Septembee 23, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



409 



with 1,404 in 1879. Still, the fact remains 

 that the number is the smallest recorded since 

 the meeting at Dover in 1899. And this, not- 

 withstanding the fact that Sheffield has 

 doubled its population in the last thirty years, 

 and increased enormously also in wealth and 

 importance. 



Many reasons are given for this state of 

 things. By some it is attributed to the large 

 number of congresses annually held in various 

 parts of the United Kingdom and the Conti- 

 nent; by others to the lack of interest taken 

 by the general public in scientific progress ; by 

 others, again, to the highly abstruse and re- 

 condite nature of many of the papers sub- 

 mitted to the sections. It is pointed out, 

 moreover, that the number of scientific socie- 

 ties and institutions has enormously multi- 

 plied during the last few years, and that in 

 these bodies there is a steady and frequent 

 supply of reports and papers similar in kind 

 and quality to those which it has been cus- 

 tomary for so many years to contribute once 

 a year to the British Association. 



One thing is certain : that the president and 

 council of the association are alive to the 

 situation. They have given and are giving 

 earnest consideration to the question of how 

 to maintain in a high state of efficiency an 

 institution which has played so honorable a 

 part in the advancement of science in the 

 past; and are resolved to put forth every effort 

 to maintain its prestige and add to its useful- 

 ness. It is recognized that there has been too 

 great a tendency in recent years to the crea- 

 _tion of what may be described as water-tight 

 compartments. In some of the sections, more- 

 over, the papers read have been of so technical 

 a character as to preclude all possibility of 

 comprehension of them by more than a small 

 number of highly-trained experts. The Brit- 

 ish Association exists to welcome to its meet- 

 ings the results of the latest and most ad- 

 vanced research, but there is every desire to 

 minimize the disadvantages attendant on spe- 

 cialization. Hence the large number of joint 

 sittings of sections, which has been a notable 

 feature of the Sheffield meeting. — The London 

 Times. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 

 The Vegetable Proteins. By Thomas B. Os- 

 borne, Ph.D., Research Chemist in the Con- 

 necticut Agi'icultural Experiment Station, 

 New Haven, and Research Associate of the 

 Carnegie Institution of Washington, D. C- 

 Pp. xiii + 125. New York, Longmans, 

 Green, and Co. 1909. 



It would be difficult to name a scientist 

 better qualified to review the present status- 

 of our knowledge of the vegetable proteins 

 than the author of this monograph. For 

 twenty years Dr. Osborne has unremittingly 

 devoted his energies to the investigation of 

 the problems in this domain; and any ade- 

 quate presentation of the chemistry of plant 

 proteins must consist in large measure of a 

 resume of his own contributions to the sub- 

 ject. Out of the chaos of the earlier work 

 there has been evolved a more systematic 

 knowledge of a group of compounds whose 

 importance is just beginning to win appre- 

 ciation and application in many departments 

 of biological chemistry. Barely receiving 

 mention in the treatises of yesterday, the vege- 

 table proteins are to-day obtainable in a de- 

 gree of purity scarcely approached in the case 

 of the comparable compounds of animal 

 origin. They are therefore supplanting the 

 latter as materials for the study of protein 

 structure and metabolism; and the develop- 

 ment of protein chemistry is likely to receive 

 greater impetus in the immediate future in 

 connection with the products isolated from 

 plant sources. 



The present monograph has been written 

 with characteristic accuracy and betrays first- 

 hand knowledge of both facts and literature 

 on every page. Here one finds the first ade- 

 quate historical review of the subject, begin- 

 ning with Beccari's experiments with wheat 

 flour (1747) and the early story of gluten. A 

 brief description of the occurrence of proteins 

 in the diilerent parts of plants is accompanied 

 by chapters on the following topics : basic and 

 acid properties of proteins; their solubility, 

 precipitation, denaturing, and physical con- 

 stants; products of hydrolysis; classification; 



