196 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. I'M. 



Liverpool, vacant by the appointment of Dr. 

 Rendall to the headmastership of Charterhouse, 

 has been fllied by the election of Mr. Richard 

 Tetley Glazebrools, M.A., F.R.S., Fellow and 

 Senior Bursar of Trinity College, Cambridge. 

 Mr. Glazebrook, who is a son of Dr. Glazebrook, 

 of West Derby, was educated at Dulwich Col- 

 lege and afterwards at Liverpool College, 

 whence he obtained a scholarship at Trinity 

 College, Cambridge. In 1876 he was fourth 

 wrangler and in 1877 was elected a Fellow of 

 his College. As an investigator he is best 

 known for his researches in the higher branches 

 of optics, and his chief papers have been on 

 double refraction in biaxial crystals and on a 

 dynamical theory of double refraction, both of 

 which won high commendation from such au- 

 thorities as Lord Kelvin and Sir Gabriel Stokes. 

 He is also the recognized custodian of the Brit- 

 ish Association electrical units, now the standard 

 for the world and is Secretary of the Electrical 

 Standards Committee of the British Association. 



Mr. H. W. M. Tims has been appointed pro- 

 fessor of zoology in Bedford College, England. 



At Gonville and Cains College, Cambridge, 

 the vacant Shuttleworth scholarships, each of 

 the annual value of about £55, awarded for 

 proficiency in botany and comparative anatomy, 

 have been adjudged to Reginald Cruudall Pun- 

 nett for three years and to Harold W illiam At- 

 kinson, B.A., for two years. 



SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 

 Living Plants and their Properties. A Collection 

 of Essays. By Joseph Charles Aethub, 

 Sc. D., Professor of Vegetable Physiology and 

 Pathology in Purdue University, and Daniel 

 Trembly MacDougal, Ph.D., Assistant 

 Professor of Botany in charge of Plant 

 Physiology in the University of Minnesota. 

 New York, Baker & Taylor ; Minneapolis, 

 Morris & Wilson. 1898. Small 8vo. Pp. 

 ix-f234. 



In recent years American botanists have gen- 

 erally been so burdened with the labor of 

 botanical acquisition in systematic, structural 

 or physiological iields that to a great degree 

 their writings have been plain, matter-of-fact 

 statements, interesting enough to other bota- 



nists, but quite unattractive to those not trained 

 in the somewhat severe school of modern 

 botany. This condition has invited and en- 

 couraged many mere ' writers' — pleasant word- 

 mongers, with nothing more than the thinnest 

 superficial knowledge of plants — to issue books 

 to meet the demand made by reading people for 

 information regarding the life of plants. It has 

 often been my very unpleasant duty to point 

 out the dreadful blunders which are certain to 

 result from attempts at bookmaking by those 

 whose pens run more easily and rapidly than 

 their botanical attainments justify, and yet in 

 nearly every case it has been found that the 

 book with all its blunders sold well, which'in- 

 dicates that many people read it. There is a 

 demand for readable books about plants. 



When it was announced, a little while ago, 

 that two of our most active plant physiologists 

 were bringing out a book on living plants and 

 their properties it was supposed that, as a mat- 

 ter of course, it would be a modern text book, 

 for use in the physiological laboratories now 

 happily increasing in numbers in our universi- 

 ties. What was our surprise, then, to find that 

 the authors have given us a readable book on 

 topics like these : ' the special senses of plants ;' 

 'the development of irritability;' 'Mimosa, a 

 typical sensitive plant;' ' universality of con- 

 sciousness and pain;' ' how cold affects plants;' 

 'leaves in spring, summer and autumn;' 'the 

 significance of color;' ' the right to live;' ' dis- 

 tinction between plants and animals.' In the 

 first chapter, after a general discussion regard- 

 ing the nature of the senses. Dr. Arthur takes 

 up in order the senses which plants possess, i. e. , 

 ' the sense of contact,' the ' gravity sense,' sensi- 

 tiveness to light,' ' chemical sense ' and ' moist- 

 ure sense.' A single quotation from this inter- 

 esting chapter will sufiice to show the treat- 

 ment (p. 14) : "But what other senses have 

 plants? I shall not attempt to show the 

 numerous and interesting ways in which plants 

 respond to light. Everyone knows how plants 

 lighted from one side, as when placed before a 

 window, bend toward the light. This is a true 

 sensitiveness, for it results in bringing about 

 definite movement. The stems place them- 

 selves parallel to the incident rays — that is, 

 point toward the window ; while the leaves 



