OCTOBKR 25, 1906] 



NATURE 



631 



America, with its frequent ciiangcs of administration 

 and its too often objectionable policy of the spoils to 

 the victors, renders such problems as the economic 

 and sanitary disposal of city refuse much more diffi- 

 cult to solve than in the case of the cities of Europe, 

 where the municipal enf;;ineering and sanitary staff 

 have much greater influence and powers of control. 



(2) Called upon to remedy defects in existing 

 crematories in the United States, Mr. ^"enabIe has 

 made a complete study of the principles of design of 

 cxcry type of crematory so far built in the States, and 

 I his book is the result. In an introductory chapter 

 ilu- author points out that the crudity of the methods 

 of disposal still in use in many cities is almost in- 

 credible, and he traces much of the slow progress of 

 reform in this matter to the frequent changes in the 

 administrative officials. In the second chapter tables 

 ,ire given as to the quantities which have to be 

 collected, and the average composition of the refuse 

 in a few large cities; in four cities in the States the 

 u eight per head per annum ranges from 1 140 lb. to 

 I (170 lb. 



The problem of burning refuse without offence is 

 then taken up, and Mr. Venable insists on the abso- 

 lute importance of so designing the furnace that a 

 temperature is reached which renders the discharge 

 of odours from the chimney stack impossible. In 

 chapter iv. the various types of crematories are 

 divided up into classes, based on the fact that there 

 is, or is not, some attempt at preliminary drying; 

 each class is then described in some detail, and illus- 

 trations are given of a well-known e.xample of each 

 class, and lists of all the patents so far granted in 

 the .States for such crematories ; the next chapter 

 deals with the cost of working destructors, and the 

 heat available from the products of combustion for 

 steam raising. 



In chapter vi. a complete history is given of the 

 building of crematories in the States from 1887, the 

 pioneer year, to the present date, and sectional draw- 

 ings are reproduced of many of the furnaces which 

 have been put up during that period. Mr. Venable 

 is an advocate for the separate collection of garbage, 

 refuse, and ashes, and, therefore, while quite ready 

 to admit that the destruction of refuse in England, 

 where usually the whole of the refuse is collected in 

 one receptacle, is admirably carried out at the pre- 

 sent day, he does not think that the British type of 

 destructor is ever likely to come into extensive use 

 in America ; he, however, gives details of some of the 

 tests carried out on Meldrum furnaces in Great 

 Britain. In the last three chapters the materials 

 and methods of construction likely to give the most 

 .satisfactory results are discussed, and, lastlv, a draft 

 specification is given. 



These two books will be extremely interesting to 

 English municipal authorities, because they deal fully 

 with the methods of disposal of city refuse in the 

 United States, methods which differ radically from 

 those in use in our own country, and, while still 

 convinced that we are ahead of our Transatlantic 

 cousins in this important sanitary problem, neverthe- 

 less there is much we can learn from them. 

 NO. 1930, VOL. 74] 



SDMI-: h'ECEXr WOh'KS ON ]'Il\S10l.0C,Y. 



Oil Citrhohydralc Metabolism, ivilh an Appciiilix on 

 the Assimilation of Carbohydrate into I'roteid and 

 fat, joUoived by the Fundamental Principles and 

 the Treatment of Diabetes, dialectically discussed. 

 By Dr. F. \V. Pavy, F.R.S. Pp. xi -1-138. 

 (London: J. .ind .\. Clun-chill, ii)o6.) Price 6s. 

 net. 



The Dynamics of Living Matter. By Prof. Jacques 

 Loeb. (Columbia University Biological .Series, 

 No. 8.) Pp. xi + 233. (New York: The Columbia 

 University Press; London: Macmillan and Co., 

 Ltd., 1906.) Price 12s. bd. net. 



Geschmack und Genich. By Dr. Wilhelm Stern- 

 berg. Pp. viii-l-141). (Berlin; Julius Springer, 

 igo6.) Price 4 marks. 



T^R. P.WY'S new book on carbohydrate metabolism 

 ■L^ deals with a subject to which he has devoted 

 a long life of study and original research, and his 

 opinions are therefore entitled to the most careful 

 consideration and respect. He treats the subject 

 partly from the physician's point of view, for the 

 disease known as diabetes cannot be properlv under- 

 stood until the nature of the metabolism which the 

 carbohydrates undergo in health is a matter of certain 

 knowledge. Those acquainted with Dr. Pavy's 

 previous writings will be aware that he has never 

 accepted the glycogenic theory of Claude Bernard, 

 and in the present brochure he brings forward fresh 

 evidence of what he regards as its incorrectness. Dr. 

 Pavy also was the first to direct attention to the 

 glucoside nature of the proteids, and this view is also 

 amplified. Most attention, however, will be centred 

 on the new doctrine of absorption he puts forward, 

 and to the important role in this process which he 

 assigns to the lymphocytes. He supposes that what 

 first occurs is that these cells assimilate nutrient 

 matter and incorporate it in their protoplasm, and 

 subsequently carry it to the tissues, .\mong other 

 facts in support of this view he directs attention 

 to the great increase in the lymphocytes of the 

 blood after a meal. One imagines this view will 

 not be immediately accepted, partly because it is 

 doubtful whether the lymphocytes are sufficiently 

 numerous, or capable of sufficiently rapid integration 

 and disintegration to bear the burden of the large 

 amount of material which has to be transported, and 

 partly because the acceptance of such a theorv will 

 involve the rejection of much recent phvsiological 

 work in which it has been shown that the food- 

 proteids are broken down during digestion into the 

 small molecules of the amino-acids of which thev 

 are composed. Dr. Pavy has produced an interesting 

 and suggestive book, but he has made no experi- 

 mental attempt to disprove the new ideas of complete 

 hydrolysis of proteids in the intestine which are 

 rapidly gaining credence. 



Prof. Jacques Loeb's book is the outcome of a series 

 of lectures he gave at Columbia University in 1902. 

 He has entitled it the " Dynamics of Living Matter," 

 and it is an attempt to explain the phenomena of life 

 on the basis of physical chemistry. Prof. Loeb has 



