124 



NA TURE 



[April i, ico<> 



manifold and complex phenomena of life must, in the 

 last analysis to which we can for the present hope to 

 submit them, be considered as attributes of cellular 

 activity. 



" There is a solidarity in the essential phenomena 

 of life which is shared not only by the simple Amoeba, 

 but by the most specialised cell in a tissue of the 

 human body." 



As might be anticipated by those who will now be- 

 come acquainted with the lectures for the first time, 

 the consideration of the ferments, toxins, and other 

 properties of the cell occupies an important part of the 

 whole work. Prof. Macfadyen is best known bv his 

 investigations in this department of bioloey, and even 

 if the point of view has somewhat changed during the 

 last few years, it is hardh' possible to read the book 

 without profit. The method of treatment, as befits a 

 course of lectures of this kind, is necessarily somewhat 

 elementary, but it is not by any means superficial, 

 and the thread of the argument can easily be followed 

 by anyone, even though he have no special previous 

 knowledge of the subject. 



Great insistence is placed on the distinction between 

 the reactions of living protoplasm and the molecular 

 groups that arise out of it when the attribute of life 

 has been lost. This is not always remembered sufifi- 

 ciently by some who would reduce all the phenomena 

 of life to proximate questions of contemporary 

 chemistry and physics, without reflecting on the limited 

 area of these sciences that has been explored up to 

 the present time. 



" A great part of physiolocical inquiry has con- 

 sisted in the examination and explanation, not of life 

 but of the mechanism of life, and so far as this 

 mechanism is concerned, adequate and satisfactory ex- 

 planations have been found in the ordinary laws of 

 physics. It is when we come to cellular activity that 

 our real difficulties begin as regards the essentially 

 vital problems." 



Of course, this does not affect the truth of the state- 

 ment that the greatest real advances have been actually 

 made along the paths indicated by chemistry and 

 physics, but rather that these two sciences occupy them- 

 selves as yet with relatively simple problems, whilst 

 those that confront the physiologist are so complex that 

 means have not as yet been discovered, at least in 

 most instances, to split them up into those simpler 

 and more manageable components into which analysis 

 will one day assuredly cleave them. It may be that 

 the requisite tool will be fashioned as the result of 

 the investigations on ferments that are now being so 

 energetically studied. At any rate, researches on these 

 bodies are yielding, at the present time, results of far- 

 reaching importance, and we have come to realise 

 that it is by their agency within the living cell that 

 tnany of the reactions that used to be associated essen- 

 tially with " living " substance are demonstrably 

 brought about. 



The lectures deal with these and other topics. The 

 style is always interesting, and the book may well 

 claim to form an introduction to a study of some of the 

 fundamental problems of biology, if not to biology 

 itself. 



NO. 2057, "^'OL. 80] 



INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES. 

 (0 TIic Internal Combustion Engine. By H. E. 

 Wimperis. Pp. xiii+326. (London : Constable and 

 Co., Ltd., 1908.) Price 65. net. 

 (2) Internal Combustion Engines, their Theory, Con- 

 struction, and Operation. By R. C. Carpenter and 

 H. Diederichs. Pp. xiv+597. (London : Crosby 

 Lockwood and Son ; New York : D. van Nostrand 

 Co., :qo8.) Price 21s. net. 

 (i) ' I "HE developments of the theory and practice 

 J- of engineering in relation to the internal- 

 combustion engine have been so rapid in the last few 

 years that old text-books are practically obsolete, and 

 the serious student of this fascinating subject can 

 only obtain trustworthy information by consulting a 

 mass of original papers. The present text-books are 

 of the class which will appeal to advanced students 

 of engineering, and will also be welcomed by engi- ' 

 neers who, without having a specialist knowledge of 

 the subject, wish to keep abreast of modern develop- 

 ments. 



Mr. Wimperis has dealt very successfully with a 

 considerable range of theory and practice, and, in a 

 moderate compass, has given a clear account of the 

 theory of the internal-combustion engine. The dis- 

 tinctive feature of the early part of his work is 

 the development of the thermodynamic equations on 

 the assumption that the specific heat of the charge 

 varies linearly with the temperature. 



Modern research on the specific heats of gases at 

 very high temperatures shows that a theory based 

 on an invariable specific heat is so Tncorrect as to 

 make the standard of reference of little value. 



The exact way in which the specific heat of the 

 charge varies has not been settled in a satisfactory 

 manner, and it appears that the law of change is not 

 a linear function of the temperature ; but in the present 

 state of our knowledge the extra complication pro- 

 duced by a parabolic formula is not warranted. The 

 second section of the book is devoted to the con- 

 struction and operation of gas engines and producers, 

 and covers a fair range of practice. Some of the 

 sections, such as that on the balancing of engines, 

 merely touch the fringe of the subject, but balancing 

 could not be adequately treated without materially 

 adding to the size of the book. 



We think that the author might have devoted more 

 space to the consideration of indicators, especially to 

 those which have developed from the diaphragm in- 

 dicator invented by Prof. Perrv, and which in their 

 modern forms have become so important in tests of 

 high-speed engines of all kinds. 



Oil and petrol motors are dealt with in the final 

 section of the book, and considerable space is devoted 

 to carburettors, ignition, rating of petrol motors, and 

 their efficiency. The book is clearly printed, the illus- 

 trations are well chosen, and it is one of the most 

 interesting and readable works which has appeared 

 for a very long time. 



(2) The work by Profs. Carpenter and Diederichs, 

 of Cornell University, is on a more extensive scale, 

 and is based on a course of lectures to engineering 

 students at Sibley College. It is therefore written 



