288 
volumes of the catalogue cover the period 1800 to 
1883, forming an alphabetical list of authors’ 
names, with the titles of all the papers they pub- 
lished during those years. The volume now 
issued is one of a series which will complete the 
work to the end of the year 1900. 
Vol. xv. contains the names of authors from 
“Fitting” to “Hyslop,” so that three volumes are 
required to reach the end of letter H in the 
alphabet. It would appear, therefore, that eight 
volumes may be needed to index the literature 
of the seventeen years 1884-1900, whereas 
the papers published in the eighty-four 
years 1800-1883 could be indexed in twelve 
volumes. 
The volumes for 1884-1900 so far published 
have been produced under the direction of Dr. 
Herbert McLeod, whose love of accuracy is well 
known. An examination of vol. xv. reveals the 
extreme pains that have been taken to render every 
detail correct. We would particularly direct atten- 
tion to the care taken to avoid confusing authors 
of the same name. Where the director has been 
unable to satisfy himself as to the identity of an | 
author whose surname alone is given in the paper, 
that fact is duly indicated. At the present time, 
when England and Russia are drawn together by 
common interests, we are glad to observe many 
entries in Russian characters, such entries having 
.a translation for the convenience of those who 
are not yet able to read the language of our 
Ally. 
We very much regret that Dr. McLeod has been 
obliged, through ill-health, to resign the director- 
ship of this work. In the volumes of the cata- 
logue published under his direction he has set a 
standard of accuracy which is hard for any 
successor to attain. We hope that Dr. McLeod 
has been able to leave the manuscript for the 
remainder of the author index for 1883-1900 so 
far complete that the Royal Society will have no 
difficulty in publishing it. 
Although a work of this character should find a 
place upon the shelves of every scientific library, 
it is obvious that the expense of its production 
must be too great to be covered by the sales. The 
late Dr. Ludwig Mond and other generous friends 
of the undertaking provided funds to make up the 
deficit. The Catalogue Committee of the Royal 
Society found that these funds were practically 
exhausted by the end of 1914. This has not deterred 
the Society from continuing the publication of the 
series of volumes. In so doing it has acted in the 
interest of science, for a work of this kind is most 
valuable when the papers indexed are still of living 
interest. 
It will be remembered that the Royal Society’s 
Catalogue of Scientific Papers is designed to index 
all the scientific literature of the nineteenth 
century. The corresponding work for the 
twentieth century has been undertaken by the 
International Catalogue of Scientific Literature, 
NATURE 
[DecEMBER 14, 19167 
=a 
“T’HOMME MACHINE.” ~ Piet 
Man—An Adaptive Mechanism. By Prof. G. W- 
Crile. Pp. xvi+387. (New York: The Mac- 
millan Company; London: Macmillan and 
Co., Ltd., 1916.) Price 10s. 6d. net. + 
A COORDING to Prof. Crile, the proper term 
for describing man is mechanism. “Man is 
essentially an energy-transforming mechanism, 
obeying the laws of physics, as do other 
mechanisms.” This obedience to the laws of 
physics is generally admitted by biologists ;_ the 
question is whether the mechanistic (or chemico- 
physical) description, which is true so far as it 
can go, is exhaustive and adequate. Prof. Crile 
insists that it is, but when we find him including 
in his conception of mechanism “the fabrication 
of thought” (by which the mechanical formule 
were themselves fabricated), we wonder if he has 
sufficiently considered his position. He seems to 
us to have passed insidiously from, a_ scientific 
materialism which is admittedly a progressive 
working hypothesis in physiological research to 
a philosophical materialism which holds that a 
true and full description of the world can be given 
in terms of matter and motion. . 
When we lay down the mechanically heavy 
but psychically lightsome volume, and ask our- 
selves what its chief contributions are, we may 
select the following. (1) The author gives many 
forcible illustrations of the unity of the organism. 
In the web of behaviour what we call mental and 
what we call bodily are inextricably interwoven. 
More than that, the whole bodily life is correlated 
with a subtlety which can scarcely be exagger- 
ated, verifying St. Paul’s remark that the various 
members of the body work as if they had “a 
common concern for one another.” The author 
gives a very vivid account of the physiological 
linkage concerned with the transformation of 
potential into kinetic energy. In this “kinetic 
system” “the brain is the initiator of response, 
being activated by the environment within or 
without the body; acting like a storage battery, 
it contributes the initial spark and impulse which 
drives the mechanism. The adrenals act as 
oxidisers, making possible the transformation of 
energy and the neutralisation of the resulting 
acid products. The liver is the chief fabricator 
and storehouse of the carbohydrate fuel by which 
muscular action and heat are produced. The 
liver also. plays a large réle in the neutralisation 
of the acid products of the transformation of 
energy. The muscles are the engine or motor in 
which is consummated the final step in the trans- 
formation of energy into heat or motion. The 
thyroid, by supplying a secretion which facilitates 
the passage of ions, would seem to be the organ 
df speed control, governing the rate at which the 
transformation of energ’y is effected.” 
(2) Distinctive of the book is the emphasis laid 
on acidosis, or increased concentration of H-ions 
in the blood. This may be induced, as is shown 
which has already carried on the index from 1gor | in well-illustrated detail, by excessive museular 
to 1913. 
NO. 2459, VOL. 98] 
| activity, excessive emotional activation, 
surgical 
