AUGUST 14, 1902] 
NATORE 
363 
present position of the dynamo from both a theoretical 
and a practical point of view. 
The first of the more important biological articles in- 
cluded in the volume is one on Ccelentera, by Dr. G. H. 
Fowler, in which it is shown how much our conception of 
this group has altered since the date of the previous 
issue. The colours of animals are treated of by Prof. 
E. B. Poulton, who lays emphasis on the advance of our 
knowledge with regard to the object of the general 
coloration of mammals and birds. Crustacea are de- 
scribed by the Rev. T. R. Stebbing, Ctenophora by Dr. 
Fowler, and cuttlefish by the Rev. J. F. Blake. In the 
genealogical table accompanying the latter article it is 
noticeable that Octopus (or rather Polypus) is regarded 
as the descendant of an ammonite of the Hoplites group, 
and also that the author accepts the view of one or two 
German writers as to the homology of the argonaut shell 
with that of an ammonite. The Echinodermata (called 
Echinoderma in the table of contents) are elaborately 
treated by Dr. F. A. Bather, while Mr. A. E. Shipley 
is responsible for that small marine group known as 
Echiurids, and, from the presence of segmentation in 
larval life, sometimes classed as Annelids. 
The very important subject of economic insects falls to 
the lot of Prof. F. V. Theobald, but limitations of space 
render his article all too short. Recent investigations 
into the breeding-habits of the eel and the discovery of 
the real nature of “leptocephali” have enabled Mr. 
J. T. Cunningham to render the article “Eel” one of 
especial interest. The only botanical subject is cytology 
(vegetable), for which Mr. H. W. T. Wager is responsible. 
ASPECTS OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. 
Pathologie générale et expérimentale. Les Processus 
génévaux. Par A. Chantemesse and W. W. 
Podwyssotsky. Pp. xiv + 428; 162 figures. (Paris: 
G. Naud, 1901.) 
Matiére médicale zoologigue, Histoire des Drogues 
d@ Origine animale. Par H. Beauregard, Professeur 4 
PEcole supérieure de Pharmacie de Paris. Revisé 
par M. Coutiére, with a preface by M. D’Arsonval. 
Pp. xxxi + 396; numerous plates and _ illustrations. 
(Paris: G. Naud, 1901.) Price fr. 12. 
Chemische und medicinische Untersuchungen. Festschrift 
zur des sechzigsten Geburtstages von Max Jaffe. 
Pp. 472; 7 plates. (Braunschweig: Vieweg u. Sohn, 
1901.) 
Das Wiérbeltierblut in  mikrokristallographischer 
Hinricht. Von Dr. med. H. U. Kobert. Mit einem 
Vorworte von Prof. R. Kobert. Pp. 108; 26 figures. 
(Stuttgart : Ferdinand Enke, 1901.) 
HE first book before us is the first volume of a 
system of general and experimental pathology. In 
an academically written preface of ten pages, the authors 
explain the object of the book, pointing out the extreme 
value of comparative experimental pathology in eluci- 
dating the prime problems of morbid processes in the 
human subject. In especial the authors cite the work 
of Pasteur on silkworm parasites, and that also of 
Metchnikoff on the effects of irritants upon low forms 
of life. Equally well might the recent researches upon 
NO. I711, VOL. 66] 
the causation of malaria have found a mention in this 
connection. M. Chantemesse’s Russian collaborator, 
M. Podwyssotsky, has already published in Russian a 
general experimental pathology covering similar ground 
to the volume under consideration. The present work, 
however, is much more extensive, both with regard to 
the letterpress and figures, and can in no sense be 
regarded as a translation from the Russian. 
It is impossible in a short review to enter adequately 
into the subject-matter of so compendious a volume, and 
little more than a table of contents can be given. More 
than half the space is devoted to the degenerations, which 
are treated very fully, each having appended to it a 
copious, we were going to say appalling, bibliography. 
These huge lists of papers bearing on the corresponding 
subject are really the more appalling in that upon 
glancing through them it at once becomes evident that 
they are more complete with regard to French and 
Russian workers than with regard to German and 
English ones. Judging from them and the text, it appears 
that the authors are not well acquainted swith current 
English scientific literature, as the number of English 
authors quoted is very small, and the same cannot be 
said of the English work done upon the subject in 
question. Certainly one, and in the reviewer’s opinion 
not the least, of the advantages of the book is that it 
makes accessible to a cosmopolitan public a mass of 
Russian work, evidently of great value, which otherwise, 
on account either of its language or its inaccessibility, 
might have easily escaped the observation of workers in 
the field of experimental pathology, to their and their 
readers’ detriment. 
Under the degenerations are included goitre and 
cretinism, the authors giving, concerning these affections, 
an interesting series of experiments upon the effect of 
the water of the district upon endemic goitre. Saint 
Jean de Maurienne is apparently one of the most goitrous 
districts of France, and the waters here have actually 
the reputation of producing goitre, and are resorted to 
with success by certain individuals anxious to avoid com- 
pulsory military service. Glycosuria is discussed under 
glycogenic degeneration. An interesting section is de- 
voted to watery and vacuolar degeneration, which in- 
cludes a detailed description, with very beautiful 
illustrations, of the vacuolisation of the cells of the 
central nervous system under the influence of certain 
toxins and drugs. 
The book throughout is written ina most lucid and 
attractive style, and in a distinctly philosophical manner. 
The amount of subject-matter treated is very great, and 
even subjects having little more than an indirect bearing 
upon the main theme of the book are exhaustively dis- 
cussed. Some idea of the extent to which this is done 
may perhaps be formed in noting that no less than fifty 
pages are devoted to the subject of heredity, and that 
under this division of their subject the authors include a 
lengthy discussion of the views of Weissmann. The 
subject of argyrosis, or general pigmentation following 
the administration of silver salts, occupies six pages, and 
has appended to it a copious bibliography. 
The reviewer regrets that the references in the biblio- 
graphies are not numbered, even when quoted in the 
text; reference to any given paper is by this fact 
