1898] CURRENT LITERATURE 133 
has touched almost every section through his own investigations or those of 
his students and assistants. This personal contact gives him opportunity for 
many suggestive hints as to the limitations of our knowledge that will doubt- 
less prove very stimulating and fertile of further investigations. Naturally 
one turns first to those topics which the author has himself illuminated, but 
does not find these greatly overbalancing others of like importance. Cer- 
tainly the most important literature has been well digested, and though, as 
the author himself fears, there may be oversights in spite of the best inten- 
tion, these are not striking nor will they be apparent except to the investi- 
gator of special problems. Abundant footnote references lead to the original 
sources, 
One of the most noticeable advances is the recognition of the necessity of 
a name for the formation of carbohydrates ; accordingly we find as a subhead 
Photosynthetische Assimilation contrasted with the rare Chemosynthetische 
Assimilation, Nothing can be said in approval of this phrase, which embod- 
tesall the old misusage, except that it seems to be a step toward the aban- 
donment of a misuse of the term assimilation. The section on the manu- 
ie of nitrogenous foods is also greatly improved and extended, now 
including a discussion of the fixation of free nitrogen by Leguminosae. 
Excellent and useful as the work is, it must be said that there are several 
things which detract seriously from its value. Perhaps they need to be speci- 
fed all the more since they were equally marked in the first edition and 
es to have been corrected in this. Though the book is not intended for 
Roan we cannot think that the presentation of the subject is a matter of 
stv ae Pfeffer's presentation is radically bad. In the first place, his 
English af oie and involved that it is repellent to the highest degree, and 
the come ents who read German with ease will be constantly irritated by 
wad Wiehe of uncouth and un-Germanic words and phrases. In the sec- 
by much Ks €re is a total lack of logical precision of statement, accompanied 
want of aga Bnd verbosity. These two faults are aggravated by the 
Fans without ; : pe eetaphing, with titles, so that in parts page after page 
When, after : — ” indicate where a given topic may be found. And 
Cuma a. it is found, the chances are that it is only partially dis- 
it ae € author recurs to it in another place. . 
ages agone VES necessary for scientific men to return to the practice of 
the SR ang in the rhetorician when writing is to be done? Certainly 
fact that the sang advantage of some of us moderns in recognizing the 
recent phi cae ed professional aid in presenting their ideas. Not a few 
the art of ex : — have been the better for thorough editing by an adept in 
and ees aia : With . masterly grasp of the subject, it inne oa te 
Physiologie a ei which won for Sach’s Vorlesungen iiber Pflansen- 
€xtraordinary oy Most unique place in botanical literature. _ Pfeffer shows 
tion, but lacks ete of the subject and remarkable fertility in sugges- 
y the art of logical and picturesque presentation. 
