March 17, 1899.] 



SCIENCE. 



409 



their curricula, as well as different methods 

 of prescriptiou of entrance requirements. 

 The one supplements the schools, and must 

 build smoothly up from below ; the other 

 builds down from the profession, and must, 

 at all hazards, make its junction at the 

 upper end effective, while its entrance re- 

 quirements must be such as will least em- 

 barrass the aspirant while satisfying the 

 proper demands of the profession. Each 

 curriculum, however, must be constructed 

 by experts in its own field, and the profes- 

 sional must be relied upon to perfect the 

 courses and prescribe the requirements of 

 the technical school, as must the expert in 

 academic education be expected to be given 

 a free hand in the upbuilding of general 

 education. 



Shorter papers on laboratory work, on 

 details of educational apparatus, ' thesis 

 work,' courses of instruction in various 

 departments and reports of committees, fill 

 the volume with a mass of material hitherto 

 unparalleled in this line, and which must 

 deeply interest, not only workers in this 

 field, but all educators, and particularly all 

 who are interested in the promotion and 

 improvement of our still defective and in- 

 adequate educational provision for the best 

 interests of the industrial classes, and in the 

 advancement to still higher planes of our 

 professional schools. The careful study, not 

 of this volume only, but of the series, be- 

 ginning with the organization of the As- 

 sociation at the Educational Congress at 

 Chicago, in 1893, in connection with the 

 Columbian Exhibition, cannot but well re- 

 ward every one interested in the modern 

 and current movements in this politically, 

 as well as socially, important department of 

 the scheme of national education, the per- 

 fection of which is so vital an element in 

 determining what shall be the political and 

 the moral and intellectual status of our 

 country in coming generations. 



R. H. Thurston. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 



Die chemische Energie der lebenden Zellen. Dr. 

 Oscar Loew. Munich, Dr. E. Wolff, pub- 

 lisher. 1899. Pp. 170. 



This pubHcation gives the results of a series 

 of observations on the chemical characteristics 

 of living matter. It is proved that the proteids 

 of living matter are of very labile nature and 

 different from those of the dead matter, into 

 which they are transformed by atomic migra- 

 tions in the molecules. It is also demonstrated 

 that in many plants a labile reserve-protein 

 occurs which is not yet organized, but is changed 

 by the same conditions as kill the cells. The 

 book contains the following chapters : 



1. Views on the causes of the vital activity. 



2. General characteristics of living matter. 



3. Chemlco-physlologlcal characteristics of living 

 matter. 



4. The essential concomitants of protoplasm. 



5. The character of the hlochemlcal vpork. 



6. On the formation of protein in the lower fungi. 



7. On the formation of protein In the green plants. 



8. Theory of protein formation. 



9. A labile protein as reserve material in plants. 



10. Chemical characteristics of the labile proto- 

 proteln. 



11. Lability and activity In the protoplasm. 



13. Theory of respiration. Chapters 9 and 10 give 

 the results obtained in conjunction with Tli. Bokorny. 



The most modern progress of theoretical 

 chemistry has been brought to bear in this 

 work. The theories advanced in the work and 

 the suggestions which they contain will make 

 the book invaluable to students of bio-chemistry 

 and physiology. Doctor Loew has concluded 

 his work with the following brief summary : 



"It may be briefly recapitulated in a few 

 words how much the theses put forth corre- 

 spond or coincide with the observations made. 

 In the first place, it should be remembered that 

 the living substance .shows a great resemblance 

 to a chemically labile body and that the dying 

 process of the protoplasm is suggestive of the 

 transition of a labile into a stable modification 

 of organic compounds. According to the 

 theory developed in the eighth chapter con- 

 cerning the formation of albumin, the lability 

 of the plasma-protein is due to the simultaneous 

 presence of aldehyde and amido groups. The 



