SEPTEMBER 29, 1899. ] 
the description of the experiments for the pro- 
duction of artificial protoplastic formations. 
It is to be said that this book of Dr. Fischer’s 
comes most timely to aid the beginner, or the 
worker in other lines of investigation to orient 
the vast body of detail which has been presented 
in such confusion during the last decade, and it 
may also do much to put research upon the in- 
cluded subjects on a more rational basis. 
D. T. MacDouGat. 
NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN. 
A Class-book of (Elementary) Practical Physiology. 
By DE Burcu Brrcu, Professor of Physiology 
in the Yorkshire College of the Victoria Uni- 
versity. Philadelphia, P. Blakiston’s Son & 
Co., 1899. Pp. xii + 278. 
This book is one of that considerable class of 
laboratory guides which are prepared for indi- 
vidual laboratories. While fairly good of its 
kind, it cannot readily be adapted to general 
use. This is more particularly true of the ex- 
perimental section, where the directions to the 
student frequently have reference to specific ap- 
pliances which, in the form here described, are 
not to be found in physiological laboratories 
generally. The course outlined is that which is 
so commonly denominated Physiology in the 
British colleges, and consists of histological, 
chemical and experimental sections. The first 
section comprises 117 pages, the second 61, and 
the third 87. The method employed is that of 
supplying the student with detailed directions, 
leaving comparatively little opportunity for the 
play of his ingenuity. This method, while 
making instruction easy for the instructor, 
does not develop the student. It is carried to 
its extreme in dealing with the direct method 
of using the ophthalmoscope: ‘‘ First, with the 
apertures closed, endeavor to look into the 
eye through the lens, moving your eye and a 
light in all directions to doso. You will not 
succeed.’’ If success is impossible, why de- 
liberately guide the student in that direction? 
Not a large amount of ground is covered by 
the book. The subjects and experiments that 
are presented are the conventional ones, and 
the work is intelligently done. The book, how- 
ever, hardly seems to be called for outside the 
author’s own laboratory. FREDERIC S. LEE. 
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. 
SCIENCE. 
453 
Elementary Physiology. By BENJAMIN Moore, 
M.A., Professor of Physiology in the Medical 
- Department of Yale University. New York, 
Longmans, Green & Co., 1899. Pp. viii+ 
295. 
The majority of the briefer text-books of 
physiology are not written by physiologists. 
They are the work of men who rely upon larger 
text-books for their knowledge, and whose mo- 
tive too often is the money to be obtained from 
the text-book mongers. Too many of these 
authors are willing, for a consideration, to 
prostitute the science for commercial purposes, 
and to write it down to the level of those who 
appear to believe that an account of the work- 
ing of the human body, and a description of the 
awfulness of a drunkard’s life, are synonymous: 
It is a relief and pleasure to turn from such 
machine-made books to such a one as Professor 
Moore’s, and to feel the loving interest that 
every page of the book reveals. One can for- 
give the occasional lapses from strict rhetorical 
usage, the not infrequent long sentences, and 
the rather indiscriminate and often misleading 
use of commas, when one realizes that the au- 
thor knows his subject and writes entertain- 
ingly of it. i 
The book is devoted to the physiology of 
man and those animals that are allied to man, 
and in less than three hundred pages there is 
given a concise and very readable outline of 
the subject, an appendix of practical exercises 
and a set of test questions. The trend of the 
author as a physiologist is evidenced by the 
fact that nearly one-half of the book is devoted 
to nutrition, including the blood and its circu- 
lation, digestion, absorption, metabolism, respi- 
ration, excretion and animal heat. In an un- 
prejudiced division of the subject of human 
physiology, this seems too large a proportion, 
although it must be granted that the account of 
these processes is an admirable one. Forty- 
three pages seem also too large a share to give 
to the skeleton and its articulations. In gen- 
eral, the amount of anatomy may be criticised 
as excessive ; but throughout this the author 
keeps in mind the subject of function and thus 
illuminates his descriptions of structure. Fur- 
thermore, one-sixth of the whole space is a 
small proportion to devote to the nervous sys- 
