June 13, 1912] 
NATURE 
371 
PROBLEMS OF MODERN 
PHYSIOLOGY. 
By Prof. W. Palladin. Pp. 
Julius Springer, 1911.) 
PEANT 
Pflanzenphysiologie. 
vi+ 310. (Berlin: 
Price 8 marks. 
VERYONE who is interested in the problems 
_, of plant physiology will accord a welcome 
to Prof. Palladin’s book, which in a German form 
represents the sixth Russian edition, and there- | . : fs 
P peace there | interesting matter, but it is too short, and thus 
fore may be taken as a matured expression of its 
author’s point of view. Those who are conversant 
with Prof. Palladin’s work will naturally expect to 
find the chemical aspects of the science, or rather 
certain portions of it, more fully presented than is 
often the case in works of this dimension, nor 
will they be disappointed. Nevertheless, the book 
does not belong to the category of abstruse 
. manuals; it is eminently readable, and even con- 
tains several good stories of the great men of the 
past. One of these is worth relating. Bous- 
singault, when engaged on investigations on the 
gaseous exchange of plants, had aroused con- 
siderable interest amongst his colleagues both on 
account of the actual results obtained and of the 
accurate methods of analysis he employed. Sud- 
denly, however, the readings of the experiments 
began to give contradictory and unexpected 
values for the amounts of carbon dioxide present, 
notwithstanding that the conditions of the experi- 
ments apparently remained unchanged.  Bous- 
singault and his collaborator were hopelessly at a 
loss to explain the results obtained, when they 
happened to meet Regnault, who laughed at their 
long faces, and asked what was the matter. To 
their complaints he replied that he had been 
doubtful whether their means of investigation 
were really as delicate as they had claimed, and 
that in order to test them he himself had gone and 
breathed into their apparatus for several mornings 
while they were at breakfast ! 
The book is divided into two parts of very un- 
equal value. The first, which is the longer, as 
it is also the better, is devoted to the metabolic 
processes; the second and shorter part contains a 
rather brief, but still not uninteresting, sketch of 
irritability and other “living” questions. In deal- 
ing with metabolism, the chemico-physical aspect 
is kept well to the front, though it is a little 
curious to find, on an earlier page, that emphasis 
is laid rather on the mysterious, than on the 
physical, attributes of heredity. Heredity, regarded 
from the general point of view adopted in this part 
of the book, is thus somewhat opposed to the 
attitude generally maintained with regard to other 
topics. It might, however, perhaps be argued 
that, from a chemical point of view, heredity 
NO. 2224, VOL. 89] 
implies that the course of chemical change in a 
' group of really related forms should run along 
similar lines, as the natural outcome and expres- 
sion of a fundamentally similar physical structure. 
We should anticipate resemblances among related 
organisms if their forms and functional attributes 
really depend on physical qualities and the serial 
reactions which are conditioned by them. 
The book is very suggestive and is really full of 
the treatment of many of the problems is far too 
much curtailed. Furthermore, one misses at times 
an adequate reference to modern work, particu- 
larly that of British writers. The treatment of 
photosynthesis and of the ascent of sap may serve 
to illustrate what is here meant. In the latter 
connection no mention appears to be made of 
Dixon and Joly’s work, and this although a fair 
account of it has already been printed in German. 
The author’s meaning is sometimes a little 
obscure, but this is perhaps due to the difficulty 
of a foreign edition. It is certainly not a legiti- 
mate inference from Timiriazeff’s well-known 
experiments to allege that the same rays of light 
which split up carbon dioxide can be held to be 
responsible for the formation of starch (p. 32). 
The latter process depends upon the concentration 
of the sugar and sundry other factors, but its 
occurrence, only stands in indirect relation to the 
source of light. The omission of any reference to 
the excellent work done at Rothamsted on soil 
problems is also regrettable, inasmuch as avenues 
of further work have been thereby opened up 
which will certainly lead to results of the highest 
importance in connection with plant nutrition. 
The discussion of the essentials of fermentation 
is both useful and stimulating in a field which is 
being so assiduously cultivated. The successional 
action of ferments commonly to be observed in 
certain organisms is attributed to the correspond- 
ing withdrawal of the inhibiting agency of anti- 
ferments or ‘“‘anti-kinases.”’ 
It is, perhaps, becoming difficult for some of us 
to resist the impression that there must be some 
underlying and simplifying principle still to be 
sought in connection with these rapidly multiply- 
ing ferments. At the present time, however, it 
is rather the fashion to postulate the existence of 
a separate and specific ferment to account for 
almost every different reaction that goes on in 
the body. But it should not be forgotten that 
nobody has ever isolated a pure ferment, and one 
is inclined to inquire whether the evidence for their 
separate individuality is really conclusive, or 
whether the reactions from which their existence 
is inferred may not depend after all on the protean 
| diversity of structural aggregation and organisa- 
1 
