748 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. III. No. 72. 



lems are still undergoing solution nothing can 

 serve better than this outline of Prof. Hueppe. 



Beginning with a brief yet complete treat- 

 ment of the morphology of bacteria and their 

 relations to other groups of plants, the author 

 passes to a consideration of their relations to 

 their environment. Valuable sections are given 

 upon the effects of light, temperature, oxygen, 

 poisons, etc. He treats of the effect which 

 bacteria have upon the medium in which they 

 are growing, of the products to which they 

 give rise, as well those produced by the de- 

 composition of the culture medium as those pro- 

 duced by synthesis and as secretions. He deals 

 of the subject of the food necessary for the life 

 of the various organisms, and in this section, in 

 short, gives a general survey of the relations of 

 bacteria to the environment, thus indicating 

 how and why they may play an important part 

 in nature's processes. 



A summary of the relations of bacteria to 

 diseases follows. The different types of germ 

 diseases are distinguished and their relations 

 to micro-organisms. The discussion is more 

 than a simple collection of facts. It brings into 

 prominence the distinction between strictly 

 pathogenic bacteria and those which are patho- 

 genic only under special conditions, between 

 those which are always injurious and thus 

 strictly parasites, and those which are normal 

 harmless occupants of the human body, but 

 which occasionally produce trouble. It empha- 

 sizes the personal factor in the matter of infec- 

 tion or in preventing the invading organisms 

 from developing. The discussion can hardly 

 fail to clear our notions, since it gives a sharp 

 and happy summary of our present knowledge 

 of the relation of various diseases to parasites 

 and of the individual to the infecting bacteria. 



The most novel and original part of the book 

 is the somewhat extended discussion of the 

 causes of disease and the methods which bac- 

 teriology is promising as a means of meeting 

 the various diseases. This subject is too com- 

 prehensive and too condensed for summary. 

 The author finds the potent cause of disease 

 rather in the organism itself, looking upon the 

 pathogenic organism simply as a stimulus. He 

 succeeds well in disentangling the miscellaneous 

 confusing facts which have accumulated in the 



last few years upon the matter of toxines, anti- 

 toxines, protective and curative serums, immu- 

 nity, etc., reducing the subject to something 

 like logical completeness. In this section we 

 see much more than simple compilation of facts 

 and can recognize the author's personality in the 

 method of treatment. Even Prof. Hueppe, 

 however, is not able to reduce this matter to 

 anything like clear logic, since our present 

 knowledge is so largely filled with lacunte. 

 At best, the matter of immunity and toxines 

 must be left with many questions. It is impos- 

 sible to read this discussion of toxines and anti- 

 toxines, nucleins, phagocytosis, active and pas- 

 sive immunity, etc., without having a better 

 notion of the proper bearing of the different 

 phases of the subject. 



This work of Prof. Hueppe is useful to two 

 classes of readers. Those who are not bacteri- 

 ologists, but who desire to learn the general 

 facts which the last quarter of a century has 

 discovered, will find here a brief but intelligible 

 summary. Those who are already familiar 

 with the general facts will, perhaps, find the 

 book of even more value in giving a clear and 

 simplified conception of the various confusing 

 facts which have so rapidly accumulated in re- 

 cent years. H. W. Conn. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS. 



THE ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL, APEIL. 



The opening article, by Prof. J. Wilsing, con- 

 tains a short discussion of previous papers on 

 the law of the sun's rotation. The differential 

 currents on the sun's surface are shown to be 

 results of earlier conditions of motion, and can 

 be destroyed by internal friction only. The 

 least time in which changes of the surface cur- 

 rents would become perceptible is calculated to 

 be millions of years. 



In a report on solar observations for the 

 second half of 1895, by Prof. Tacchini, there is 

 shown a continued decrease in the number of 

 spots, with a secondary minimum in November. 

 There was a disproportionate decrease in 

 prominences with a minimum in October. 



In discussing the spectrum of Mars, Prof. 

 Lewis E. Jewell contends that spectroscopic 

 proof of the presence or absence of water in the 



