May 24, 1912] 
Dr. W. Palladin possesses a number of some- 
what novel features that will be sure to render 
it interesting to those dealing with the funda- 
mental principles of physiological science. 
The present German edition is a translation 
of the sixth Russian edition of the work, with 
alterations and additions. 
The general view-point of the author and the 
mode of treatment which characterizes his 
work are well indicated in the first sentence 
of the introduction, wherein it is pointed out 
that the aim of plant physiology is to gain a 
complete and thorough knowledge of all the 
phenomena occurring in plants and ultimately 
to interpret these in terms of the principles 
of physics and chemistry. From this it may 
be expected, and it is indeed true, that the 
present work contemplates plant phenomena 
more from the standpoint of chemistry and 
physics than does any one of the already ex- 
isting treatises on plant physiology. 
The book before us is divided into two 
parts, the first (206 pages) on Nutrition and 
the second (95 pages) on Growth and De- 
velopment. The eight chapter headings of 
Part J. are as follows: (1) Assimilation of 
Carbon and of the Energy of Sunshine by 
Green Plants, (2) Assimilation of Carbon 
and of Energy by Plants without Chloro- 
phyll, (8) Assimilation of Nitrogen, (4) Ab- 
sorption of Ash Constituents, (5) Absorption 
of Materials, (6) Movement of Materials in 
Plants, (7) Material Transformations in 
Plants and (8) Fermentation and Respira- 
tion. In the fourth chapter heading, logic 
would require the word assimilation instead 
of Aufname (absorption) for the latter word 
occurs, as Stoffaufname, in the fifth heading 
and the ash constituents are surely mater- 
ials. The chapters of Part II. are entitled 
as follows: (1) General Conceptions of 
Growth, (2) Growth Phenomena Dependent 
on Internal Conditions, (3) The Influence of 
the Environment on Growth and Development, 
(4) Tendril Climbers and Twiners, (5) Move- 
ments of Variation [not due to growth], and 
(6) Development and Reproduction. 
In Part I. the treatment is primarily chem- 
ical, and it is in respect to the chemical phe- 
SCIENCE 
825 
nomena of physiology that Palladin’s book 
will prove most useful. In the fifth and 
sixth chapters, dealing with physical matters, 
the discussion is not as thorough as in the 
others. Chapter VI., for example, on the 
movement of material in the plant, contains 
no mention of H. H. Dixon’s excellent and 
thoroughgoing study on the ascent of the 
transpiration stream, although the commonly 
cited experiments of Bohm and of Askenasy 
(demonstrating the great cohesion of water 
and the adhesion between it and mercury) are 
adequately presented. The discussion of root 
pressure, exudation and guttation is far less 
complete than that of many chemical proc- 
esses of which we have no more adequate 
knowledge than we have of these, and the 
theoretical consideration of these funda- 
mental occurrences is dismissed with the mere 
remark that “the causes upon which these 
phenomena depend have as yet not been de- 
termined” (p. 136). The matter of acid se- 
cretion (gland action in general) does not re- 
ceive attention. 
It is interesting to note that the toxic sub- 
stance theory of soil fertility is given due 
consideration (p. 98 et seq.), and that, in this 
connection, a figure from a U. S. Bureau of 
Soils Bulletin and one from Dachnowski’s re- 
cent studies on the toxicity of bog water are 
reproduced. 
The growth of our general conceptions of 
respiration and related processes in organ- 
isms has recently been evidenced by a grad- 
ual bringing of the subject of fermentation 
into more and more intimate relation with so- 
called normal respiration. Palladin, once for 
all, places the whole matter upon a proper log- 
ical basis by opening the discussion with fer- 
mentation and following with the other topic. 
This, the reviewer thinks, is a marked advance 
in logical presentation, and it may do much 
toward clearing away the haziness which so 
generally obscures the whole subject of plant 
respiration. 
The first two chapters of Part II. present, in 
an unusually concise manner, the main prin- 
ciples which underlie growth phenomena in 
general. The third chapter comprises general 
