Febkuaet 14, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



263 



additions have been counter-balanced by the 

 elimination of material which could be spared, 

 and the volume, therefore, remains of prac- 

 tically the same size as in the first edition. 



At this time when physiological facts and 

 methods are becoming more generally recog- 

 nized for their importance in experimental 

 pathology and surgery it is highly gratifying 

 that so excellent a treatise as Professor How- 

 ell's can be placed in the hands of students 

 who are to become the future investigators 

 and practitioners of scientific medicine. So 

 few text-books are written now-a-days by men 

 who are themselves active in research that the 

 spirit of research rarely is expressed in them. 

 This book, however, is an exception to the 

 rule. Professor Howell has not hesitated to 

 bring before his readers phases of physiology 

 in which the conclusions are not yet settled; 

 the student is thus made to see that there are 

 live issiies in the determination of which he 

 may himself engage. Other evidence of the 

 hand of the scholar in this book is the pres- 

 ence of numerous references to the original 

 sources. This feature, likewise, is so unusual 

 in the conventional text-book that it is worth 

 noting and conmiending as admirable. By 

 these methods the student may be led to take 

 no secondary account as final authority, but 

 to base his judgment on the weighing of first 

 evidence. It is a real pleasure to find these 

 scholarly qualities in an American text-book 

 widely used by American students. 



Walter B. Cannon 



The Microscopy of Technical Products. By 

 Dr. T. F. Hanausek, Director of the Gym- 

 nasium at Krems on the Danube ; Member of 

 Various Imperial Commissions and Learned 

 Societies ; formerly Professor of Natural 

 History at Vienna, Analyst of the Govern- 

 ment Food Laboratory at Vienna, etc. Re- 

 vised by the author and translated by An- 

 drew L. Winton, Ph.D., Chief of the Chi- 

 cago Food and Drug Laboratory, Bureau of 

 Chemistry, U. S. Department of Agricul- 

 ture ; formerly in charge of the Analytical 

 Laboratory of the Connecticut Agricultural 

 Experiment Station, with the collaboration 

 of Kate G. Barber, Ph.D., Microscopist of 



the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment 

 Station. With 276 illustrations. New 

 York, John Wiley & Sons; London, Chap- 

 man & Hall, Limited. 1907. Cloth, $5.00. 

 With the development and application of 

 scientific methods in all lines of industry and 

 with the increasing use of the microscope in 

 the analysis of various raw and manufactured 

 products, the need for books dealing with its 

 application in this field is being felt in this 

 country as well as abroad, and we in this 

 country are highly indebted to Dr. Winton for 

 making available first the valuable work of 

 Moeller on food products and now the work 

 by Hanausek on technical products. 



As stated in the preface, Hanausek's work is 

 intended on the one hand as a text-book for 

 the " student entering the field of technical 

 microscopy," the requirements being that he 

 shall possess a general knowledge of the 

 natural sciences, particularly the morphology 

 and histology of organisms, and shall also be 

 familiar with the principles of chemistry ; and 

 on the other hand, as an aid in the solution of 

 practical problems. Thus, as stated by the 

 translator, the book " is unique in that it 

 teaches the microscopic identification of tech- 

 nical products and at the same time the 

 fundamental principles of vegetable histology 

 and the histology of certain animal ma- 

 terials " as well. 



The author's reputation as a teacher, in- 

 vestigator and technical expert, and the trans- 

 lator's ability and experience as an analyst, 

 assure at once the high character of the work 

 and bespeak for it a wide use in this country. 



The book covers some 471 pages, and is 

 divided into two parts. Part I. includes three 

 chapters and deals with the microscope, micro- 

 scopic accessories and micro-technique. Part 

 II. embraces nine chapters, and treats of the 

 microscopy of the most important types of 

 technical raw materials under the following 

 heads: (1) Starch and Inulin; (2) Vegetable 

 Fibers, including hairs, the fibers of mono- 

 cotyledonous and dicotyledonous stems, and the 

 microscopic examination of paper; (3) Animal 

 Hairs, Silk and Silk Substitutes, Mineral 

 Fibers, and Microscopic Examination of Textile 



