “life” of the plant is destroyed 
—the reducing action on silver salts is destroyed also, 
Some of the alkaloids afford a striking exception, the 
cell’s substance yielding an equally distinct silver reaction 
before and after a week’s treatment with one per cent, 
solution of strychnine, &c. 
that certain aldehyde groups exist in protoplasm, and that 
it is to the chemical energy of such groups that the 
“living properties’ of the protoplasm are to be ascribed. 
Between the Amazons and Andes; or, Ten Years of a 
Lady's Travels in the Pampas, Gran Chaco, Paraguay, 
and Matto Grosso. By Mrs. M. G. Mulhall. (London: 
Edward Stanford, 1881.) 
THE regions traversed by Mrs. Mulhall have always had 
a great fascination for the traveller, and though a good 
deal has been done of late years towards obtaining an 
exact knowledge of these remote parts of the world, still 
there are vast tracts of country between the Andes and 
the Atlantic, which offer virgin fields for geographical 
research. 
From Buenos Ayres to Cordoba, to Mendoza, and 
beyond the latter as far as the Inca’s Bridge, with an ex- 
cursion by sea to Rio Grande, ard back by land by way 
of Villa de Melo, not to count sundry short excursions, 
constitutes a tour extending over several thousands of 
miles, that required all the courage and determination of 
an Englishwoman to accomplish, as Mrs. Mulhall has. 
done, successfully ; and this record of her visit to the- 
ruined shrines of the Jesuit missions, to the hunting- 
grounds of several native tribes, to the little-trodden 
forests of the Amazons, and to the slopes of the Andes, 
will be read with interest and profit. 
Mrs. Mulhall’s account of the plague at Buenos Ayres 
in 1870 is most graphic: the destruction was fearful, the 
city losing 26,c00 souls. The natural history notes are 
not numerous; now and then, however, some facts of 
interest are mentioned. On the line of the San Louis 
Railway the ostriches are so numerous as, to cause much 
trouble ; for whenever a workman left any bolt or screw 
out of his hand, were it only for a moment, they disap- 
peared, be ng swallowed up by these birds, and one of 
the engineers declared that they even went so far as to 
pick the bolts out of the iron bridges if they were left by 
chance unriveted ! 
At Corrientes, the house of a friend of Bonpland, the 
botanist and companion of Humboldt, was visited, and 
Mrs. Mulhall gives us an extract from a manuscript in 
Bonpland’s handwriting which begins: “I was born at 
Rochelle on August 29, 1773. My real name’ was 
Amadé Goujaud. My father—a physician—intended 
me for the.same profession. It was on account of my 
great love for plants that he gave me the sobriquet of 
Bon-plant, which I afterwards adopted instead of my 
family name.”’ 
At Lomas a farmer’s wife gave the authoress a sample 
of white silk made by a large harmless gregarious spider. 
The silk appeared suitable for weaving, and a pair of 
stockings made from it are said to have been sent as a 
present to the King of Spain. 
As an appendix to the second volume there is a history 
of the risé and fall of the Jesuit Missions in South Ame- 
rica. The rise of these Missions marked a period of 
great prosperity. During the seventeenth and eighteenth 
centuries they were a theme of admiration among the 
writers and statesmen of Europe. To-day the traveller 
sees but the ruins of splendid churches that were built 
during that time, and the remains of some native sculpture 
and wood carving. 
Geometrical Exercises for Beginners. By Samuel Con- 
stable. (London : Macmillan, 1882.) 
THE title of this book seems to us hardly to hit the 
object for which it is really adapted. Exercises for 
The authors are of opinion — - 
