106 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1020 



of exterminating them. The slxtli chapter, 

 dealing with coceidiosis, gives an excellent 

 account of some common diseases of the iwul- 

 try yard, but omits even a reference to coceidi- 

 osis in man. The seventh chapter is devoted 

 to the organisms of amoebic dysentery; the 

 eighth to yellow fever, the authors being non- 

 committal as to the nature of the organism 

 producing it and confining themselves to the 

 clinical aspects of the disease and to the 

 mosquito which transmits it. The ninth 

 chapter is devoted to species of the genus 

 Babesia (Piroplasma) and the cattle diseases 

 caused by them ; the tenth to the organisms of 

 kala azar and oriental sore. The eleventh 

 chapter treats in a convincing manner of the 

 microsporidian diseases of bees and silkworms, 

 and the twelfth of myxosporidian diseases of 

 fish. The thirteenth and fourteenth deal with 

 parasitic ciliates, and with Sarcocystis, Bhino- 

 sporidium and Neurosporidium. 



The book is written in simple style and 

 with the untrained reader in mind. The re- 

 sult is a perfectly clear and intelligible ac- 

 count of the part played by different types of 

 protozoan parasites and by their intermedi- 

 ate hosts, while the life histories are sketched 

 with sufficient detail to permit of effective 

 prophylaxis by amateurs. To the scientific 

 reader, however, the style is somewhat aggra- 

 vating and the arrangement of material more 

 so. He is told in the opening chapter that the 

 Protozoa are distributed in five great groups : 

 Barcodina, Mycetozoa, Mastigophora, Sporo- 

 zoa and Infusoria, but from this point on 

 ■there is no effort at systematic treatment. 

 Certain flagellates are first described in de- 

 tail; next come a few members of the spiro- 

 chsBte group which are regarded as lying " on 

 the border line between animals and plants " 

 (why not between flagellates and bacteria?). 

 Then the reader jumps to the Bcemosporidia 

 to learn about malaria and mosquitoes, which 

 the authors speak of sometimes as gnats, some- 

 times as flies, correctly enough, to be sure, but 

 somewhat colloquial. This is followed by an 

 extended account of intestinal diseases of 

 poultry due to certain species of Coccidium 

 which the authors persistently call Eimeria. 



The next jump is to the parasitic amoebae of 

 man which are skilfully treated. The reader 

 then skips back to the Hwmosporidia to learn 

 about piroplasmosis, and then back again to 

 the flagellates to read about leishmaniosis, 

 while another saltation brings him once more 

 to the Sporozoa, where he flnds an excellent 

 treatment of microsporidiosis of bees and silk- 

 worms and a less satisfactory account of 

 myxosporidiosis of fish. To the mind of the 

 reviewer the book would have been materially 

 improved by more systematic treatment along 

 the lines of either taxonomy or mode of in- 

 fection, e. g., by contamination, by flies and 

 other insects, by arachnids, leeches, etc. Why 

 should Trypanosoma, Herpetomonas and 

 Crithidia be widely separated from Leish- 

 manial to which they are closely related sys- 

 tematically? Or why should Plasmodium be 

 widely separated by intervening coccidia and 

 rhizopods from Babesia? Yellow fever also, 

 in our ignorance of the causative agent, would 

 have been better placed after malaria as a 

 mosquito-borne disease. 



Editorially the work is prepared with care, 

 and comparatively few slips have passed xm- 

 noticed. Some uncertainty exists in regard 

 to the termination in words like leishmaniasis, 

 microsporidiosis, myxosporidiosis, etc., but as 

 both forms are in current use it can not be 

 called an error. " Sex " is used in the sense 

 of fertilization by union of two cells (p. 3). 

 Inheritance of acquired characters is credited 

 to some Protozoa (p. 287 and p. 297). A pe- 

 culiar expression is found on p. 264 : " Multi- 

 plication among Ciliates is abundant " ; and 

 another on p. 162 : " It was then that the cases 

 of yellow fever that have visited England were 

 chiefly notified." A mis-statement is made in 

 connection with the nuclear reorganization of 

 ex-conjugants, on p. 265 ; and another in which 

 it is implied that all free-living ciliates bear 

 trichocysts, on p. 264; and an oversight in 

 proof-reading was responsible for the slip^ 

 " each of the two give rise " (p. 178). These, 

 however, are small matters which take away 

 nothing from the value of the book. On the 

 other hand, its value might be enhanced by 

 better arrangement of material and by a 



