May 5, 1899.] 



SCIENCE. 



651 



activity of the chlorophyllaceous cell in the 

 sunlight. The curvature of twining stems is not 

 thigmotaxis (p. 443). The use of the phrase 

 ' conduction of a stimulus ' to indicate the trans- 

 mission of an impulse from the point of recep- 

 tion of the stimulus to a reaction zone is a 

 mistake resulting from the literal translation of 

 ' Reizleitung.' The German word ' Reiz' hav- 

 ing a broad meaning which permits its use to 

 designate both the stimulus and the stimulus- 

 effect. ' Every change in the external condi- 

 tions of an organism constitutes a stimulus ;' but 

 it is to be presumed that no one would mean 

 that these changes in the intensity of external 

 energy, rather than the shock of such change, 

 are transmitted by nerves or other conducting 

 mechanisms. 



Perhaps the most remarkable omission in the 

 entire work is that which occurs in the discus- 

 sion of the history of death. No attention is 

 given to the aging or senescence of cells, and 

 there is no mention of any example of the plant 

 cell in the histolytic processes, or metamorphic 

 death, although this phenomenon is of such im- 

 portance that all types of plants furnish dead 

 cells from normal atrophies and degenerations, 

 while in the higher types the greater bulk of 

 the plant-body is made up of dead cells. 



The greater number of the faults enumerated 

 above would be due to the inaccessibility of the 

 botanical literature to the animal physiologist, 

 and are of such nature that they may be easily 

 eliminated from future editions. The book has 

 a long period of usefulness before it. It is 

 stimulating and suggestive, and will do much 

 to broaden investigation upon both the animal 

 and vegetal organism ; a purpose it would ac- 

 complish equally well under its proper title of 

 ' The Physiology of the Cell. ' 



D. T. MacDougal. 



Univeksity of Minnesota. 



GENERAL. 



The last Legislature of the State of Arkansas 

 provided for the printing of the hitherto unpub- 

 lished reports of Dr. J. C. Branner, formerly 

 State Geologist of that State. There are five 

 volumes of these reports, viz : (1) Coal ; (2) 

 Lower Coal Measures ; (3) Clays, Kaolins and 

 Bauxites ; (4) Zinc 'and Lead ; (5) Report on 



the general geology of the State. Provisions 

 were also made for printing new editions of the 

 reports already out. 



The sixth volume of Biological Lectures from 

 the Wood's Holl Laboratory, in the press of 

 Messrs. Ginn & Co., will contain : 



' The Structure of Protoplasm,' E. B. Wilson. 



'Cell-Lineage and Ancestral Reminiscence,' E. B. 

 Wilson. 



'Adaptation in Cleavage,' Frank E. Lillie. 



' Protoplasmic Movement as a Factor of Difierentia- 

 tion,' Edwin G. Conklin. 



'Equal and Unequal Cleavage,' A. L. Treadwell. 



'Cell Origin of the Prototroch,' A. D. Mead. 



' Relation of the Axis of the Embryo to the First 

 Cleavage Plane,' Cornelia M. Clapp. 



' Observations on Various Nucleolar Structures of 

 the Cell,' Thomas H. Montgomery, Jr. 



'Protoplasmic Contractility and Phosphorescence,' 

 S. Watas6. 



' Some Problems of Regeneration,' T. H. Morgan. 



' The Elimination of the Unfit,' H. C. Bumpus. 



'Heredity of Coloration in Fishes,' Jacques Loeb. 



' Do the Reactions of Lower Animals, Due to Injury, 

 Indicate Pain Sensations,' W. W. Norman. 



' North American Euminant-like Animals,' W. B. 

 Scott. 



' Caspar Friedrich Wolff and the Theoria Genera- 

 tionis, ' W. M. Wheeler. 



'Animal Behavior,' C. O. Whitman. 



MM. Georges Carr4 and C. Naud have be- 

 gun the publication of a series of scientific mono- 

 grajjhs under the editorial direction of leading 

 French men of science. MM. Ap'pell, Cornu, 

 d'Arsonval, Friedel, Lippmann, Moissan, Poin- 

 care and Potter are responsible for the physical 

 and mathematical sciences and MM. Balbiani, 

 d'Arsonval, Filhol, Fouque, Gaudry, Guignard, 

 Marey and Milne-Edwards for the biological 

 sciences. The numbers so far issued are as 

 follows : ' Les Oscillations Electriques,' by M. 

 Poincare ! 'La Specificite Cellulaire,' by M. 

 Bard ; ' La Sexualite,' by M. le Dantec. 



SCIENTIFIC JOUBNALS AND ARTICLES. 



The papers in the American Journal of Science 

 for May are as follows : 



'Some Experiments with Endothermic Gases,' by 

 W. G. Mixter. 



' Hypothesis to explain the partial non-explosive 

 Combination of Explosive Gases and Gaseous Mix- 

 tures, ' by W. G. Mixter. 



