December 20, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



969 



of the work. The work is at best a provisional 

 one, and one which will require constant 

 modification and perfection in future years. 

 On the whole, the work is of a high character 

 and must hereafter form a part of the library of 

 every bacteriological laboratory. 



H. W. Conn. 



Das Wirhelthierhlut in Mikrokristallographischer 

 Hinsicht. Von Dr. H. U. Kobert, mit einem 

 Vorworte von Professor Dr. R. Kobert. 

 Stuttgart, Ferdinand Enke. 1901. Pp.118, 

 mit 26 in den Text gedruckten Abbildungen. 

 The reviewer does not recall any monograph 

 since Preyer's ' Die Blutkrystalle ' (1871) which 

 presents the literature on the crystalline deriva- 

 tives of the blood in the manner of this little 

 book. In view of the medico-legal importance 

 of the microchemical methods for the detection 

 of blood, Dr. Kobert has given in detail nu- 

 merous directions for obtaining various blood- 

 pigment derivatives in crystalline form ; many 

 of these have originally been suggested by the 

 well-known pharmacologist and physiological 

 chemist. Professor R. Kobert of Rostock, to 

 whom the author — his nephew — is largely in- 

 debted. While the monograph is intended for 

 physicians and chemists rather than for the 

 crystallographer, purely chemical methods of 

 examination are only considered incidentally. 

 Each chapter concludes with an historical sum- 

 mary of the literature on its subject. Among 

 the topics treated are hemocyanin, in con- 

 nection with which the reader may now con- 

 sider the very recent paper by Henze (Zeitschr. 

 /. Physiol. Chem., XXXIII., 370), arterin and 

 phlebin, to prove the independent existence of 

 which (in distinction from oxyhsemoglobin and 

 hsetnoglobin) the author devotes considerable 

 space ; methsemoglobin and similar compounds ; 

 hsematin and hsemin, with many (in part unpub- 

 lished) data regarding the so-called Teichmann's 

 crystals ; haemochromogen, of the crystals of 

 which several photomicrographs are reproduced 

 and form a useful addition to the usual text- 

 book description ; hsematoporphyrin, melanins, 

 serum-proteid crystals, hsemosterin and a few 

 other crystalline derivatives. 



Dr. Kobert' s monograph may properly be 

 studied in connection with Schulz's ' Die Krys- 



tallisation von EiweissstofFen ' (reviewed in Sci- 

 ence of November 1, 1901), which likewise 

 deals with the blood proteids. 



Lafayette B. Mendel. 

 Sheffield Scientific School 

 OF Yale University. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 



The Popular Science Monthly for December 

 has for its first article ' A Mechanical Solution 

 of a Literary Problem ' by T. C. Mendenhall, 

 this being the noting of the relative frequency 

 with which words of a given number of letters 

 occur in the writings of various authors as com- 

 pared with Shakespeare. The results were 

 plotted in curves, and the curve derived from 

 the plays of Marlowe was almost identical with 

 that derived from the plays of Shakespeare. 

 Sir Robert GifFen discusses ' The Importance of 

 General Statistical Ideas,' showing the applica- 

 tion of Statistics to the solution of such ques- 

 tions as the probable increase of population, 

 food supply, commerce or manufactures. R, 

 T. Glazebrook describes ' The Aims of the 

 National Physical Laboratory of Great Britain ' 

 and under the title ' Cement for a Modern 

 Street ' S. F. Peckham treats of the progress 

 that has been made in the manufacture of good 

 cements. In ' The Influence of Rainfall on 

 Commerce and Politics ' H. Helm Clayton 

 shows that there is a certain periodicity in years 

 of abundant rainfall and consequent plentiful 

 food supply and general prosperity. The po- 

 litical party which chances to be in power dur- 

 ing these seasons of plenty assumes the credit 

 for them which is really due to weather con- 

 ditions. William L. Poteat tells of ' Lucretius 

 and the Evolution Idea ' and D. T. MacDougal 

 briefly describes ' The Sensory Mechanism of 

 Plants.' Finally, under the caption ' The Re- 

 ception of the Origin of Species,' we have a re- 

 print of some of the more noted reviews which 

 appeared shortly after the publication of that 

 work. 



Bird Lore for November-December completes 

 the third volume of this magazine, and contains 

 the index for the past year. The number com- 

 prises 'Recognition Marks of Birds,' by Ernest 

 Seton-Thompson ; 'A Bird of the Season,' by 



