652 
measured amount of gelatin, on which papain works. 
No. 1 digested the gelatin much more rapidly than No. 
2, while No, 3 was inactive. As both Nos. 1 and 2 con- 
tained the same amount of active enzyme, he considers 
it certain that the boiled solution contained some con- 
stituent necessary for the action of the papain. The 
solvent action of papain on gelatin thus requires the 
presence of two substances, the enzyme itself, which is 
split up and destroyed by heating, and another substance 
which is contained in the heated enzyme. 
He considers subsequently at some length the group 
of oxidases, possessing in such a great degree the 
power of taking up oxygen and communicating it to the 
bodies which they attack. 
The conclusion is that there exists in all enzymes the 
substance already alluded to, and that this is an iron- 
containing nuclein. He gives the name dzonuclein to 
this hypothetical body. 
It would be too long a task to follow the author 
through all the developments of his theory. They may 
be gathered from the statement he makes in his third 
chapter, that since the chemistry of all vital phenomena 
must be fundamentally the same, the processes which 
are the foundation of enzyme action must be also the 
foundation of all vital phenomena, and all must alike 
depend upon the oxidation of bionuclein. In his later 
chapters he deals with the behaviour of the cell sub- 
stance, the fusion of sexual cells, the phenomena of 
karyokinesis, the phenomena presented by muscle and 
nerve and by the central nervous system. 
The treatise is one which is deserving of careful con- 
sideration, though it is doubtful how far many of the 
author’s conclusions will be held deserving of support. 
TWO ASPECTS OF THE THEORY OF 
PROBABILITY. 
Probabilités et Moyennes géométrigues. By Emmanuel 
Czuber. Translated into French by Herman Schuer- 
mans, with a preface by Charles Lagrange. Pp. 
xii + 244. (Paris: A. Hermann, 1902.) Price 
Fr. 8.50. 
Philosophical Essay on Probabilities. By Pierre Simon 
. Marquis de Laplace. Translated from the sixth 
French Edition by Frederick Wilson Truscott, Ph.D., 
and Frederick Lincoln Emory, M.E. Pp. iv + 196. 
(New York: John Wiley and Sons; London : 
Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1902.) 
WE have here two books dealing with widely different 
aspects and applications of the theory of pro- 
bability. 
Prof. Czuber’s treatise is a collection of problems 
relating to probabilities in which the number of cases of 
success and failure, instead of being finite or at any rate 
discrete, is continuously infinite. The cases considered 
relate to points chosen arbitrarily on a line, in a plane or 
in space, to lines drawn arbitrarily in a plane or in space, 
to surfaces taken arbitrarily in space, and to mean values 
depending on such random constructions. Such pro- 
blems have a great interest for the pure mathematician, 
and. they. lead to a number of apparent paradoxes de- 
pending chiefly on what is meant by “‘taken at random,” 
and many of these have been the subject of much con- 
NO. 1722, VOL. 66] 
NATURE 
[OcToBER 30, 1902 
troversy. No better preparation for the study of such 
paradoxes can be suggested than a comparison of the 
results of choosing a point so that all values of its 
Cartesian coordinates are equally probable with the 
corresponding results when all values of the polar co- 
ordinates are equally probable. The author has made 
an_extended study of the problems proposed by various 
English writers in the Educational Times, of the writings 
of French mathematicians, and in particular of the im- 
portant memoir of 1868 by Crofton. The result of this 
study has been the insertion of a number of historic 
notes and remarks, including a brief but full discussion 
of the famous “needle problem” of Buffon, ze. the 
problem of calculating the probability that a needle 
dropped at random on a sheet of ruled paper should 
cross one of the ruled lines when the needle is too short 
ever to cross two lines. The author quotes Dr. Wolf’s 
experimental tests, which gave a result falling well 
within the limits of probable error. 
The second book is a translation of the famous philo- 
sophical essay by Laplace, which was originally based on 
a course of lectures given by him in 1795 at the Ecole 
Normale when he was appointed professor of mathe- 
matics with Lagrange as a colleague. It is purely 
philosophical, and deals with general questions 
arising out of probabilities and hope, their applications 
to natural philosophy, to prediction of the decisions of 
juries and other assemblies, to problems of life insur- 
ance and to the dispersion of superstitions. In regard to 
the latter use, Laplace’s words may well be quoted :— 
“ All these prejudices and the terrors which they inspire 
are connected with physiological causes which continue 
sometimes to operate strongly after reason has disabused 
us of them. But the repetition of acts contrary to these 
prejudices can always destroy them.” 
There are few illusions arising from a failure to appre- 
ciate the calculus of probabilities which have done so 
much harm in the world as that which has given rise to 
the confirmed gambler or speculator. The very definite 
mental impression produced by a valuable prize and the 
difficulty to form a tangible conception of the probability 
factor which reduces the expectation to one of loss have 
proved fruitful sources of revenue to organisers of 
lotteries. But there is another cause which prevents a 
study of the theory of probability from saving the 
gambler from ruin. If in a game of even chances red 
turns up twenty times in succession, it is still an even 
chance whether red or black turns up on the twenty-first 
time; but no amount of mathematical reasoning will 
enable the confirmed gambler to realise that a previous 
run of bad luck gives no grounds for the expectation of 
recovering his losses by a run of good luck in the future. 
OUR BOOK SHELF. 
Upland Game-Birds. By E. Sandys and T. S. Van 
Dyke. Pp. ix + 429; illustrated. (New York : the 
Macmillan Company ; London: Macmillan and Co., 
Ltd., 1902.) Price 8s. 6d. net. 
THIS is the first of a series of ten volumes on American 
game and fish, published under the title of the “ American 
Sportsman’s Library,” which has come under our notice ; 
and if its companions are anything near so good as the 
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