December 17, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



889 



Gamble; the Mastigophora by A. Willey and 

 S. J. Hickson ; the Hfemoflagellates by H. M. 

 Woodcock, while descriptions of Chlamy- 

 domyxa and Labyrinthula written by J. J. 

 Lister, form an appendix. 



There is little to be said on the whole in re- 

 gard to the descriptions of the majority of 

 the articles. The section on Ha?moflagellate3 

 contains many important facts regarding hosts 

 and parasites, otherwise it differs little from 

 Woodcock's original article in the Q. J. M. S., 

 1906. It is remarkable, however, that Spiro- 

 chffita and Treponema are not mentioned in 

 the account of the Mastigophora and that these 

 most widely studied of all protozoan para- 

 sites should be passed by with only a short 

 statement in an appendix to the Htemoflagel- 

 lates. All of the articles are fairly clear and 

 well-written expositions of the structures and 

 modes of life of the several types of Protozoa, 

 but with the exception of the sections on 

 Mycetozoa and Radiolaria there is little that 

 is new or above the average of an ordinary 

 text-book, while there are few references to 

 literature later than 1906. With the Myceto- 

 zoa and the Eadiolaria, however, there is no 

 savor of mediocrity. Here the descriptions of 

 structures and life histories are written with 

 reference to the problems in general biology 

 with which the protozoa have the most to do, 

 and with a philosophical breadth of view as 

 refreshing as it is novel. 



While the book makes no pretense of ar- 

 ranging the various groups of Protozoa in 

 any way that might be construed as showing 

 phylogenetic relationships of the unicellular 

 animals, it does seem peculiar and unneces- 

 sary to separate Heliozoa completely from 

 Eadiolaria and insert a section on Mycetozoa 

 between them. As long as the organs of loco- 

 motion of Protozoa are accepted as indicating 

 the natural limits of a group, consistency at 

 least should be exercised to keep the un- 

 doubted close relations of these two groups 

 before the eyes of the student. There is some 

 danger, too, of the latter becoming so tangled 

 up in a maze of unfamiliar terms that he 

 might well wish to get away from the sub- 

 ject as soon as possible and leave the Protozoa 



to pedants. He finds that " koniokaryote " 

 protoplasm superseded the condition of 

 " plasson " ; that the well-known and well- 

 understood term " cytoplasm " mxist be re- 

 placed by the unfamiliar word " periplasm," 

 and his brain whirls with the confusion of 

 " gubernaculum," " tractellum," " pulsellum," 

 while his ideas of the fixity of biological con- 

 ceptions get sadly twisted in trying to dis- 

 cover why nature ever made the mistake of 

 allowing a " tractellum " to act as a " pulsel- 

 lum," or a zoologist to go backwards twenty- 

 five years and classify Volvox as a protozoon ! 

 As with all the volumes of this treatise the 

 type, page and illustrations are excellent, the 

 latter being well drawn, clearly reproduced, 

 and many of them unusual as text-book fig- 

 ures. The paper is altogether too thick and 

 clumsy however, making a heavy and poorly 

 bound volume, which will never stand the 

 wear of ordinary use. 



G. N. C. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES 

 The Journal of Biological Chemistry, VI., 

 No. 6, issued November 12, 1909, contains the 

 following : " The Purines and Purine Metabol- 

 ism of the Human Fetus and Placenta," by H. 

 Gideon Wells and Harry J. Corper. A study 

 showing the independent development of the 

 various purine enzymes during the growth of 

 the fetus and indicating active metabolism in 

 the placenta. " Soluble Chitin from Limulus 

 polyphemus and its Peculiar Osmotic Be- 

 havior," by C. L. Alsberg and C. A. Hedblom. 

 Prolonged treatment of Limulus chitin with 

 HCl produces soluble chitin which has the 

 peculiar power of dialyzing and of carrying 

 the water in which it is dissolved through the 

 membrane. " Some Observations on the Study 

 of the Intestinal Bacteria," by A. I. Kendall. 

 An outline of general procedures applicable 

 to the determination of the more important 

 types of bacterial activity in the intestinal 

 tract. " A Study of the Chemistry of Bac- 

 terial Cellular Proteins," by Sybil May 

 Wheeler. A comprehensive study of bacterial 

 proteins from various sources, their proper- 

 ties, the nature and amounts of their cleavage 

 products together with accounts of efforts to 



