December 5, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



821 



the production of ferments specifically built to 

 digest these foreign bodies. The test for these 

 ferments is made by permitting the serum of 

 the diseased individual to act upon the tissue 

 of the organ at fault and searching for diges- 

 tive products. The systematic test of organ 

 after organ against the specific ferments 

 formed would thus show which structure or 

 structures was diseased, for only the patho- 

 logically altered organ or organs would undergo 

 digestion. 



It also would seem possible to study the 

 interrelation of organs: when one organ is 

 extirpated its absence afFects some other struc- 

 ture or structures and causes the formation of 

 abnormal metabolic products which in turn 

 will betray their presence by the occurrence 

 of specific ferments against themselves in the 

 serum. Indeed, Abderhalden considers these 

 defensive ferments, which are possibly formed 

 by the leucocytes, as reagents for the detection 

 of the characteristic structure of cellular con- 

 stituents, and he justly points out that this 

 conception opens up an enormous field for 

 fruitful investigation. 



The experimental technique for the detec- 

 tion of these ferments is full of diiSculties. As 

 the ferments themselves can not be isolated, 

 their presence is proven, in the dialysis 

 method, by demonstrating the occurrence of 

 diffusible cleavage products after the serum 

 has acted upon the prepared proteid. This 

 demands a rigid asepsis to prevent bacterial 

 contaminations. In addition there are numer- 

 ous details upon whose observance Abderhalden 

 emphatically insists. A full discussion of all 

 these points, in fact a complete laboratory 

 guide for the practical worker in this special 

 field, forms an important part of the second 

 edition of the booklet; this section wiU aid 

 greatly in bringing about a full and rigid test. 

 From the short statement given above it will 

 be seen that Abderhalden's brilliant develop- 

 ment of this view concerning a defensive 

 mechanism of the body has a breadth and 

 promise which fully warrants the interest the 

 scientific medical world has shown. 



John Auer 



EOCKEFELLER INSTITUTE 



Bovine Tuberculosis and Its Control. By 

 Veranus Alva Moore, B.S., M.D., V.M.D., 

 Professor of Comparative Pathology, Bac- 

 teriology and Meat Inspection, New York 

 State Veterinary College at Cornell Uni- 

 versity, and Director of the College. Ithaca, 

 N. T., Carpenter & Company. 1913. 

 The title of this book and the name of the 

 author would naturally lead one to expect a 

 complete treatise on this important subject. 

 The book, however, is a distinct disappoint- 

 ment. 



It contains 104 pages of matter by Dr. 

 Moore. There is an appendix of 34 pages, 

 which gives the Report of the International 

 Commission on the Control of Bovine Tuber- 

 culosis, and following this are 30 plates, 

 which for the most part are excellent. 



The scope of the book can be understood by 

 noting the space devoted to the different sub- 

 jects. " The History of Tuberculosis in 

 Cattle," occupies three and three fourths 

 pages ; " Distribution, Economic and Sani- 

 tary Importance of Bovine Tuberculosis " 

 takes up nine pages. The " Sanitary Im- 

 portance," which is included in this chapter, 

 takes up one and three fourths pages. " The 

 Symptoms of Tuberculosis " are given in three 

 and three fourths pages, and so on. There is 

 scarcely a subject which is adequately 

 treated. In view of this, one would naturally 

 look for a great many omissions of important 

 matter, but it is hard to understand how even 

 a cursory history of this subject can be given 

 without referring to the work of the State 

 Live Stock Sanitary Board of Pennsylvania, 

 where for the first time in the world positive 

 proof was given that the bovjne tubercle ba- 

 cillus was transmissible to human beings, this 

 proof being adduced by the method laid down 

 by Koch, namely, the isolation of cultures 

 from persons who had died of the disease and 

 the inoculation of cattle. 



In the chapter entitled " The Cause of 

 Tuberculosis," page 17, is sandwiched in some 

 history and the statement that with Koch's 

 announcement in 1901 " there began one of 

 the most intense investigations into the na- 

 ture of a disease that has ever been recorded." 



