Septembeb 27, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



495 



path suggested no doubt by his long and suc- 

 cessful experience as a teacher. 



We would call especial attention to the fact 

 that the author has planned this course ' es- 

 pecially as a basis for ecology.' In some 

 quarters there is a feeling that ecology should 

 be one of the first things brought to the young 

 student's attention, and so we have a swarm of 

 elementary books for secondary school children 

 in which ' ecology ' figures prominently. We 

 are in full sympathy with the author when he 

 says, " More than one recent writer has de- 

 scribed ecology as at present mostly a series of 

 guesses ; and so will much of it continue to be 

 until given logical precision and a firm founda- 

 tion in exact physiology." Evidently ecology 

 ' must come after the student has prepared him- 

 self for it, and not as an introduction to botany. 



Dr. MacDougal's work is the first American 

 text-book of plant physiology of advanced 

 grade to be published. It is intended for and 

 adapted to the demands of such students as 

 have already made considerable progress in the 

 study of plant activities. In fact, we appre- 

 hend that to a large extent it will be the hand- 

 book for the teacher, rather than for the student. 

 However used, it must do much to stimulate 

 physiological inquiry in colleges and universi- 

 ties. The aim of the work is thus defined in 

 the preface, " The chief purpose of the author 

 is to present practical directions for the demon- 

 stration of the principal phenomena of the 

 physiology of the plant, and also details of ex- 

 perimental methods suitable for the exact 

 analyses requisite in research work." 



The sequence of topics is considerably differ- 

 ent from that usual in works on the physiology 

 of plants. Thus the author takes up in order, 

 'The Nature and Relations of an Organism,' 

 'Relations of Plants to Mechanical Forces,' 

 'Influence of Chemicals upon Plants,' 'Rela- 

 tions of Plants to Water,' ' Relations of Plants 

 to Gravitation,' 'Relations of Plants to Tem- 

 perature,' 'Relations of Plants to Electricity,' 

 and other forms of energy, ' Relations of Plants 

 to Light,' 'Composition of the Body,' 'Ex- 

 changes and Movements of Fluids,' ' Nutritive 

 Metabolism,' 'Respiration,' 'Fermentation 

 and Digestion,' 'Growth,' 'Reproduction.' It 



is difficult to specify chapters in a work in 

 which there is so much to commend, but to us 

 the most interesting is that on the ' Composition 

 of the Body ' (IX.), in which the treatment, 

 though not extended, is especially satisfactory. 

 Here the principal topics are ' Substances found 

 in Plants,' 'Carbohydrates,' 'Fractional Ex- 

 tractions,' 'Estimation of Tannins and Gluco- 

 sides,' ' Determination of Sugars and Dextrins, ' 

 'Starch,' 'Cellulose,' ' Proteids,' 'The Fats,' 

 ' Determination of Organic and Inorganic Mat- 

 ter,' 'Enzymes.' We venture to say that the 

 general introduction of the matter of this chap- 

 ter into plant physiology will revolutionize 

 much of the teaching of this subject in this 

 country. There has been too little of the 

 study of what plants actually are in the physi- 

 ology of the past, so far as this country is con- 

 cerned, and it is just here that American bot- 

 anists have been weakest. This book will serve 

 as a corrective, and it is to be hoped that it will 

 turn the attention of students in physiological 

 laboratories to this much-neglected aspect of 

 their work. 



Charles E. Bessey. 



NOTES. 



The American Institute of .Mining Engineers 

 will, as we learn from the Railway and Engineer- 

 ing Review^ publish two volumes as follows : 



1. 'The Genesis of Ore-Deposits,' compris- 

 ing the famous treatise of the late Professor 

 Franz Posepny, with the successive discussions 

 thereof by Le Conte, Blake, Winchell, Church, 

 Emmons, Becker, Cazin, Rickard and Raymond 

 (all of which were published in Volumes XXIII. 

 and XXIV. of the Transactions of the Institute, 

 and subsequently in the special 'Posepny 

 Volume,' issued by the Institute) ; also, later, 

 papers by Van Hise, Emmons, Weed, Lindgren, 

 Vogt, Kemp, Blake, Rickard and others, and 

 the discussion of these papers by De Launay, 

 Beck and many others (all of which will be 

 published in Volumes XXX. and XXXI.) ; also 

 a complete bibliography of the Institute papers 

 and discussions on this subject from 1871 to the 

 present time. The volume now in press will 

 be an octavo of about 825 pages, bound in 

 ' book-linen.' This book will be sent, postpaid, 



