NATURE 



[September 21, 191 1 



CHEMICAL STRUCTURE AND PHYSIO- 

 LOGICAL ACTION. 

 The Chemistry of Synthetic Drugs. By P. May. Pp. 

 xiii + 229. (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 

 1911.) Price ys. 6d. net. 



IT is the expressed aim of the author of this volume 

 to bring to the notice of chemists a branch of 

 their subject affording scope for commercial applica- 

 tion, and at the same time to interest medical men 

 who may desire information concerning the chemical 

 nature of the synthetic remedies presented to them. 

 It is obvious that but little can safely be assumed as 

 common ground of previous knowledge, in appealing 

 to so wide a constituency of readers, and it was a 

 good thought to begin with a glossary of technical 

 terms : although it seems a little difficult to believe in 

 the existence of the chemist who needs "antipyretic " 

 or "narcotic" defined for him. 



The author is to be congratulated on having presented 

 a readable account of a difficult subject in 220 pages 

 of text, not a few of which, moreover, are of necessity 

 occupied by structural formulae. 



A selection of the more interesting and instructive 

 classes of synthetic drugs for discussion probably 

 afforded the only possibility of dealing, within such 

 limits, with a subject in which recorded observations 

 are overwhelmingly abundant and sound generalisa- 

 tions but few. The gain in interest for the non- 

 specialist is well worth the loss in comprehensiveness. 

 It is no disparagement of such a volume to say that 

 it owes much to Frankel's " Arzneimittelsynthese," 

 as the author duly acknowledges. It could be wished, 

 however, that he had leaned a little less heavily on 

 that authority, particularly in some matters of 

 pharmacological detail. For example, he follows 

 Frankel in stating that "pilocarpine closely resembles 

 nicotine in many of its pharmacological effects " (p. 

 31), and accordingly regards as significant the posses- 

 sion by both of a five-membered ring. Of a writer on 

 this subject for English readers one might expect such 

 slight acquaintance with the work of the Cambridge 

 school of physiology as would have sufficed to save 

 him from accepting this statement. That the real 

 pharmacological affinities of pilocarpine are with 

 muscarine, with which it has no obvious community 

 of structure, is one of the anomalies with which the 

 subject bristles. The statement that "atropine and 

 cocaine are closely related ... in their physiological 

 action, both of them causing dilatation of the pupil " 

 (p. 86), is another instance of a tendency to attach 

 importance to superficial resemblances, in the interests 

 of a preconceived correspondence between structure 

 and action. Mr. May's direct contact with the subject 

 is obviously on the chemical side, but the description 

 of the action of apomorphine as "quite opposite to 

 that of morphine," is again a little crude, even for 

 pharmacology at second hand. 



The introductory chapter, dealing with the general 

 theories of the physiological action of drugs, follows 

 Frankel closely, and would have gained by more 

 attention to the development of theories since 1906. 

 It is rather for its chapters dealing with special groups 

 than as a general theoretical survey that the book 

 NO. 2 1 86, VOL. 87] 



should prove of value. Atropine and the tropeines, 

 cocaine and the local anaesthetics, the morphine and 

 isoquinoline groups of alkaloids, are all dealt with 

 in a manner which should enable even the medical 

 practitioner, with mere remnants of his studed 

 chemistry as a basis, to follow intelligently the aims 

 of those engaged in producing new synthetic com- 

 pounds in the different series. The citation of trade 

 names provides a useful link with practical thera- 

 peutics. In treating of the isoquinoline alkaloids and 

 the adrenaline series of bases, much space is devoted 

 to recent, and particularly to English, publications : 

 and if some of these seem thus to acquire more promi- 

 nence in the general scheme than their intrinsic im- 

 portance warrants, the fault is in the right direction ; 

 for, as the author points out, much of this work, as 

 well as that on the organic arsenic and antimony 

 compounds, has not before been collected into one 

 volume. 



On the whole, by what it omits as well as by the 

 presentation of what it includes, the book succeeds in 

 giving a more readable, if a slighter, account of the 

 subject than its predecessors in the same field. A 

 high degree of originality is excluded by the nature 

 of the subject. The book would gain much by com- 

 paratively slight revision at the hands of someone 

 directly acquainted with the physiological side of the 

 subject, and the author may be recommended to seek 

 such aid before publishing a new edition. 



MECHANISM IN CRUCIFEROUS FLOWERS. 



Prinzipien der Physikalisch-Kausalen Bliitenbiologie. 

 In Hirer Anwendung auf Ban und Entstehung des 

 Bliitenapparates der Cruciferen. Von Dr. A. Giint- 

 hart. Pp. ix+172. (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1910.) 

 Price 4.50 marks. 



THE floral construction of the Crucifer, repeated in 

 so many familiar wild and cultivated plants, is 

 at first sight so remarkably simple that the type is 

 utilised possibly more than any other for the purposes 

 of elementary botany, as presenting a handy sym- 

 metrical blossom with few parts and apparently little 

 complication in relation to pollination. More careful 

 observation, however, shows that this is by no means 

 the case; the biological construction is definitely trans- 

 versely zygomorphic, involving a duplicate mechanism ; 

 while morphological considerations show that the 

 apparent simplicity has been attained by extreme re- 

 duction-specialisation from anthostrobiloid forms of 

 which phylogenetic suggestions can only be traced in 

 the allied families of the Capparidaceae and Rese- 

 daceae. 



Dr. Gunthart's volume constitues an extremely valu- 

 able and interesting contribution to the detailed in- 

 vestigation of the floral biology of these flowers. 

 Representative types of twenty-five genera, arranged 

 in thirteen groups, have been worked out by sectional 

 methods, and are copiously illustrated by 136 schematic 

 figures and diagrams. As the title indicates, the 

 special point at issue is the determination of the 

 extent to which any definite purpose or intention can 

 be traced in the elaboration of complex floral 

 mechanism devoted to cross-pollination by insect 



