July 23, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



121 



Desert Tract ; and when I expostulate at having 

 my Peromyscus hoylii periicillatiis compared 

 with " a series from the Franklin Mountains 

 near the type locality [of penicillatus^," which 

 mountains lie wholly without the eastern 

 desert differentiation tract, as defined in my 

 mammals of the Mexican boundary line; also, 

 Peromyscus hoylii pinalis is, in my estima- 

 tion, the Transition, zonal form of P. h. row- 

 leyi of the Upper Sonoran Zone; but, on the 

 whole, I am convinced that mammalogists will 

 regard Mr. Osgood's conservatism, in the mat- 

 ter of recognizing subspecies, with favor. I 

 am still of the opinion that Dr. True's sub- 

 genus Baiomys should be raised to the rank 

 of a genus. 



In conclusion, I take off my hat, and make 

 a low bow to Mr. Osgood, as the author of one 

 of the best papers dealing with North Amer- 

 ican mammals. 



Edgar A. Mearns 



The General Character of the Proteins. By 

 S. B. ScHRYVER, Ph.D., D.Sc, Lecturer on 

 Physiological Chemistry, University Col- 

 lege, London. London, New York, Bom- 

 bay and Calcutta, Longmans, Green and 

 Co. 1909. Pp. x+86. 



A review of progress in any field of study 

 can serve a diversity of purposes. As a sum- 

 mary of discoveries made it brings an up-to- 

 date appreciation of current knowledge and 

 makes it ready for convenient reference; and 

 if the resume has been critically prepared, it 

 may fulfill the almost equally important func- 

 tion of pointing out the limitations of our 

 experience in any domain and the problems 

 awaiting solution. In the latter respect es- 

 pecially, Dr. Schryver's monograph deserves 

 commendation. The author has taken pains 

 to emphasize how inadequate are the more 

 familiar characterizations of the proteins and 

 how imperfect the criteria of purity, individ- 

 uality, etc., which are currently applied. 



To those less familiar with the extensive 

 literature on this subject it may come as a 

 surprise to learn that the time-honored meth- 

 ods of isolation and identification of proteins 

 employed in every biochemical laboratory 



are at best extremely defective and unreliable. 

 The investigator will find the refreshing sug- 

 gestion that the contributions of modern col- 

 loid chemistry are far from adequate for an 

 elucidation of the properties of the proteins; 

 so that for some time to come, at any rate, 

 " reliance will have to be placed chiefly on the 

 purely chemical methods for the identification 

 of the proteins." 



The monograph is grouped into a review of: 



(1) The physical properties of the proteins, 



(2) their general chemical characters, and 



(3) a very brief reference to the biological 

 methods of identifying proteins. It thus 

 supplements Professor Aders Plimmer's 

 earlier review of the chemical constitution of 

 these compounds. 



Among the diverse topics under discussion, 

 that of the behavior of proteins towards acids 

 and bases and the question of salt formation 

 by them has, very properly, received a pro- 

 portionately large share of attention from the 

 author. This is most timely; for a more pro- 

 found explanation of these phenomena will 

 go far, we are confident, to explain many 

 peculiarities of protein behavior. The limi- 

 tation of cryoscopic methods applied to pro- 

 teins in the present state of our knowledge of 

 colloids is pointed out. The hope is expressed 

 that some elaboration of quantitative reac- 

 tions may be effected, so that the proteins may 

 be characterized thereby. This is approached 

 most nearly in the constants for the distribu- 

 tion of nitrogen in the molecule (" Haus- 

 mann numbers ")• It is not unlikely that a 

 tyrosine factor (Millar), or an amino-index 

 (Brown, Sorensen) may give us useful data 

 comparable, as Dr. Sehryver suggests, with 

 the constants employed in fat analysis. 



In the discussion of the " salting out " of 

 proteins the early work of Denis is given a 

 recognition which most writers overlook. 

 The expression " prosthetic group " usually 

 ascribed to Kossel is attributed to Hoppe 

 Seyler (pp. 3 and 32). In the discussion of 

 methods of crystallizing egg albumin, the ex- 

 perience of T. B. Osborne' and other investi- 

 gators is overlooked. A similar comment 

 'Jour. Atner. Client. Sac, 1899, XXI. 



