Maech 14, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



423 



spontaneous generation, on the vinegar pro- 

 cess, on the diseases of wine, of silkworms, and 

 the beneficent results of his success in com- 

 bating disease in man himself. Of the 20,000 

 ]3ersons who have taken antirabic treatment, 

 the mortality has been less than five per 

 thousand. 



The four lectures on August Wilhelm von 

 Hofmann occupy the most space given to any 

 individual in the volume ; Lord Playf air writes 

 of his personal reminiscences of Hofmann and 

 •of the conditions which led to the establishment 

 of the Eoyal College of Chemistry; Sir F. A. 

 Abel narrates the history of the same College 

 and of Hofmann's professional work therein; 

 Dr. W. H. Perkin chronicles the contributions 

 of Hofmann and his distinguished pupils to 

 coal-tar color manufactures; and Professor 

 Henry E. Armstrong contributes a very full 

 and careful analysis of the scientific work of 

 this great master in research. 



Professor O. Petterson, of Stockholm, 

 writes of Nilson; Sir Henry E. Roscoe in a 

 delightful sketch of Bunsen, his intimate 

 friend and teacher, mentions many amusing 

 episodes of the absent-minded, genial, big- 

 framed man who has been loved by all who 

 came into contact with him ; Dr. P. P. Bedson 

 portrays Lothar Meyer; Professor J. M. 

 Crafts, of Boston, writes of his warm friend, 

 Friedel; and Dr. Thorpe, of London, writes of 

 the brilliant Victor Meyer as well as of Her- 

 mann Kopp. With each of the twelve lectures 

 there is an excellent portrait of the person 

 sketched, and most of the lectures contain 

 valuable bibliographies. A copy of this 

 memorable volume (of which the edition is 

 limited to 500) should be found in every good 

 library. 



Henry Carrington Bolton. 



Allgemeine Physiologie. Ein Grundriss der 

 Lehre vom Lehen. By Max Verworn. Third 

 edition, revised. Jena, G. Fischer. 1900. 

 Pp. 631; illustrations 295. 

 The facts that Professor Verworn's book has 

 reached its third German edition, and that it 

 has been translated into English, French, Rus- 

 sian and Italian, are evidence of its worth. 

 That it has exerted an influence on the de- 



velopment of physiology during the six years 

 of its existence is indicated by the frequency 

 of references to it in physiological literature. 

 The book improves with each successive 

 edition. In its present revision it is un- 

 changed in its fundamentals, btit from the first 

 to the last page it gives evidence of having 

 been thoughtfully worked over. Apart from 

 the alterations obligated by the newer re- 

 searches, portions of the previous editions 

 have been omitted, portions have been re- 

 written, and the language has constantly been 

 made more precise. The quantitative result 

 is an addition of twenty-five pages and ten 

 figures, while qualitatively there is a better- 

 ment throughout. A few of the special 

 features of the new edition may be here 

 mentioned. 



The use of the word EiweissJcdrper has 

 largely given place to that of Eiweissver- 

 hindungen, and stress is laid on the fact that 

 the life process consists in the metabolism of 

 the compounds of proteids rather than of pro- 

 teids alone. The section on ferments is largely 

 rewritten. As Emil Fischer has shown, it is 

 now recognized that each ferment acts on one 

 specific chemical body only, and not even on 

 the isomers of that body. In many cases of fer- 

 ment action by organisms, but not necessarily 

 in all, the efilcient substance is not the organism 

 itself, but something secreted by the organism. 

 Buchner proved this for alcoholic feraiienta- 

 tion by the yeast-cell, and gave the name 

 zymase to the enzyme. Another fact of in- 

 terest is that no synthetic ferments have yet 

 been discovered. Attention is called to the 

 well-known results of Loeb and others in arti- 

 ficial parthenogenesis. Peter's observations 

 that in ciliated cells the basal bodies are the 

 place of origin of the impulse to movement 

 are quoted. Peter's idea is supported by the 

 work of Gurwitsch on the development of cilia. 



The paragraphs on the origin of the current 

 in a voltaic cell are rewritten and Sohncke's 

 theory is replaced by that of JSTernst. Accord- 

 ing to ISTernst, metals have a great tendency 

 to give off their molecules as cations in solu- 

 tions of certain salts, the amount of loss de- 

 pending on the relation of the osmotic pres- 

 sure of the solution to the solution pressure 



