io8 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. XXI. No. 525 



been needed to convince the " practical inan " of the ultimate ad- 

 vantage to the race of "pure " science and " pure " investigation 

 that word would have been added in these latter days by the devel- 

 opment of the science of bacteriology. To have given to the world 

 for the first time a rational theory of infectious disease, and to 

 have indicated the therapeutic possibilities of the future are 

 achievements that may well make the last quarter of the nine- 

 teenth century memorable in the history of human progress. 



It is eminently fitting that Br. Sternberg, vpho has himself 

 done much to increase our knowledge of bacteriology, and who 

 was one of the pioneers in the work in this country, should give 

 to the English-reading public their first adequate survey of the 

 bacteriological field. His manual at once takes its place as the 

 standard bacteriology in the English language. 



Tbe bulky volume of 886 pages is divided into four parts, the 

 first treating of classification, morphology, and general bacterio- 

 logical technology; the second of general biological character; 

 the third of pathogenic bacteria, and the fourth of saprophytes. 

 An invaluable bibliography, covering over 100 pages, and an in- 

 dex conclude the volume. The press-work is on the whole excel- 

 lent, but we must enter our protest against the thickness of the 

 paper used. A thinner paper would have given even greater 

 satisfaction to the eye, while its use would have considerably re- 

 duced the awkward size of the book. The use of needlessly 

 thick paper, however, is so common a failing of American book- 

 makers that it is perhaps hypercritical to bring it up in this in- 

 stance. The plates and text figures are executed in an unusually 

 satisfactory manner, and the photomicrographs are of the high 

 degree of excellence to be expected from one as expert in the 

 technique of photomicrography as the author of this book. 



Among the most timely and practical portions of the manual 

 may be mentioned the chapters on antiseptics and disinfectants, 

 the Influence of physical agents upon bacteria, the practical 

 direction for disinfection, etc. Lengthy quotation is made from 

 the Report of the Committee on Disinfectants appointed by the 

 American Public Heaith Association, principally to keep before 

 the public the high merit of chloride of lime as a ready and relia- 

 ble disinfectant. Reference is made, also, to the use of fresh 

 bread for rubbing down the walls of an infected apartment. 

 This method is based on experiments of Esmarch, which seem to 

 indicate that this is the most reliable way of removing bacteria 

 from the walls and ceilings of infected rooms. 



A long and studied chapter is devoted to the consideration of 

 the vital questions of susceptibility and immunity. Dr. Stern- 

 berg, while disposed to accord to phagocytosis an important role 

 in some diseases, is profoundly impretsed — as are most bacteri- 

 ologists — by the remarkable evidence adduced during the last 

 few years in support of the " anti-toxine ■' theory. It is becom- 

 ing more and more probable that Metsohnikofi's brilliant phago- 

 cyte theory embodies at most only a partial explanation of the 

 facte of immunity. •' The experimental evidence detailed," says 

 Dr. Sternberg, "gives strong support to the view that acquired 

 immunity depends upon the formation of antitoxinesinthe bodies 

 of immune animals." 



The sections devoted to the description of such bacteria as have 

 a recognized pathogenic significance are compiled with the 

 fullest reference to recent investigations. Some students may, 

 however, wish that the wealth of material had been more criti- 

 cally arranged and more exhaustively indexed. 



A great boon to the student of bacteria from the botanical and 

 systematic side will be the descriptions of tbe common bacteria of 

 air, water, and soil. Only those who have attempted to compare 

 and identify forms encountered in every-day experience are 

 aware of the labor involved in tbe compilation of these data. 

 Dr. Sternberg's work ought to give a strong impetus to the move- 

 ment to bring order out of the existing chaos of vague " species " 

 and vaguer " forms." 



