1892. ] Current Literature. 263 
a most excellent piece of work, which is made thoroughly available 
by agood index. A few separates only have been printed which can 
be procured of the author at Stenay, France. (See also this journal, 
ante, p. 31.) 
Botanieal micro-technique. 
The constant advance which is now making in the investigation of 
plant structures demands frequent revisions of the books dealing with 
the methods of such investigations, and gives opportunity for the mak- 
ing of new ones. Strasburger very successfully combined a laboratory 
manual with an exposition of technique, a plan which has its disad- 
vantages. Dr. Zimmermann, privat-docent in the University of Tiib- 
ingen, has produced a book dealing wholly with technique’, in 
which he bas brought together the most approved and modern 
methods of preparing, imbedding, cutting, staining and mounting 
l 
histological material. 
The first section gives an account of the general methods of re- 
search; the second describes the organic and inorganic compounds oc- 
curring in plants and the reactions by which they can be detected; 
while the third gives an account of the special methods applicable to 
the investigation of cell walls in their various modifications and to the 
protoplasmic cell contents and inclusions. There is some overlap- 
Ping in these sections naturally, but probably as little as could be ex- 
pected between any divisions of the subject. A very short appendix 
mentions some special methods applicable to the examination of bac- 
teria. The study of these organisms has become so much of a spec- 
lalty and has such an amount of technique that the author wisely leaves 
this field to others. 
€ work before us is more complete than those of Poulsen and of 
Behrens, its two predecessors. If it is inadequate anywhere itis in the 
Paragraphs on the methods of imbedding and section cutting. The 
arrangement and full index render it exceedingly easy of reference, 
which in so far enhances its practical value. 
Spite of the fact that it would too soon be out of date, it would be 
= to have it translated into English. It could certainly be made ~ 
oe to the cumbersome and costly American edition of Behrens 
ag and it is much more exhaustive than Trelease’s Poulsen, which 
almost the only book in English now available. 
oo” A.—Die botanische Mikrotechnik; ein Handbuch der gored 
figs. 6 en Praparations-, Reaktions- und Tinktionsmethoden. 8vo. pp: * 27°- 
3. Tiibingen: H. Laupp’schen Buchhandlung. 1892. M. 6. 
