NA rURE 



[Nov. 4, iS86 



There can beno doubt that all that portion of the work 

 which contains translations from the " Monographia " of 

 Fries will be exceedingly valuable to British mycologists, 

 and this extends through the whole of the first volume 

 and i55^pages into the second; the only regret being that 

 the few remaining species, which have not as yet been 

 lecorded in these Isles, were not inserted in brackets, 

 or published as an appendix, so that the whole of Fries's 

 excellent work might have been in the hands of every 

 mycologist in this country. Perhaps even now such an 

 appendix might be published, and no doubt it would meet 

 with a hearty welcome. 



Despite of such strictures as we have been impelled to 

 make, we venture to hope that the present edition will 

 soon be exhausted, and that its author will be called upon 

 to prepare a new and revised edition, with a key to all 

 the mysteries of the old one. M. C. C. 



THE OCEAN 

 Per Ozcan. ^'on Otto Kriimmel. (Leipzig und Prag : 

 Freytag-Lempsky, 1886.) 



I^HE [^great interest which oceanographical studies 

 have aroused within the last few years is shown in 

 a marked manner by the publications destined to popu- 

 larise the notions acquired respecting this vast and 

 important chapter of physical geography. Not long after 

 the appearance of the " Lehrbuch der Ozeanographie " 

 by Boguslawski, whose untimely death has interrupted 

 the publication of the second volume, we have a new and 

 small manual by Dr. Otto Kriimmel, whose name is 

 already known to oceanographers. 



This little treatise is clearly written, and the most 

 important general notions concerning the physical geo- 

 graphy of the sea are well stated, and discussed with 

 ability. The author has succeeded in expressing briefly 

 the essential notions about the ocean, which have been 

 recently acquired by the Cliallciis^cr and other deep-sea 

 expeditions. 



The author describes, in the first place, the ocean's 

 ■surface and its subdivisions (" Die Meeresflachen und 

 ihre Gliederung") ; discusses the relation of oceanic and 

 terrestrial areas from the point of view of their respective 

 size ; indicates the distribution according to hemispheres ; 

 and points out the classification he has adopted into 

 pce.vn, properly so called, with their general systems of 

 ocean currents, and secondary seas, which are more or 

 less cut off from the great oceans. The secondary seas 

 are again subdivided into interior, or inter-coniiiiental, 

 and border seas, situated on the outer edges of the con- 

 tinents. The volume of oceanic water is then estimated. 

 In the second chapter the interesting questions connected 

 with the deformation of the level and surface of the ocean, 

 owing to the attraction of the continental masses, are 

 examined The depths and contours of the ocean basins 

 are next pointed out, and the work of the Challenger and 

 other deep-sea expeditions, together with the apparatus 

 employed, is described. The observations of the Chal- 

 lenger upon the nature and distribution of deep-sea 

 deposits are summarised. The physical and chemical 

 ]Moperties of sea-water are set forth in a special chapter — 

 the salinity of the ocean, its distribution and origin ; the 

 gas contents ; the transparency and colour, are, in turn. 



treated of. After having made known the principal 

 phenomena regarding the temperature of the ocean and 

 its distribution, Kriimmel treats of the glacial phenomena 

 of the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans, pointing out the 

 limits of the floating ice and icebergs in each region, and 

 the influence of these regions on the questions of general 

 oceanic circulation. The last chapter is reserved for a 

 consideration of the movements of water, such as currents, 

 waves, and tides. 



Such is the general order and method of this 

 manual. There is no attempt to give any general 

 notion of the life of the shores, deep sea, and surface of 

 the ocean, or of any of the phenomena due to organisms. 

 The author shows himself to be everywhere an courant 

 with the most recent discoveries in his subject. It would 

 appear, however, that he has not had an opportunity of 

 consulting the " Narrative of the Cruise of the Chal- 

 lenger" published last year, or he would have embraced 

 in his descriptions some additional interesting details and 

 general views. The work is illustrated by many wood- 

 cuts and small charts, some of which are instructive, 

 others conveying little information to the reader, but 

 when the low price of the book (one shilling) is remem- 

 bered it would be unfair to criticise closely these illus- 

 trations. Dr. Kriimmel has attained the object he had 

 in view — to popularise in a scientific manner our know- 

 ledge relative to the physical geography of the sea, a 

 subject full of interesting questions for all cultured 

 minds. J. M. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 

 [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- 

 pressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to 

 return, or to corrsspondiuith the writers of, rejected manu- 

 scripts. No notice is taken of anonymous communications. 

 [ The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters 

 as short as possible. The pressure on his space is so great 

 that it is impossible othei-oise to insure the appearance even 

 of communications containing interesting and novel facts."] 



On the Connection between Chemical Constitution 

 and Physiological Action 



As regards Dr. Brunton's letter in last week's Nature 

 (p. 617), I would express myself as more than satisfied with the 

 personal explanation, but Dr. Brimton has not noticed the mo t 

 important point to which I wished to call attention, viz, that 

 whatever may be the value of my experiments, as sliowiiig a con- 

 nection between physiological action and chemical constitulicn, 

 the researches of Crum Brown and Fraser have really no 

 bearing on the subject, for the simple reason that they had no 

 knowledge of the chemical constitution of the re-agents they 

 employed. There is an old receipt for cooking a hare whiA 

 commences "First catch your hare," and in attempting to show 

 the influence of change in chemical consliiuiion on phy iological 

 action, il is well first to get a constitution. In the last ed tion 

 of Watts's "Organic Chemistry" (1886) it is stated, " All these 

 bases (the alkaloids), like the anunes, are derivatives of 

 ammonia, but their molecular structure is for the most part un- 

 known." Even as regards inorganic compounds, our know- 

 ledge of their chemical constitution is not the most definite, but 

 I believe that the arrangement of the elements in isomorjdious 

 grou]is expresses most clearly the resemblance in the chemical 

 constitution of their compDunds. 



After again reading carefully Dr. Brunton's paper, I nnist 

 confess that I cannot find anything showing the connection be- 

 tween chemical constitution and physiological action, except, 

 perhaps, in the case of the alcohols. Here we have a class of 

 bodies in which the different members of the series have pro- 

 bably the same relation to each other as the elements in the 

 same isomorphous group, and it is an interesting fact that not 