As is well-nigh inevitable in a book covering so much ground 

 — and ground, too, that is shifting under one's feet — various 

 errors of omission and commission are apparent,. In the first 

 place, it is evident that the index to a work of such magnitude 

 should be thoroughgoing and should not shrink from numerous 

 cross-references. The fact that the index before us contains 



under the heading " Cholera" no reference to the pages dealing 

 with Asiatic cholera (pp. 500-509), a topic which at present is 

 always with us, indicates opportunities for expansion. The 

 reader who turns the pages and sees something about "alexines"' 

 (p. 261) and something about "splenic fever" (p. 327) \^]l find 

 in the index no entry under either of these heads. 



Among oversights in proof-reading maybe mentioned the sub- 

 stitution of "Chamberlain" for " Chamberland " (pp. 57-59;, the 

 use of "aerobic" and "anaerobic" for the more usual nouns 

 "aerobe" and "anaerobe" (pp. 78-83), "micrography" for 

 "micrographie " (p. 8), etc. On page 237 is a singularly in- 

 volved translation from a memoir by Pasteur. The following 

 sentences fairly represent the style: "The fowls are then in the 

 constitutional state of fowls not subject to be attacked by the 

 disease. These last are as if vaccinated from birth for this 

 malady, because the foetal evolution has not introduced into their 

 bodies the material necessary to support the life of the microbe, 

 or these nutritive materials have disappeared at an early age." 



These blemishes, however, donot seriously mar the general ex- 

 cellence of the manual. It is to be hoped that Dr. Sternberg 

 may see his way clear to the preparation of successive editions 

 of this valuable work. In a science that is advancing so rapidly 

 as bacteriology, new facts are constantly coining to light and 

 compelling frequent revision of our views. Dr. Sternberg has 

 brought the present volume well up to the latest researches and 

 thus encourages us to hope for a second edition as soon as the 

 progress of bacteriology shall demand it. 



Discussion of the Precision of Measurements. By Silas. W. 



HOLMAN, S.B. New York, John Wiley & Sons, 1892. 17ft 



p. 8°. $2. 

 Professor Holman, perhaps even more than the average phys- 

 icist of experience in experimental work, has made a specialty of 

 the science of exact measurements. His work, like that of Dr. 

 A. M. Mayer and of Dr. Rowland, has involved, more than is 

 common, the application of refined methods of determinations of 

 quantity to the investigation of those insensible physical phenom- 

 ena which ordinary modes of measurement are incompetent even 

 to reveal; methods formerly little known or practised in this 

 country, but now familiar to the younger pliysicists through the 

 work of these leaders in this department of research. In the vol- 

 ume before us are collected a series of articles originally prepared 

 for the Technology Quarterly and Electrical Engineer, revised and 

 o-iven more complete and Jformal shape for permanent preserva- 

 tion, and for the use of students and their instructors, both in 

 pure physics and in the applied science of the engineer. These 

 studies are valuable, not only as giving useful knowledge and 

 power of accomplishment of professional work, but as stimulating 

 the young aspirant for learning and reputation and giving him 

 an attitude of mind in itself desirable and fruitful of good result. 

 As remarked by its author, " An experimental result whose re- 

 liability is unknown is nearly worthless. The grade of accuracy 

 of a measurement must be adapted to the purpose for which the 

 result is desired. The necessary accuracy must be secured with 

 the least possible expenditure of labor. These statements apply 

 no less to the roughest than to the most elaborate work which 

 the engineer is called upon to perform ; they are no more true of 

 refined scientific research than of ever-day engineering and in- 

 dustrial practice." The book is thus of especial value to both 

 classes, whose methods, indeed, are daily becoming more and 

 more alike in their refinements, and in their purposes and appli- 

 cations. In modern researches especially, in the development of 

 the phenomena underlying the operation of the steam-engine, in 

 the construction of the dynamo-electric machine, in the transfer 

 and transformation of energies, of whatever kind, the contem- 

 porary engineer and physicist are working together, and some- 

 times each doing important work in the special field reserved to 

 the other. Especially is this the fact in electrical physics, in 

 which branch the department of pure science occupied by the 

 physicist and that of applied science which constitutes engineer- 

 ing, blend insensibly, and their work is performed, within a large 

 area of boundary territory, by members of both professions alike. 

 The electrician is sometimes confounded with the electrical engi- 



