•January 30, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



179 



with the geographical distribution and one or 

 more local Japanese names. Nearly one third 

 -of the species — 396, to be exact — are illus- 

 trated, the admirable figures which have ap- 

 peared in the publications of Jordan and his 

 associates being reproduced. An excellent 

 index to genera, species and Japanese names, 

 •covering 64 pages, greatly enhances the use- 

 fvilness of the work. (This index, by the way, 

 •contains a number of misspellings — for in- 

 stance, of Scapanorhynchus, Etmopterus, etc.). 



A critic might perhaps find fault with the 

 Tetention of a few superseded names, such as 

 Mitsukurina for Scapanorhynchus, when it 

 has been fairly well established that the former 

 is identical with the fossil sharks which have 

 long been known under the latter name; or 

 with the omission of certain desirable refer- 

 ences, to show that Zameus—to mention but 

 ra few instances — is a synonym for Scymnodon, 

 Deania a synonym for Centrophorus, Etmop- 

 terus frontimaculatus probably a synonym for 

 the Mediterranean Spinax pusillus,^ etc. But 

 in answer to such criticisms it may be said 

 ihat the present list was obviously intended 

 .as a mere stock-taking of all the species that 

 have been proposed, to serve as a basis for 

 future work on the fishes of Japan; that it 

 was not the purpose of the authors to give 

 complete synonymies; and that these matters 

 "will be dealt with in the revisions of the vari- 

 ous groups now being published by Jordan and 

 his associates in America, or in the mono- 

 ■graph by Tanak,, which is appearing in part 

 in Japan. Altogether the catalogue is care- 

 fully compiled, and will be invaluable to all 

 students of the fishes of Japan. 



The work was seen through the press by 

 Dr. Shigeho Tanaka, lecturer in zoology in the 

 Imperial University of Japan, and a co-author 

 •of the present work; and to him are due the 

 thanks of all who will profit by this volume, 

 for the great care he has exercised in guarding 

 against typographical errors in the text. 



l. hussakof 



American Museum op Natural History 



1 See C. Tate Eegan, "A Synopsis of the Sharks 

 ■of the Family Squalidse, " Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 

 8 ser., II., 1908, pp. 39-57. 



Pflanzenmikrochemie. Ein Hilfsbuch beim 

 mikroehemischen Studium pflanzlicher Ob- 

 jekte von Dr. O. Tunmann, Privatdozent 

 an der Universitaet Bern. Ein Bd., pp. 

 631, mit 137 Abbildungen im Text. Verlag 

 von Gebrueder Borntraeger, Berlin. 1913. 

 M. 18.50. 



That of the writing of books there is no end 

 is one of the few biblical quotations which 

 even the average freshman in college will 

 recognize. Moreover, the graduate student in 

 science, when sent to the library for refer- 

 ences, is apt to wish that there might be fewer 

 books for him to consult. Yet it is with a 

 peculiar delight that the phytochemist wit- 

 nesses the renewed literary activity in his 

 particular field of research. Synthetic chem- 

 istry had so completely overshadowed phyto- 

 chemistry for a generation and more since the 

 days of Kekule's structural theories, that the 

 phytochemist is once more beginning to feel 

 that his particular aspect of chemical research 

 is again coming to its own. With a general 

 treatise such as that by Haas and Hill, with 

 staetter and Stoll on chlorophyll, and with the 

 volume on a special method of phytochemical 

 technique like the one before us, all within less 

 than a twelve-month, this unusual productiv- 

 ity must certainly be regarded as the heyday of 

 phytochemical literature. 



The general part of Tunmann's tome is de- 

 voted to the technique of microchemical re- 

 search as applied to plants and covers sixty- 

 three pages. Of the special part sixty-six 

 pages are devoted to inorganic chemistry. 

 Hence the bulk of the volume is devoted to 

 the organic microehemistry of plants. 



Inasmuch as this is the first general survey 

 of its kind since the " Botanische Mikro- 

 technik " by Zimmermann made its appear- 

 ance in 1892, one may gladly welcome an up- 

 to-date treatise on this subject. Even the 

 person who is not well acquainted with the 

 work that has been done during the past few 

 decades in this particular field, will be struck 

 by the innumerable references to special 

 " Arbeiten " with which the pages abound. 

 The pharmacist in particular will be gratified 



