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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIV. No. 878 



entered as partner. The plan then adopted con- 

 templated four volumes, two to be written by 

 each. Tait speedily wrote the first volume, 

 and had the great benefit of Thomson's advice 

 and revision; but Thomson did not immedi- 

 ately tackle the labor of writing the second 

 volume, and after some years it was impos- 

 sible for him to sit down to such a task on 

 account of the other exacting labors which 

 he had undertaken. As one of his most dis- 

 tinguished pupils said, Thomson was no 

 writer of text-books. In consequence the 

 other three volumes were never written. I be- 

 lieve that Thomson was to have written on 

 Electricity and Magnetism, and Tait on 

 Heat and Light. When a second edition of 

 the first volume was called for the matter was 

 extended into two separate parts, mainly from 

 additions contributed by Thomson. 



The remaining chapters show that Tait 

 wielded the pen of a ready writer. His li- 

 brary was largely his workshop. Like Max- 

 well, he could turn out good verses. Much 

 that he wrote was controversial in nature; 

 and, being apt to take an extreme view, he was 

 sometimes wanting in logical consistency. 

 All the same, he was one of the very great 

 mathematical physicists of the Victorian age; 

 and the ultimate verdict of the future will, I 

 believe, place him second only to Maxwell. 

 Alexander Macfaelane 



Chatham, Ontario, 

 Canada 



Chemistry of Food and Nutrition. By Henry 

 C. Sherman, Ph.D., Professor in Columbia 

 University. New York, The Macmillan Co. 

 Pp. viii + 355. 1911. Price $1.50. 

 In the preface to this volume the author 

 makes the following statement : " The pres- 

 ent work is the outgrowth of several years' 

 experience in teaching the subject to col- 

 legiate and technical students who have rep- 

 resented a considerable diversity of previous 

 training and points of view, and, while pub- 

 lished primarily to meet the needs of the au- 

 thor's classes, it is hoped that it may also be 

 of service to students and teachers elsewhere 

 and to general readers whose main interests 



may lie in other fields but who appreciate the 

 importance of food and nutrition as factors 

 in hygiene and preventive medicine." The 

 clear, thorough, modern and unbiased pre- 

 sentation of the fundamental facts and 

 theories of nutrition, given in this text-book, 

 should give it a necessary and permanently 

 useful place in the instructional work of our 

 American universities, and should also make 

 it a valuable and convenient source of infor- 

 mation to the general reader desiring accurate 

 knowledge in this important and vital sub- 

 ject. This text might well be extensively 

 used in our agricultural colleges as a prere- 

 quisite for the courses in animal nutrition 

 that are as yet often inadequately taught to 

 students in agricultural courses. 



The eleven chapters of this book are de- 

 voted to the following subjects: the organic 

 foodstuffs, the general composition of foods 

 and action of ferments, the course of the food 

 through the digestive tract, the fate of the 

 foodstuffs in metabolism, the fuel value of 

 food and the energy requirement of the body, 

 conditions affecting the total food require- 

 ments, protein metabolism and the protein 

 requirement, food habits and dietary stand- 

 ards, iron in food and its functions in nutri- 

 tion, inorganic foodstuffs and the mineral 

 metabolism, and criteria of nutritive value 

 and economy of foods. The appendix contains 

 tables showing (a) the edible organic nutri- 

 ents and fuel value of foods, together with the 

 weight in grams of the portion which would 

 supply 100 calories; (6) the ash constituents 

 of foods in percentage of the edible portion; 

 and (c) the ash constituents of foods in grams 

 per 100 calories of edible food material. The 

 complete index to the text will materially aid 

 the reader in finding what he wants, and the 

 numerous references to the original literature 

 will enable the advanced student to acquire a 

 first-hand knowledge of the facts and theories 

 of the science of nutrition. 



The subject matter given in the chapters 

 entitled the fuel value of food and the energy 

 requirement of the body, conditions affecting 

 the total food requirements, protein metab- 

 olism and the protein requirement, food hab- 



