December 27, 1912] 



SCIENCE 



905 



do some of the general text-books. Neither is 

 this part specific enough in its directions to 

 serve the student as a laboratory guide. It 

 would have been better to have referred the 

 beginner to the standard text-books for the 

 general discussion, or to have provided him 

 vsrith specific directions for undertaking lab- 

 oratory V70rk leading up to the applications of 

 veterinary bacteriology. This vrould have al- 

 lowed the author more space for the extension 

 and elaboration of the more valuable and 

 specific part of the book in a way which he is 

 well qualified to undertake. 



It is hardly necessary to specify the short- 

 comings of the general part more than to point 

 out that the historical sketch contains no ref- 

 erence to the other and earlier workers than 

 Leeuwenhoek; the chapter dealing with classi- 

 fication is inadequate and confusing, and in- 

 cludes practically none of the recent work; in 

 describing the preparation of culture media 

 the methods are old-fashioned and but scant 

 notice is given to the present-day standard 

 methods ; under the description of cultures the 

 standard card of the Society of American 

 Bacteriologists is not mentioned, although it is 

 included in the chapter on classification, where 

 it does not belong. 



The chapter dealing with the bacteriology 

 of water and milk is entirely unsatisfactory. 

 The Standard Methods of Water Analysis now 

 , in use in practically all laboratories in this 

 country are neglected altogether, although 

 they are mentioned as giving methods for the 

 preparation of culture media. The methods 

 of interpreting the results of an analysis are 

 not at all clear nor do they accurately repre- 

 sent present-day practise. 



The discussion of the relation of bacteria 

 to milk, a subject which touches closely veteri- 

 nary matters, is also given but brief consid- 

 eration. Too great stress is laid on such mat- 

 ters as the bactericidal property of milk, a 

 subject about which there is much question, 

 and the topic of bacteria in milk, particularly 

 the pathogenic bacteria, is treated altogether 

 too briefly. The author might very well have 

 expanded this discussion to considerable length 

 in a book of this character. 



The good points of the book, and they are 

 many, are mainly to be found in the part deal- 

 ing particularly with veterinary matters. 

 Here we have a careful summary of our 

 knowledge of veterinary microbiology. But 

 even here clearness and accuracy seem many 

 times to have been sacrificed to brevity, al- 

 though on the whole this part of the book is 

 deserving of much praise. In the treatment 

 of many topics we might mention important 

 points which have been omitted, as for in- 

 stance, Winslow's classification of the Strep- 

 tococci^ the occurrence of M. gonorrhoea in 

 animals, the recent separation of Bacillus coli 

 into its varieties, the modern methods of 

 staining Treponema. But while sins of omis- 

 sion are frequent, those of commission are rela- 

 tively rare and unimportant. The illustra- 

 tions are not abundant but are well chosen, 

 though their quality is not up to the standard 

 set by the rest of the typography. 



F. P. GOEHAM 



Beown University 



Biology: An Introductory Study. By H. W. 



Conn. Boston, Silver, Burdett & Co. 1912. 



Price $1.50. 



The opinion of the reviewer was once so- 

 licited by a representative of one of the large 

 publishing houses of this country as to who 

 could write a good elementary biology and the 

 answer was given that Professor Conn could 

 do this. I do not believe that the publication 

 of his present book had any reference to my 

 statement, but it has warranted this statement. 

 The book presents the subject in the most 

 satisfactory manner of any of the texts which 

 have appeared. In the first place it is a dig- 

 nified college biology, demanding the serious 

 attention of the student. The treatment is 

 logical, beginning with the simple and work- 

 ing towards the complex and decidedly at 

 variance with the views of those who believe 

 it pedagogical heresy to put a compound mi- 

 croscope in the hands of the beginner. The 

 illustrations are inelaborate, but quite ample 

 and very well selected. At the ends of the 

 chapters are references to books and papers, 

 mainly of historical interest and a group of 



