gressing, until from certain plants, as cinchona 
and poppy, at least twenty different alkaloids 
have been obtained. 
The present monograph is a separate edition 
of Volume VIII. of ‘Roscoe & Schorlemmer’s 
Lehrbuch der organischen Chemie,’ and treats 
of the plant alkaloids apart from the synthetic 
alkaloids and ptomaines. The author has di- 
vided this class of the alkaloids into certain 
fundamental groups, but has wisely not at- 
tempted to extend the classification further, 
having subdivided them according to the plants 
or families in which they occur. The main 
divisions are as follows: I. PYRROLIDIN GROUP, 
hygrine. II. PyRIDIN GROUP, trigonellin, 
piperin, chrysanthemin, nicotin, sparteine and 
cytisin, alkaloids of the Solanaceae, jaborandi, 
areca nut, conium, coca leaves and bark of the 
root of pomegranate. III. CHINOLIN GROUP, 
cinchona, strychnos and curare alkaloids. IY. 
ISOCHINOLIN GROUP, alkaloids of opium, hy- 
drastis, berberis and corydalis. V. ALKALOIDS 
OF UNKNOWN CONSTITUTION as in ergot, Lycopo- 
diaceae, Coniferae, Gnetaceae, Liliaceae, Apo- 
cynaceae, Aristolochiaceae, Buxaceae (Cacta- 
cece), Lauraceae, Papilionaceae, Loganiaceae, 
Papaveraceae, Ranunculaceae, Rubiaceae, Ru- 
taceae, and including glyco-alkaloids and other 
miscellaneous alkaloids. 
Of the more than one hundred alkaloids, the 
constitution of only a comparatively few is 
known. In his treatment of these principles, 
Professor Brihl gives the following data con- 
cerning them: History, occurrence, prepara- 
tion or method of isolation, physical and chem- 
ical properties and, wherever possible, the 
constitution, synthesis and the salts which 
have been studied. 
Concerning the origin and purpose of the al- 
kaloids in plant life, the author seems to agree 
with Guareschi that they are in the nature of 
waste products of the living protoplasm and 
.that when once produced they are not again 
assimilated. It may be said, however, that 
this view is contrary to the recent researches of 
Barth, who has shown that in the seeds of 
Datura stramonium L. and Conium maculatum L. 
the alkaloids are located in the nucellus and 
that after germination they disappear. It would 
appear, therefore, that they, in some instances 
SCIENCE. 
[N.S. Von. XIII. No. 334. 
at least, like the glucosides, are to be consid- 
ered in the nature of reserye products. Then, 
too, the recent discovery of the glyco-alkaloids 
seems to favor this view. 
The author has shown a masterly treatment 
of the chemistry of the plant alkaloids and the 
book is welcome as an important contribution 
to the subject ; it is not only of special interest 
to the chemist and apothecary, but also to the 
physician, more particularly the therapeutist, 
as it is being shown that the constitution of 
chemical compounds has a more or less definite 
relation to physiological action. 
HENRY KRAEMER. 
PHILADELPHIA COLLEGE OF PHARMACY. 
ENZYMES AND THEIR APPLICATION.* 
A VOLUME of 217 pp., 8vo, has recently been 
added to |’ Encyclopédie Scientifique des Aide- 
Mémoire, by M.-H. Pozzi-Escot, editor of the 
Revue Générale de Chimie pure et Appliquée, 
on the subject of enzymes and their application. 
The book is written, as the author states in the 
preface, for engineers and chemists, and not for 
biologists. The first part of the book, including 
nine chapters, deals with the general problems 
of enzymology, classification of enzymes, secre- 
tion, chemical composition, general properties, 
mode of action, etc. There are some statements 
in the text which physiologists at least could 
hardly accept as facts without more proof—for 
example, on p. 9, that enzymes are transformed 
vegetable albuminoids, or on p. 17, that enzymes 
are immortal, and on p. 50, that the secretion of 
diastase depends simply on the food furnished 
the cell, ete. The writer’s use of the word dias- 
tase is also inconsistent. Following Duclaux he 
uses it most often as a general term equivalent 
to enzyme, but on pp. 42-43 it is used as equiv- 
alent to amylase. On p. 50 amylose is used 
when amylase was evidently intended, also 
rhamnose where rhamnase was intended (p. 
28). Similar typographical errors are pain- 
fully numerous. 
The second part of the book deals with en- 
zymes in their industrial applications. This, 
like the first part of the book, is too briefly dealt 
* ‘Tes Diastases et Leurs Application,’ 
E. Pozzi-Eseot. 
Paris, 1900. 
par M.- 
Gauthier-Villars-Masson et Cie., 
