May 1 1, 1905] 



NA TURE 



27 



student might easily learn to regard fe as the distance 

 of mean square, just as we speak of the velocity of 

 mean square in a gas. 



The book has a useful chapter on the simpler forms 

 of differential equations, and concludes with a figure 

 and description of the integraph for finding the area 

 of a curve. It might well include a description of 

 Amsler's planimeter, and show how it finds areas, 

 positions of centres of gravity, and moments of inertia 

 of plane figures ; and, as to the proof of the theory 

 of Amsler's planimeter, it need occupy no larger space 

 than the area of a shilling, notwithstanding the length 

 and complication of proofs which are usually given. 



The author's attention may be directed to the follow- 

 ing misprints : — p. 44, note, Leibnitz was Gottfried, 

 not Gottfreid ; p. 206 (A), read /'j. for /,. ; p. 216, 

 ex. 15, read v,,- for v^ ; p. 225, line 5, read 223 for 225 ; 

 p. 275, line 6, read P' for P; p. 374, line i, read y 

 for dy. George M. Minchin. 



SERUM DIAGNOSIS. 



Manual of Serum Diagnosis. By O. Rostoski. 



Authorised translation by Charles Bolduan. Pp. 



vi + 96. (New York : J. Wiley and Sons; London : 



Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1904.) Price i dollar. 



THIS small work forms a companion volume to 

 that by Wasserman on " Hsemolysins and 

 Cytotoxins," which has already been noticed in these 

 columns. Each volume forms a monograph on some 

 part of those newer developments of bacteriology 

 which concern immunity and kindred subjects. The 

 aim of the series is to provide simple yet compre- 

 hensive accounts -of our present knowledge suitable 

 for those who do not make a special study of the 

 laboratory aspects of disease rather than exhaustive 

 treatises adapted for special students. That the in- 

 formation is authoritative and trustworthy is vouched 

 for by the list of authors, w-hich includes some of the 

 most distinguished names in contemporary bacteri- 

 ology. Each volume is the work of one who has 

 himself made important contributions to the studv of 

 the subject. 



The present volume deals with the practical use of 

 agglutinins, bacteriolysins, and precipitins in diag- 

 nosis. More than two-fifths of the whole is devoted 

 to an account of the Widal reaction in enteric fever. 

 This section is extremely good, and for it alone the 

 book is well worth reading. The author points out 

 very clearly that the " test " is not to be regarded 

 as more than the " first of the cardinal symptoms of 

 typhoid." Some discredit has been cast on the value 

 of the reaction, because clinicians have not always 

 found that infallibility which is so often expected of 

 the laboratory, but which can never be present in 

 dealing with so variable a complex as living matter. 

 Removed from the pedestal of a " test " to the 

 common ground of a " symptom," the phenomenon 

 seems to have a better chance of receiving the appre- 

 ciation which it deserves. There is an admirable 

 account of the mixed and " group " agglutinations 

 in typhoid and paratyphoid infections, and due notice 

 is taken of the use of typhoid cultures which have 

 been killed by the addition of formalin. These react 

 NO. 1854, VOL. 72] 



practically as well as living cultures; and, though 

 the increased time required to obtain a result and the 

 slight loss of delicacy render the use of living 

 cultures still desirable in the laboratory, the safety and 

 convenience of the dead cultures place the " test "' 

 within the personal practice of every not-too-busy 

 practitioner. It is, however, strange to read (p. 13)1 

 that the use of an oil-immersion objective is necessary. 



The author then considers briefly the agglutination 

 phenomena found in tuberculosis, dysentery, and other 

 diseases. Serum diagnosis of tubercle is considered to 

 be of very doubtful value. Appropriate stress is laid 

 on the fact that in many diseases (especially plague 

 and cholera) agglutination, in comparison with other 

 symptoms, is of very little use for the direct diagnosis 

 of the disease, though of the greatest value in the 

 identification of the isolated organism. This part of 

 the book is, however, less satisfactory than the earlier 

 sections. Indeed, the serum diagnosis of Malta fever 

 is not mentioned, though the practical value of the 

 phenomenon in the diagnosis of this variable and often 

 very obscure disease has been demonstrated beyond 

 question. 



The book concludes with an account of the identifi- 

 cation of blood stains by the precipitin test. Readers 

 will find here a wise injunction to make sure that any 

 given stain is blood before deciding whether it is of 

 human or animal origin ; the precipitin will not dis- 

 tinguish between the difl'erent tissues of the same- 

 species of animal in the same way as it will separate 

 the same tissue from different species. 



In the translation several useful additions have been, 

 made ; the last chapter, which attempts an impossibly 

 precise and entirely arbitrary definition of the WidaL 

 reaction, might, however, well have been omitted. 



A. E. B. 



HISTORY OF PHARMACY. 

 Geschichte dcr Pharmazie. By Hermann Schelenz. 

 Pp. ix-h934. (Berlin: Julius Springer, 1904.). 

 Price 20 marks. 



THE successful practice of pharmacy implies some 

 acquaintance with plant chemistry and with 

 that branch of economic botany known as materia 

 niedica. For this reason the history of pharmacy, 

 although it appeals particularly to the pharmacist and 

 the physician, presents also many points of interest 

 to the chemist and the botanist. Herr Schelenz does 

 not consider that the classes of readers here enumer- 

 ated form a sufficiently wide circle for his purpose, 

 and he states in the preface to this volume that he 

 hopes also to interest the legislator, the antiquarian, 

 and the philologist. 



The book begins with a description of the con- 

 ditions under which pharmacy was practised among 

 the Jews. A summary of' the political history of the 

 nation is first given, and this is followed by sections 

 dealing with Biblical and Talmudic references to the 

 practice of pharmacy and the social condition, &c., 

 of the practitioners of the art. The most interesting 

 portion of this section is that describing the drugs 

 eniployed by Jewish apothecaries. It is curious that 

 so many of these are still in use at the present day;: 



