JANTJABT 16, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



103 



has been replaced by King George V. Land; 

 patriotic but a sad blunder. 



The appreciation accorded to the Scott ex- 

 pedition excites reflections as to the contrast- 

 ing attitude of the United States and of 

 European governments towards scientific work 

 that is neither commercialized nor exploited. 

 Strikingly similar in aims, in accomplishment 

 and in fateful disaster were the Lady Frank- 

 lin Bay International Polar Expedition and 

 Scott's Last Expedition. The former — a gov- 

 ernmental enterprise — ^penuriously fitted, its 

 scientific work largely entrusted to enlisted 

 men — who were actuated largely by love of 

 science — occupied the post of honor and of 

 danger of the eleven cooperating nations. It 

 contributed to a hitherto unequalled degree to 

 arctic hydrography, meteorology, pendulum 

 work and magnetism. Tet its complete suc- 

 cess in its scientific purposes, as well as in 

 field-work absolutely free from disaster, was 

 formally requited neither by the government 

 nor by any scientific societies of the United 

 States. It took years of effort on the part of 

 its chief to even obtain the meager lawful al- 

 lowances and the pitiful pensions. 



The English expedition, lavishly equipped, 

 had 7 officers and 12 scientists, whose efforts 

 also increase to a very large degree our scien- 

 tific knowledge of Antarctica. Its heroic per- 

 sonnel win titles of nobility, promotions and 

 the highest scientific honors, while the public 

 contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars 

 to meet adequately and generously all expedi- 

 tionary requirements — both material and 

 memorial. 



The failure of our government to properly 

 recognize scientific work appears to be due to 

 an antiquated and inherited national policy, 

 which must be to the ultimate detriment of 

 the common weal. This year the attention of 

 the government has been urgently called to 

 untoward conditions, arising from illiberal 

 treatment of expert officials. Distinguished 

 chiefs of several important national bureaus 

 officially report increasing difficulty in main- 

 taining an efficient scientific staff. Unusual 

 and steadily augmenting numbers of scientists 

 and experts are accepting commercial posi- 



tions in order to meet the enhanced cost of 

 living. 



While American admiration for the Scott 

 expedition was so great that we materially 

 aided in the raising of the memorial fund, our 

 energies should also be employed in urging the 

 adequate recognition of those scientific and 

 professional officials, on whose skill, judgment, 

 and patriotism the future of the democratic 

 government in the western hemisphere must 

 so largely rest. 



A. W. Qreelt 



Prohleme der fhysiologischen und pathologi- 

 schen Chemie. Fiinfzig Vorlesungen iiber 

 neuere Ergebnisse und Eichtungslinien der 

 Eorschung fiir Studierende, Arzte, Biologen 

 und Chemilter. By Dr. Otto ton FiJRTH. 

 II. Band: Stoffwechsellehre. Leipzig, Ver- 

 lag von F. C. W. Vogel, 1913. Pp. xiv-f 

 717. 



The only occasion for adding anything to 

 the favorable impression of Professor Ton 

 Fiirth's lectures which the reviewer has already 

 expressed^ in reference to the first volume lies 

 in the fact that the newer collection deals with 

 a more specific group of topics: metabolism. 

 The author's underlying plan consists in start- 

 ing with the nutrients at the Tery beginning 

 of the alimentary processes and in following 

 the foodstuffs, as far as present knowledge per- 

 mits, on their travels through the organism to 

 the places where the final derivatives disap- 

 pear in the unexplored depths of intermediary 

 metabolism. To this is added a discussion of 

 the nature of those ultimate stages of this 

 physiological function which are characterized 

 by the combustion of the food fragments in the 

 living organism. In pursuance of the fore- 

 going scheme the chemistry and physiology of 

 digestion and absorption are reviewed in the 

 light of those newer contributions which take 

 cognizance of the special conditions that per- 

 tain in the alimentary canal, with its unique 

 innervation and secretory interrelations. 



The attitude of the critic to a contribution 

 like the present one — a book giving evidence 

 on every page of the remarkable familiarity of 

 1 See Science, 1912, 



