259 
OAS 
NATURE 
[June 13, 1912 
tion of albuminous substances relatively simple 
and few in number. 
\Ve can honestly say that Prof. Palladin has 
well earned the gratitude of a wide circle of col- 
leagues by rendering his book more generally 
accessible than heretofore. Not only the botanist 
and physiologist, but many others who are in- 
terested in the working of living organisms will 
find much that is suggestive in its pages, in which 
the endeavour is made “‘die komplizierten Lebens- 
erscheinungen in einfache zu zerlegen und sie 
schliesslich auf Gesetze der Chemie und der Physik 
zuriickzufithren.” (eB os 
PROTOZOOLOGY. 
Lehrbuch der Protozoenkunde. Eine Darstellung 
der Naturgeschichte der Protozoen mit beson- 
derer Beriicksichtigung der parasitischen und 
pathogenen Formen. By Prof. Doflein. Dritte 
Auflage. Pp. xii+ 1043. (Jena: Gustav 
Fischer, 1911.) Price 26 marks (unbound). 
HE extent to which the Protozoa are ab- 
sorbing the attention of scientific investiga- 
tors at the present time cannot be better illus- 
trated than by the fact that the second and greatly 
enlarged edition of Prof. Doflein’s treatise on 
the Protozoa, which appeared towards the end of 
1909 (reviewed in Nature, No. 2105, vol. Ixxxiii, 
March 3, 1910), passed out of print within a year 
of its publication, and now a third edition of the 
work is before us. The book has undergone 
thorough revision in every part, and is increased 
substantially in size to 1043 pages and 951 figures 
as against 914 pages and 825 figures in the 
second edition. 
In the general part the most noteworthy 
changes are the discussions of autogamy and of 
Hartmann’s theory of polyenergid nuclei, and an 
additional section of eight pages dealing with 
spontaneous generation, the conception of species, 
variation and heredity in Protozoa. An error 
must be pointed out on p. 294, where it is stated 
that “while Trypanosoma brucei and T. lewisi 
can be cultivated in dogs side by side, T. brucei 
disappears and T. lewisi alone reproduces itself 
when rats are injected with this blood.” It is 
well known that T. lewisi will not reproduce itself 
in the blood of the dog in any circumstances; 
the reference is to certain experiments of Koch, 
who showed that T. brucei and T. lewisi would 
live side by side in the blood of the same vat, but 
that if a dog was injected with the blood of that 
rat, T. lewisi disappeared and T. brucei alone per- 
sisted. The author has stated the facts quite 
correctly in another of his works (“Probleme 
der Protistenkunde,” i., Jena, 1909, p. 
NO. 2224, VOL. 89] 
33); 
whence it is evident that the misstatement is 
merely a clerical error, but nevertheless it is 
exceedingly misleading as it stands. 
In the special part of the book the section on 
spirochetes has been revised, with the addition 
of new figures after Gross, Margarete (not Mar- 
garine!) Zuelzer, and others. No mention is 
made, however, of the developmental facts made 
known by Leishman in January, 1910, and now 
confirmed abundantly, namely, the formation of 
so-called coccoid bodies or spores. Possibly a 
consideration of these facts might have led the 
author to recognise that the evidence for the bac- 
terial affinities of the spirochetes far outweighs 
any indication of relationship to Protozoa afforded 
by similarity in reactions to therapeutic agents. 
The section dealing with the trypanosomes has 
also undergone many changes, and extensive 
revisions and additions are made in the account — 
given of the parasitic amoebe, especially in the 
description of the dysenteric amceba (Entamoeba 
histolytica). 
The illustrations of the book are its great 
feature, and the new edition contains, like the 
last, adyance figures from investigations not yet 
published. Many of the figures of the preceding 
edition have been cut out; we think the pruning 
might have been carried further with advantage 
in some cases. Fig. 219, showing spore-forma- 
tion in Myxosporidia, is quite out of date, and is 
in contradiction to other figures in the book. 
Figs. 363 and 367, illustrating trypanosomes, are 
scarcely worthy of a place in a modern text-book. 
The cultural development of Leishmania might 
have been illustrated better than by Figs. gor 
and 404. Fig. 707 is very poor, and Fig. 877, a 
new figure, has not been reproduced successfully. 
Taken as a whole, however, the value and use- 
fulness of the book is greatly augmented, and itis 
well worth the slight increase of price over the 
former edition. As a treatise on the Protozoa it 
is a monumental production, with which no other 
can compare that has appeared since the ‘eighties. 
E. A. M. 
MODERN EXPLOSIVES. 
Historical Papers on Modern Explosives. By 
George W. MacDonald. With an_ intro- 
duction by Sir Andrew Noble,  Bart., 
KGB ke R.S: (Rp smexitore2: (London : 
Whittaker and Co., 1912.) Price 7s. 6d. net. 
A CCESS to the literature of the early part and 
A middle of the last century in connection with 
a subject which has become a great industry. in 
modern times is possible, as a general rule, only 
to a limited number of those whose lot it is to 
