94 



NATURE 



[July 22, 1909 



diagrams and examples of the application of locus 

 diagrams. The book is amply illustrated bv more 

 than a hundred diagram^. Everything is concise and 

 to the point, and the student who works through its 

 pages will find himself equipped with a valuable 

 weapon of research. 



THE RECONSTRUCTIONAL ANATOMY OF 

 THE KIDNEY. 

 Untersuchuiigcn uber Bau und Entwickelung der 

 Niere. Edited by Prof. Karl Peter. Erstes Heft. 

 Inhalt I., Karl Peter, Die Nierenkanalchen des 

 Menschen und einiger Saugetiere. II., Michio 

 Inouye, Die Nierenkanalchen des Rindes und des 

 Tummlers. Pp. viii + 447. (Jena : Gustav Fischer, 

 1909.) Price 30 marks. 

 'T^HE editor of this monograph holds with Koelliker 

 *- that a knowledge of the morphological character- 

 istics of the renal tubules is an important groundwork 

 for the study of the physiology and diseases of the 

 kidney. This ground plan he has laid down in a bulky 

 volume, profusely illustrated by numerous and well- 

 executed drawings. By means of maceration with 

 concentrated hydrochloric acid and subsequent isola- 

 tion of the urinary tubules, as well as by reconstruction 

 models and serial microscopic sections, he has studied, 

 along with his pupil, Michio Inouye, the structure of 

 the kidney in various mammalian families in great 

 detail. For the benefit of those who desire to ascer- 

 tain his results without reading the whole of the 

 text, he condenses a summary of his work into 

 seventy-five pages of this volume. 



Prof. Peter has worked out the structure of the 

 kidney of the mouse, rabbit, sheep, cat, man, and 

 pig, while Inouye has studied the organ in the 

 seal and ox. They have given a minute" description, 

 perhaps too minute, of the organ in the various 

 animals without adding, to any great extent, to our 

 knowledge of the subject. 



As a result of his study, Prof. Peter divides the 

 medulla of the kidney into an inner and an outer 

 zone, and the latter into an inner and an outer area. 

 The cortex he divides into a pars convoluta and a 

 pars radiata. These, to some extent, can be recog- 

 nised with the unaided eye or by means of a lens, and 

 each is composed of certain definite parts of the 

 tubules, each zone or area being composed of the same 

 parts in the same species. In fact, with some slight 

 exceptions they are composed of the same parts 

 throughout the whole of the mammalia. A summary 

 of the zones and their contents is given. 



These researches of Prof. Peter— minute and 

 accurate as they are— have particularly little in them 

 that will interest those w^ho seek to elucidate the 

 functions and diseases of the kidneys. The author 

 himself states that as regards the significance of the 

 Malpighian bodies his investigations have produced 

 nothing new. Concerning the first convoluted and 

 zigzag tubules which he includes under the name of 

 the " Hauptstuck," certain observations have been 

 recorded with regard to variations in the amount of 

 fat contained in the cells, and from the fact that these 

 vary in their affinity for eosin in different parts of 

 NO. 2073, VOL. 81] 



the convoluted tubule, the deduction is made that the 

 functions of the latter are not the same throughout 

 its length. The facts adduced bv these investigations 

 have very little bearing on the two rival theories of 

 the manner in which the kidney removes the urine 

 from the blood — w-hether by a process of secretion or 

 one of filtration. 



The function of the narrow, clear part of the loop 

 of Henle is concluded to be the resorption of the water 

 which has been thrown out of the glomerulus. This 

 is deduced from a ratio which Prof. Peter has found 

 to exist between the relative length of this part of the 

 tubule and the specific gravity of the urine in various 

 mammalia with the exception of some of the smaller 

 ruminants. In this matter his observations support 

 the experiments of Ribbert and H. Marger, and of 

 Hausmann. These experimenters removed the whole 

 of one kidney and the medulla of the second in a ' 

 rabbit, with the result that the urine was doubled or 

 trebled in amount. As the narrow, clear part of the 

 loop of Henle is contained in the medulla, it is in- 

 ferred that the increase in the amount of urine is due 

 to the removal of the resorbing part of the tubule. So 

 many factors have to be considered in a case like this 

 that the author's deductions must be regarded with a 

 certain amount of reserve. While one must admire 

 the industry and accuracy manifested by this 'work, 

 it must also be admitted that even those specially 

 interested will find it very tedious reading, and it is 

 to be hoped that it may be possible to confine the 

 other promised volumes within a more modest com- 

 pass. R. D. K. 



GREEKS AND HITTITES. 

 Ionia and the East. Six Lectures delivered before the 

 University of London by D. G. Hogarth. Pp. 117. 

 (Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1909.) Price 3^. 6d. net. 



THE author of this book aims at solving the in- 

 teresting problem of the origin of Hellenic 

 civilisation in the Grecian colony of Ionia, in western 

 Asia Minor. He utilises, in a masterly manner, the 

 results of the extensive archaeological researches that 

 have been carried out within the last thirty years in 

 south-eastern Europe. The excavations of Schlie- 

 mann, Evans, and numerous other workers in this 

 field have completely revolutionised our ideas about 

 the origin of that early Grecian culture to which 

 modern European civilisation owes so much. 



Mr. Hogarth's conclusions are, that in Attica the 

 home country of the lonians, the population, before 

 the migration lo Asia Minor, was mainly .^gean, but 

 mixed with .1 northern element of invaders from the 

 Danubian area. At this date there survived in Attica 

 a vigorous bloom of /Egean culture affected to an 

 unusual degree by some eastern influence, so that 

 the colonists who settled on the west coast of Asia 

 Minor in the early centuries of the first millennium B.C. 

 were by no means barbarians. In Ionia the Greek 

 settlers came in contact with a highly developed 

 Asiatic civilisation — namely, that of the Hittites — and 

 one of the most original features of Mr. Hogarth's 

 book is the demonstration which he gives of the power- 

 ful influence of the Hittite civilisation in the develop- 



