AUGUST 14, 1902] 
NATURE 
365 
Wiener. The fact that benzoic acid is converted by the 
organism into hippuric acid, and is poisonous only in so 
far as it is not so converted, is made use of to estimate 
the quantity of glycocol present in the organism under 
different conditions at any given time. The result of the 
researches, in the author’s opinion, shows that in rabbits 
the store of glycocol is neither small nor constant, and 
that it bears a constant relationship to proteid katabolism ; 
further, that this relationship appears to be the same 
whether the proteid material be katabolised in the animal 
body or by external chemical means. 
Prof. Hans Meyer, conjointly with Dr. J. T. Halsey 
and Dr. F. Ransom, contributes a paper on tetanus. 
The stimulus to this research appears to have been the 
work of Courmont and Doyon upon the influence of tem- 
perature upon the development of tetanus after the in- 
jection of the,tetanus toxin. The results of Meyer and 
his collaborators are in the main confirmatory of those of 
the earlier observers, and appear to show distinctly that 
cold has a marked preventive influence upon the develop- 
ment of tetanus in animals after the injection of tetanus 
toxin. These results point, according to Ehrlich and his 
school, to the fact that the “ toxophore”’ group, in the 
case of tetanus, develops slowly, and only at relatively 
high temperatures. The nearest poison of known 
chemical composition to the tetanus toxin is strychnine, 
and Koeninck has shown that the development of the 
syniptoms of strychnine poisoning in animals is indepen- 
dent of the temperature. 
The book contains other interesting essays, which the 
space at our command does not permit us to review. 
Dr. Kobert’s pamphlet is intended primarily for those 
interested in the medico-legal detection of blood, and 
consists for the most part of a compilation of the facts at 
present known upon this subject, culled from the ap- 
propriate original works. In some respects, however, it 
is original, especially with regard to the description and 
figure of hemochromogen crystals, and hence will in this 
sense be possibly of use to physiological chemists 
generally. The book apparently owes its origin to a 
practical course upon the detection of blood stains which 
Prof. Kobert gave himself, and which in a much less 
complete form appeared in Zeztschrift fiir angewandte 
Mtkroscopie. 
The first few pages of the monograph are devoted to 
the interesting subject of the mutuality of iron and copper 
with regard to the blood pigment. It isa known fact that 
in certain invertebrata the blood performs its respiratory 
function through a copper compound. This physiological 
equivalence of copper and iron in this respect is dis- 
tinctly of interest in connection with the supposed toxic 
effect of copper. 
A considerable space is devoted to the interesting 
substance hzmatoporphyrin, which occurs in human 
urine especially after the administration of sulphonal, 
a very commonly used hypnotic. 
heemopyrrol (methyl propyl pyrrol) to haemoglobin and 
chlorophyll is also discussed in the light of the work of 
Marchlewski and Schunck. 
A short section is devoted to blood serum crystals, and 
the pamphlet concludes with a concise bibliographical 
and general index. 
The booklet is certainly thoroughly written, and will 
NO. 1711, VOL. 66] 
The relation of | 
be found useful by those especially interested in this 
somewhat limited field, as well as of practical use in 
guiding the medical jurist with regard to method. 
Be Waele 
CHEMICAL ESSAYS. 
Essays in Historical Chemistry. By T. E. Thorpe, C.B., 
LL.D., F.R.S. Pp. xii + 582. (London: Macmillan 
and Co., Ltd., 1902.) Price 12s, net. 
T is always a pleasure to read any of Dr. Thorpe’s 
essays ; in this volume a number of them, delivered 
on very different occasions, at intervals during the last 
twenty-five years, have been collected. Some have been 
published in book form before, but several, which are to 
be found in the present work, are reprinted from NATURE 
and from the 7ramsactions of the Chemical Society. 
The first essay—that on Robert Boyle, “ the father of 
modern chemistry”—displays Dr. Thorpe’s admirable 
style at its best. One is struck by the great wealth of 
allusion to contemporary events, touched lightly, it is 
true, but none the less giving a clear impression of the 
times in which the subject of the essay lived, and of the 
surroundings in which he carried on his work. Dr. 
Thorpe possesses, too, a happy knack of apt quotation ; 
the particular passage from a writer of prose or poetry 
which best illustrates the point which he wishes to make 
flows easily from his pen, and gives much interest and 
spice to his narratives. The essay on Boyle is a sketch ; 
much that is interesting is omitted, and there is plenty of 
room for other essays on Boyle; but what is told is 
written in such an attractive style, and gives such a per- 
fect picture of the quiet, meditative philosopher—p/z/a- 
rethes, or the friend of virtue, as he calls himself in a 
passage which might with advantage have been quoted— 
that to complain of a lack of completeness would be to 
appear to undervalue what is given. 
Dr. Priestley is the subject of the next sketch. Again 
the same careful delineation of character is to be noted ; 
but perhaps in the life of Scheele, the subject of the third 
essay, Dr. Thorpe is at his best. It is hardly fair, how- 
ever, to the shades of Mayow to credit Dr. Priestley with 
the invention of the pneumatic trough, although the 
name, doubtless, is due to him; for Mayow’s 77 actatus 
guingue contain many illustrations of that convenient 
appliance. 
In the essay on Cavendish, a delightful picture is given 
of an imaginary soirée at the house of Sir Joseph 
Banks :— 
“The portly visitor, with the large frill, makes his way 
upstairs, to the evident embarrassment of a thin middle- 
aged gentleman in an old-fashioned Court-dress of faded 
violet, and a knocker-tailed periwig, who is moving un- 
easily about on the landing, evidently afraid to face the 
assembly. The approach of the gentleman on the stairs, 
however, drives him into the room. He shuffles quickly 
from place to place, his manner is awkward ; his face 
betrays a nervous irritation of mind, and he appears 
annoyed if looked at. It is the Honourable Mr. Caven- 
dish. Finding himself close to a group, evidently, from 
the appearance which their faces wear, speaking of a 
deeply important matter, he draws near to listen. They 
are talking of a rumour of some grave «lisaster which has 
befallen my Lord Cornwallis and his troops, who it 
