July 18, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



95 



c 



The two chapters which follow are devoted 

 to a description of the different processes used 

 in the detection and estimation of the various 

 sugars in urine. There is much unnecessary 

 detail regarding methods that are practically 

 obsolete and the reader is not suiSciently in- 

 formed as to which of those described the 

 author, from personal experience, would recom- 

 mend him to employ. The use of charcoal 

 for the clarification of turbid urine (for 

 polariscope examination) is condemned, be- 

 cause of adsorption of some of the sugar (p. 

 98), but no mention is made of the prevention 

 of this adsorption when acetone or acetic acid 

 is present in the solution. The method de- 

 scribed for the estimation of the sugar in 

 blood is obsolete. 



In the chapter entitled " Experimental Gly- 

 cosuria " a clear and well-arranged account of 

 the results of some of the more recent labo- 

 ratory investigations on this subject is given. 

 The author, probably because he has not per- 

 sonally participated in such types of investi- 

 gation, does not attempt to -offer much criti- 

 cism of the work; as a rule, he merely restates 

 the views of others, thus leaving the reader to 

 draw his own conclusions. In several parts 

 of this chapter, however, the subject matter is 

 not brought up to date as, for instance, in 

 connection with the supposed antagonistic ac- 

 tion of the pancreatic and adrenal glands in 

 the control of the amount of sugar in the 

 blood. The paragraphs on the relationship of 

 the thyroid and parathyroid glands to carbo- 

 hydrate metabolism and " on a theory of the 

 co-relation of the ductless glands " are one- 

 sided and highly speculative. 



The remaining chapters are devoted to a 

 study of the various degrees of transient and 

 persistent glycosuria met with in man. This 

 is distinctly the most important half of the 

 book, for, while giving a well-arranged review 

 of the work of other investigators, important 

 personal experiences of the author himself are 

 presented. Although it would be out of place 

 for us to review at all extensively, this clin- 

 ical portion of the book, there are yet one or 

 two criticisms which may be appropriate. 



The account of the behavior of the creatin- 

 creatinin excretion in diabetes is not brought 

 up to date; there is practically no mention of 

 the recent observations on the changes in the 

 amount of the blood-sugar in diabetes; the 

 so-called pancreatic reaction in the urine is 

 not described in sufficient detail to make it 

 possible for one unfamiliar with the author's 

 previous writings to apply it properly, or even 

 to understand upon what principles the reac- 

 tion depends. The author lays great stress on 

 the existence of pancreatic disease in most 

 cases of diabetes, but beyond giving the case 

 histories of a few diabetics in which pancre- 

 atic lesions may have existed, he adds no 

 further evidence in support of such a con- 

 clusion. 



The chapters on metabolism and treatment 

 are distinctly successful and should be most 

 useful to those called upon to treat this dis- 

 ease. 



Taking the book as a whole it is not too 

 much to say that it ranks with the best that 

 have been written in this field. It is con- 

 servative and does not, as many of its fore- 

 runners do, extol any " specific " treatment 

 which can be applied in all cases. On the 

 contrary, it is frequently insisted upon that 

 every case of diabetes must be considered as 

 a problem in itself, and that the treatment 

 must be adjusted so as to meet the peculiar 

 conditions which it exhibits. 



J. J. E. Macleod 



Western Reserve Medical College 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



THE PREVALENCE OF BACILLUS RADICICOLA IN SOIL 



The fact that soils from fields where legu- 

 minous plants bear nodules upon their roots 

 may be used as a means of introducing this 

 type of nitrogen-fixing bacteria into barren 

 soil shows clearly that the different varieties 

 of Bacillus radicicola, the organism which 

 causes the root nodules, find a congenial hab- 

 itat in many kinds of soil. Aside from its 

 manifestations in the symbiotic relationship 

 with leguminous roots, however, practically 

 nothing is known regarding the distribution 



