380 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII. No. 427. 



Glycerine has distinct antiseptic powers. 

 It restrains the growth of most bacteria in 

 dilutions of 35 per cent. ; molds grow on the 

 surface of bouillon containing 48 per cent. : 

 no growth was observed above 50 per cent. 

 Its germicidal properties are very feeble. 

 It has practically no effect on spores, an- 

 thrax and tetanus being the spores tested. 

 Tetanus, however, does not multiply in 

 glycerinated lymph, nor in. bouillon con- 

 taining 60 per cent, of glycerine, the 

 amount used by manufacturers in glycerin- 

 ated virus. 



It was found that the antiseptic and 

 germicidal powers of glycerine varied some- 

 what with the kind of glycerine used, and 

 also with the organisms tested. Cholera 

 and plague were retarded by the presence 

 of 21 per cent, to 24 per cent., while pus 

 cocci grew in 31 per cent, and some molds 

 grew on the surface in 48 per cent. Pus 

 cocci are usually rendered sterile in 50 

 per cent, glycerine within five days, 

 though they were kept alive as long as ten 

 days in the ice-chest; they died more 

 quickly at incubator temperature. In 80 

 per cent, and 90 per cent, glycerine Staphy- 

 lococcus pyogenes aureus was kept alive 

 in the ice-chest at 12° C, 41 days. An- 

 thrax spores have been kept alive 247 days 

 and the experiments are still going on. 

 Tetanus spores were found viable in vari- 

 ous percentages of glycerine after 135 days 

 in the ice-chest. 



The Reaction of Certain Water Bacteria 

 with Dysentery-Immune Serum: D. H. 

 Beegey, University of Pennsylvania, 

 Philadelphia. 



A Mold Pathogenic to Loisters: F. P. 

 GoRHAM, Brown University. 



Complete Inhibition of the Cholera-Eed 

 Reaction hy Impure Peptone. James 

 Carroll, Army Medical Museum. 



Demonstration of the Value of Mac- 

 Conhey's Medium for the Differentiation 

 of B. coli from B. typhosus: N. MacL. 

 Harris, Johns Hopkins University. 

 Edvpin 0. Jordan, 



Secretary. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 



Ueher verschiedene Wege phylogenetischer 

 Entwichelung. By O. Jaekel. Jena, Gus- 

 tav Fischer. 1902. 8vo. Pp. 60; 28 text- 

 figures. 



Der Neo-LamarcMsmus und seine Bezie- 

 hungen zum Darwinismus. By E. voN 

 Wettstein. Jena, Gustav Piseher. 1903. 

 Svo. Pp. 30. 



The intensity which a few years ago char- 

 acterized the struggle between the opposing 

 camps of Neo-Lamarckism and Neo-Darwin- 

 ism has, fortunately, largely subsided. Some 

 new standpoints have arisen, notably those 

 afforded by the doctrine of organic selection 

 and by the rediscovery of the Mendelian law, 

 and there has been a general tendency to in- 

 qiiire more thoroughly into the laws of varia- 

 tion and to seek for the factors concerned in 

 that phenomenon. 



The fijst of the two pamphlets which form 

 the subject of this notice represents a phase of 

 this tendency, and is of interest as exhibiting 

 the views of a paleontologist who has had ac- 

 cess to and has made admirable use of an ex- 

 ceptional abundance of material bearing upon 

 the questions he discusses. In his opening 

 pages Professor Jaekel combats the idea that 

 if the paleontological record were complete it 

 would furnish evidence of almost insensible 

 transition from species to species, so that no 

 ' good ' species could exist for the paleontolo- 

 gist, and points out that an exhaustive search 

 for confirmation of this idea, extending 

 through the last three decades, has brought to 

 light only three more or less acceptable cases, 

 namely, those of the Steinbeim PlanorMs and 

 of the Pannonian and Kossian Paludinas, none 

 of which shows any more gradation than raay 

 be found in variable species of recent land 

 snails. 



