Maech 19, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



481 



SCIENTIFIC LITEBATUBE. 



Electro-Physiology. By W. Biedeemann, Pro- 

 fessor in Physiology in Jena. Translated by 

 Frances A. Welby. Macmillan & Co., Lon- 

 don and New York. 1896. Vol. I. Pp. 522. 

 The perusal of such a work rather ' takes it 

 out of one ' under the most favorable conditions. 

 With regard to the present treatise, a great deal 

 may be said in praise of the patience with which 

 the material has been collated, and the sound- 

 ness of the conclusions which have been drawn 

 from experimental facts. Indeed, the scientific 

 independence of the author is evinced in the 

 homogeneity of the work, which is far from be- 

 ing a mere compilation. On the other hand, 

 the intrinsic difficulties of the subject are much 

 increased by the labored style of their presenta- 

 tion ; the sentences are frequently huge in 

 length, and the noun substantive is commonly 

 required to be carried in mind through several 

 successive paragraphs. The pedagogic error, 

 so common with investigators, of presuming too 

 much on the ability of the student to read be- 

 tween the lines, is here too constantly illus- 

 trated. Another practical defect of the work is 

 the lack of topical subdivisions of its subject- 

 matter, by which device the reader might have 

 been enabled to refer at once to any desired 

 point of the discussion. Also, in a book de- 

 signed chiefly for the use of investigators, a 

 more complete bibliography of the subject than 

 that which has been given might fairly have 

 been expected. In all these respects the work 

 is far less admirable than that which pertains 

 to the same subject in Hermann's Handhuch 

 der Physiologie, published seventeen years ago, 

 and is much inferior in the presentation of its 

 histological sections to the corresponding parts 

 of Quain's Anatomy. 



The name ' Electro-Physiology,' by which the 

 book is announced, is ill-chosen and by no means 

 denotes its scope, as is evidenced by the follow- 

 ing chapter divisions of the subject : 



1. Organization and Structure of Muscle, pp. 

 51. 



2. Change of Form in Muscle during Activ- 

 ity, pp. 199. 



3. The Electrical Excitation of Muscle, pp. 

 156. 



4. Electro-motive Action in Muscle, pp. 122. 



5. Electro-motive Action of Epithelial and 

 Gland Cells, pp. 57. 



After giving due weight to these criticisms, it 

 is only fair to say that, since the appearance of 

 Hermann's Handhuch, there has been no such 

 approach to providing the student of physiology 

 with a complete exposition of present knowl- 

 edge of the field covered, as is made by this 

 treatise of Biedermann. 



When the reader has become familiar, with 

 the intricacies of his style it is clearly seen that 

 the author is master of his subject ; he has suc- 

 ceeded to a singular degree in linking his data 

 into a continuous story, which, now and then, 

 is summarized to show what general truths have 

 been gained and whither they lead. It is the 

 opprobrium of our knowledge of nerve-muscle 

 physiology that, though its study has developed 

 a vast number of experimental facts, it is well- 

 nigh impossible to sift those that pertain essen- 

 tially to the living organism from those of 

 purely instrumental origin. Professor Bieder- 

 mann, while giving full treatment of the ex- 

 perimental processes lying at the base of his 

 conclusions, has done much towards providing 

 a philosophical exposition of our knowledge. 

 The author is at his best the greater the intrin- 

 sic difficulty of the subject he expounds ; while, 



g., his description of the comparative histol- 

 ogy of muscle lacks much in clearness, his ac- 

 jount of the intricate optical changes undergone 

 by the contracting tissue is admirable. The 

 statement, p. 55, that a single muscular twitch 

 is characterized by 'rapid contraction, with 

 much slower subsequent elongation,' is cer- 

 tainly misleading as regards the action of fresh 

 muscle under tension. The so-called ' latent 

 period ' of muscular excitement, or the time 

 elapsing between the application of a stimulus 

 and the beginning of muscular shortening, which 

 was first announced by Helmholtz to have the 

 value of about .01 sec, has gradually been re- 

 duced by subsequent investigators. 



The author's discussion of this subject is one 

 of his best. It is strange, however, that the 

 mechanical factor involved in the latent period 

 is neither here nor in other werks more clearly 

 expressed. As the strength of a single stimulus 

 is gradually increased, so as to produce a series 



