Oct. 14, 1880] 



NATURE 



555 



GAMGEE'S "PHYSIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY" 



Physiological ChemisUy of the Animal Body. By Arthur 

 Gamgee, M.D., F. R.S., Brackenbury Professor of 

 Physiology in the Owens College, Manchester. Vol. i. 

 (London : Macmillan and Co., 18S0.) 



THE title of this book, since it seems to indicate that 

 the work treats of a division or kind of chemistry, 

 suggests the question whether it ought not to have been 

 written (and reviewed) by a chemist rather than by a 

 physiologist. And indeed there was a time when the 

 view that the chemistiy of living beings was a kind of 

 chemistry distinct from the ordinaiy chemistry had some 

 measure of support, and when consequently the phrase 

 physiological chemistry had a very definite meaning. At 

 the present time however all or nearly all are ready to 

 admit that the chemical events which take place in living 

 bodies are in reality of the same kind as and subject to 

 the same chemical laws as those which take place in 

 lifeless things ; and hence physiological chemistry has 

 come to mean the same thing as chemical physiology. 

 The study of the chemical phenomena of animals and 

 plants may be undertaken either by the chemist who 

 understands physiology or by the physiologist who knows 

 chemistry. The day must sooner or later come, — may its 

 advent be more speedy than the present outlook promises ! 

 — when the chemist will be able, on the strength of his 

 general knowledge, to foretell with sureness and precision 

 the varied chemical events of the animal body ; but 

 hitherto and as yet, each chemical twist and turn of the 

 vital machine has to be worried out by direct obsei-vation 

 and experiment, so that physiological chemistry really 

 means at present the physiological investigation of the 

 chemical phenomena of living beings, and thus naturally 

 falh into the hands of the physiologist. 



For some years past there has been a great want of an 

 adequate English treatise on the subject, a treatise which 

 should deal wMth the matter much more fully and com- 

 pletely than could possibly be done in the te.xt-books of 

 physiology or chemistry. The preparation of such a 

 treatise, however, is a task of great labour, and Prof. 

 Gamgee assumed a heavy responsibility when he under- 

 took to bring out the work, the first volume of which is 

 now before us. But we believe that we may congratulate 

 him and his readers on the accomplishment, so far, of his 

 task. 



The first instalment comprises, besides a preliminary 

 chapter on proteids, an account of the chemistry of 

 blood, pus, lymph, and of the elementary tissues, con- 

 tractile, nervous, connective, and epithelial. About 200 

 pages are devoted to blood alone, and these not only 

 contain a full description and discussion of the phenomena 

 of coagulation, of the chemistry of the serum, and of the 

 red corpuscles, both of their stroma and their haemo- 

 globin, but include a special chapter " on the changes 

 which the blood undergoes in disease," and a section on 

 the "characters presented by the blood of invertebrate 

 animals." Prof. Gamgee's object has been apparently 

 threefold, viz., (i) to give the chemical data as fully and 

 as exactly as possible, with abundant references to original 

 memoirs and other authorities ; (2) to explain even in 

 detail the methods by which the data are determined, 

 and in this the reader will have at once his attention 



arrested and his progress assisted by the illustrations of 

 apparatus, spectra, &c., the number and excellence of 

 which form a very striking feature of the work, distin- 

 guishing it in a most marked manner from its prede- 

 cessors ; and (3) to point out and discuss the physiological 

 bearings of the data expounded. Thus under the heading 

 of " Oxy-hffimoglobin " will be found a description of the 

 various methods of preparation of this substance (some 

 eight special methods being given in detail in small print), 

 followed by an account of its elementary composition, 

 crystalline form, general reactions, and absorption- 

 spectra. The physiological properties of hemoglobin are 

 in large measure postponed to the chapter on respiration ; 

 but the Itchnique of spectroscopic examination is fully 

 described, including the method of recording absorption- 

 bands in wave-lengths ; and hasmatin, with other deriva- 

 tives and allies of haemoglobin, as well as the action of 

 carbonic oxide and other gases, are treated at length. 

 The account of blood ends with a " description of certain 

 methods of research not described in preceding sections," 

 such, for instance, as the determination of the specific 

 gravity of blood, the quantitative estimation of its various 

 constituents, normal and abnormal, the extraction and 

 measurement of the gases of blood, the measurement of 

 the total quantity of blood in the body, &c., &c. 



The other parts of the boo': are written in a similar 

 fashion, and as far as we have at present, from the sections 

 which we have subjected to^a more detailed examination, 

 been able to judge, the author has spared no pains to 

 insure accuracy in his facts and statements, as he has 

 certainly shown judgment in his selections, while his 

 descriptions are remarkably clear and easy to understand. 



The prominence given to method?, and the richness in 

 illustrations, make the book one of great value to the student. 

 There are books, some of them professedly written for 

 students, w'hich, though of much worth in other respects, 

 are from the student's point of view practically useless : 

 books of W'hich the student's own judgment is that "he 

 cannot find what he wants" in them. We venture to 

 think that it will be the student's own fault if he cannot 

 find what he wants in Prof. Gamgee' s work ; that is to 

 say, if he wants what he ought to want. If he seeks in 

 it a compendium which will give him just that amount of 

 knowledge which may be required for an examination, so 

 prepared as to be most easily absorbed and retained for 

 the few weeks which precede his ordeal, he will very 

 probably be disappointed. But if he desires to under- 

 stand the chemistry of the animal body he will find it an 

 admirable guide, and especially a most valuable book of 

 reference. Throughout the whole of physiology, and at 

 least no less in the chemical than in other parts, the 

 value of the data and the trustworthiness of the conclu- 

 sions founded on them depend verj' largely on the 

 methods employed ; and no student can form an intelli- 

 gent judgment on the chemical phenomena of the body 

 who has not understood and appreciated the methods by 

 which the various investigations have been carried out. 

 Hence we lay especial stress on this feature of the book 

 before us as most important for the student. 



Prof Gamgee has gone largely into detail and even 

 into controversy ; and in this point too we think he is 

 right. The outlines of physiological chemistry are already 

 present in the various text-books of physiology ; what 



