MURRENT LITERATURE. 
BOOK REVIEWS. 
General physiology. 
THE RECEPTION by both European and American biologists of Ver- 
worn’s Allgemeine Physiologie upon its publication late in 1895 was very 
cordial. The book awakened so widespread an interest that within three 
years a second edition was issued. This second edition has now been trans- 
lated and edited by Dr., Frederic S. Lee, of Columbia University.’ In its 
English dress the book will doubtless commend itself still further to English 
readers. Certainly it will put within reach of general readers a work that 
will give a better idea of the scope of physiology, and one that will present 
to special students readable and stimulating discussions of physiological 
problems, 
The work may be called a treatise upon “general” physiology only in 
the peculiar sense that it discusses the general as opposed to the special 
functions of the cell. It does not deal with the functions of organs at all. 
iC the whole the phrase general cell physiology would seem to describe it 
tter, 
__ Itis a pleasure to find an animal physiologist who is yet to a reasonable 
degree familiar with plant physiology. But it is not for the views of plant 
function hor even for the facts adduced that the book may be commended to 
botanists. In these fields, indeed, one feels that Professor Verworn is travers- 
ing rather unfamiliar ground, in which he sometimes loses his way, to the 
leading astray of the unwary. Nevertheless the ability and suggestiveness of 
the book make it one which botanists inclined at all to physiology will do 
te to read. Professor Verworn has a luminous way of saying things, and 
vane What he says sometimes suggests what not to say, more often his apt 
applications indicate others which he has not expressed. 
The subjects, treated, after an interesting introductory chapter on the 
nd methods of physiological research, are as follows: living substance ; 
Mposition and the differences between living and lifeless substances; 
entary vital phenomena, namely the phenomena of metabolism, of the 
8¢s of form, and of the transformation of energy; the general conditions 
Tt 
lated Mi, 2 Max.—General physiology, an outline of the science of life. Trans- 
xvi tee re ome German edition and edited by FREDERIC S. LEE. 8vo. pp- 
1899] ‘205. London and New York: The Macmillan Company. $4.00. 
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