NOVEMBEK 26, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



1&1 



sure that Dr. Cohn and all concerned would 

 regret it exceedingly. 



Dr. Lhamon's paper describing the method 

 appeared in the American Journal of Anatomy 

 for March, 1912, and Dr. Cohn's publication 

 did not appear until May, 1913 {Heart, 1913, 

 iv, 225). Dr. Cohn's paper dealt with the sub- 

 ject in a different manner from Dr. Lhamon's, 

 and did not purport to be the description of a 

 new method. In this paper Dr. Cohn ex- 

 pressly states how he learned that such injec- 

 tions were possible, and gives a reference to 

 Dr. Lhamon's communication. It hardly 

 seems, therefore, that Dr. Meyer has any seri- 

 ous ground for complaint or cause for worry. 

 If any doubts remain in his mind, he should 

 be reassured by the fact that in the monograph 

 by Aagaard and Hall, " Ueber Injektionen des 

 ' Eeizleitungssystems ' und der Lymphgef asse 

 des Saugetierherzens " (Wiesbaden, 1914), 

 priority is given to Lhamon, although they 

 were familiar with Cohn's paper in which 

 reference is made to the report in the IsTew 

 York Pathological Society Transactions. 



EuFus Cole 

 Hospital oif the Eockepeller Institute, 

 November 16, 1915 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 

 Methods in Plant Histology. By Ohakles J. 

 Chamberlain, professor of botany in the 

 University of Chicago. University of Chi- 

 cago Press, 1915. Price $2.25. 

 When a work like the present has reached 

 its third. edition there can be no question as to 

 its value for the public to which it appeals. It 

 begins with an account -of apparatus, includ- 

 ing some valuable improvements which have 

 originated in the botanical laboratories of the 

 University of Chicago. There follow chapters 

 on reagents, stains and staining, microchemical 

 tests, free-hand sections, the glycerin method, 

 the Venetian turpentine method, the paraffine 

 method, the celloidin method, special methods 

 and photomicrographs and lantern, slides. The 

 last two chapters contain the chief novelties of 

 the edition and one can only say of them that 

 they are excellent but might with advantage 

 be much fuller. One wonders, however, why 



slow contrast plates are used for the photo- 

 micrographs instead of more rapid iso- or chro- 

 matic plates, which would give better results 

 in much less time. 



The second part of the treatise, covering 

 more than half its total number of pages, is 

 devoted to the specific directions for securing 

 and studying representatives of the various 

 groups of lower and higher plants. This sec- 

 tion of the work will appeal specially to those 

 taking extension courses and to teachers, whose 

 acquaintance with laboratory methods is not 

 recent. Following the specific directions for 

 the study of the larger groups of plants are 

 final chapters on the use of the microscope, 

 labelling and cataloguing preparations, class list 

 of preparations and formula for reagents. Last 

 of all the book closes with a good index. It is 

 copiously illustrated often by means of excel- 

 lent photomicrograms. The best that can be 

 said of this work is that it will do for the 

 American student of botany, what Strasburg- 

 er's " Botanische Practicum " has done for 

 those of all lands. Like the " Practicum " of 

 the great German morphologist it has passed 

 through a number of editions, an unquestion- 

 able tribute to its value. E. C. Jeffrey 



W. I. Palladin, Pflanzenanatomie, nach der 

 fuenfien russischen Auflage uehersetzt and 

 hearheitet. Von S. Tschulok. Leipzig u. 

 Berlin, B. G. Teubner, 1914. 

 This work on anatomy by one of the pro- 

 fessors of botany in the University of St. 

 Petersburg (Petrograd) is essentially the so- 

 called physiological plant-anatomy of Haber- 

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 morphology of Strasburger. It is a curious 

 phenomenon to find German ideas thrown into 

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 of German origin by a Russian botanist, trans- 

 lated back into the Teutonic speech for German 

 consumption. The loss in this peculiar sort 

 of metempsychosis is much less than one would 

 suspect but the advantage of it is difiicult to 

 imagine. The work in question is chiefly valu- 

 able, not because it presents any new points of 

 view or is illustrated by any new figures, but 

 because it presents a clear and readable resume 



