December 7, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



565 



does occur. According to my experience, it is 

 worth the trouble to give even such large 

 bodies as the human, as much soaking occa- 

 sionally as is practicable, in such a solution 

 as I have just described. This should be done 

 between class periods, at least twice a week, 

 when the air of the room is at all dry. 



When material comes to my hands already 

 filled with formalin, I soak it in running 

 water, for a number of hours, according to its 

 size, to get rid of the formalin, before trans- 

 ferring it to a pheuol-glycerine solution. 



Material which has been thus prepared with 

 a phenol-glycerine solution can be stored or 

 shipped in airtight wrappings with no sur- 

 rounding solution. In an important article on 

 methods for preserving and storing cadavers 

 Keiller^ has described methods for preparing 

 wrappings. 



1 have adopted the practise of shipping ma- 

 terial, which has been thoroughly soaked in 

 the dilute embalming fluid described in this 

 article, in packages well wrapped and packed 

 in excelsior. No fluid except that in the 

 specimen is needed for a number of weeks, 

 even in summer, if the packing is well done. 

 There is much economy in weight, and expen- 

 sive containers are not needed. 



In some medical schools, cadavers are 

 stored in airtight chambers with no fluid ex- 

 cept for a dish of alcohol which keeps the at- 

 mosphere of the chamber saturated with alco- 

 hol fumes. This is the best of all storage 

 methods that have come to my attention, for 

 properly embalmed bodies, and it works well 

 with other large vertebrates. I have found it 

 successful in a warm climate, and I have never 

 heard any criticism of the method by people 

 who have tried it. 



Much trouble from drying of material in 

 the dissecting room can be avoided by keeping 

 the air of the room very hiimid. Professor S. 

 W. Hanson, IvTorthwestern University Medical 

 School, has called my attention to a device 

 which he has found efficient in maintaining a 

 humid atmosphere and which eliminates the 

 drying troubles. This is the " Steamo Air 



2 Philadelphia Medical Jour., December 29, 

 1900. 



Moistener," which can be obtained from " The 

 Air Moistener Co.," 28 North Market St., 

 Chicago. It is attached to steam radiators of 

 various types. Directions are furnished for 

 maintaining any desired percentage of hu- 

 midity. 



E. M. Strong 

 Anatomical Laboeatokies, 

 Vanderbilt University Medicae'School 



SCIENTIFIC B9'OKS 



Physical Chemistry of Vitdl Phenomena for 

 Students and Investigators in the Biological 

 and Medical Sciences. By J. F. McClendon, 

 Assistant Professor of Physiology in the 

 University of Minnesota. Princeton Uni- 

 versity Press, 1917. 



In this concise book of less than 200 pages of 

 text Professor McClendon describes and dis- 

 cusses briefly some of the more recent applica- 

 tions of physical chemistry to the analysis of 

 vital phenomena. The field, although no 

 longer new, is very large and calls for much 

 further investigation; hence finality is scarcely 

 possible at present, and the author describes 

 his purpose as largely practical and tentative: 

 " to develop a tool for physiological research," 

 rather than to produce a systematic treatise on 

 the subject. The space assigned to the differ- 

 ent topics under discussion is very unequal; 

 many of these are presented in the barest sum- 

 mary, with little attempt to reconcile conflict- 

 ing statements or to reach unifying conclu- 

 sions ; while others, particularly those in which 

 the author's own chief researches have been 

 made, are treated in considerable detail. The 

 book is intended for advanced students and 

 presupposes more than elementary biological 

 and chemical knowledge in the reader ; conden- 

 sation is carried to an extreme, and in many 

 places one receives the impression of a suc- 

 cession of abstracts, in which both the selec- 

 tion and the omission of material seem arbi- 

 trary. In the later chapters, which deal with 

 the more specifically biological topics (amoe- 

 boid movement, tropisms, cell-division, fertili- 

 zation, muscular contraction, oxidation, pro- 

 duction of light and heat), the space is quite 

 insufficient for adequate discussion, and the ac- 



