1004 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 365. 



this section also Stern contributes an interest- 

 ing description of a case of ' Traumatic Neu- 

 rosis and Simulation,' which, after being diag- 

 nosed repeatedly by others as simple imposture, 

 the writer was led to regard as the manifesta- 

 tion of real suffering and deficiency. He closes 

 a discussion of the views of Charcot and others 

 on hysteria, hypnotism and allied phenomena, 

 with a plea for a more sympathetic attitude on 

 the part of physicians toward patients so af- 

 fected. 



The second part of the volume is devoted to 

 morphological subjects, and contains an article 

 by Schreiber, which is in the main a review of 

 the recent work on the so-called ' Clasmato- 

 cytes' and an investigation of their probable 

 origin and purpose. This is followed by Zander 

 on ' Schistosoma in Man — A Contribution to 

 the Mechanics of Development under Normal 

 and Pathological Conditions,' and Askanazy 

 on the ' Pathology of Bone ' in cases of graft- 

 ing and in the stump of a bone at the point of 

 amputation. 



The third and by far the largest part of the 

 volume contains investigations in pure chem- 

 istry, physiology, toxicology, experimental 

 pathology and bacteriology. The first of these 

 subjects is represented by Lossen on ' Phthalyl- 

 hydroxylamin and Related Compounds,' and 

 ' An Improved Nitrometer ' by Lassar-Cohn. 

 On the side of physicochemical methods in 

 physiology and medicine, Baumgarten discusses 

 * Haemolysis ' from the standpoint of the 

 changes in the osmotic pressures of the blood ; 

 and Th. Cohn advocates the introduction to 

 clinical use of the freezing-point method for the 

 determinations of alterations in the fluids of the 

 body. 



By investigations on ' The Influence^of Alter- 

 ations in the Kidney (either spontaneous 

 nephritis or from cantharides) on the Course 

 of Pancreas-Diabetes in Dogs' EUinger and 

 Seelig find that the elimination of sugar falls 

 both absolutely and relatively to the nitrogen, 

 but that this diminution in the glycosuria in no 

 wise diminishes the hyperglycemia, since it is 

 accompanied by an increase in the sugar con- 

 tent of the blood. From experiments, also on 

 dogs, ' On the Functional Capacity of the Heart 

 in Fatty Degeneration ' induced by ' Pulegon ' 



(a substance like phosphorus in its eflFect on 

 metabolism, but without direct influence on the 

 heart) Lindemann finds the force and rhythm of 

 the beat to remain long unaffected, and con- 

 cludes that the abnormalities which ultimately 

 result are due to the alterations in the cardiac 

 muscle itself, and not to any influence on its 

 nervous connections. 



Four articles represent physiological chemis- 

 try. Salkowski contributes an analysis of the 

 * Hydrocephalus Fluid,' in which, like other 

 observers, he finds an extremely small content 

 of solids (100 cc. containing only 0.43 gram 

 organic substances, mainly urea and dextrose, 

 and 0.77 gram inorganic) ; Lowrow reports a 

 study of the ' Decomposition Products of the 

 Haemoglobin of the Horse ' ; and "Weiss the 

 ' Separation of Methylpentose from White of 

 Egg,' its presence or absence depending upon 

 the food of the hen. In a study of the ' Gly- 

 cocol Supply of the Animal Organism,' by R. 

 Cohn, the methods used are essentially the same 

 as those employed by Lusk in this country, and 

 the results confirm the conclusions of the latter. 



In one of the two papers devoted to bacteri- 

 ology Hilbert is led by his experiments (on 

 white mice) to answer the question, ' Are Toxic 

 or Immunizing Substances Recognizable in the 

 Filtrate of Streptococcus Bouillon Cultures?' 

 in the negative. Finally, in perhaps the most 

 valuable contribution in the volume Hans 

 Meyer, on the basis of experiments performed 

 by him in conjunction with J. T. Halsey and 

 Fr. Ransom on ' Localized Tetanus,' shows 

 that the toxin when injected into a nerve acts 

 not only more quickly, but also more intensely, 

 than when injected subcutaneously, since by 

 the former method the spinal cord is reached 

 more completely and in more concentrated 

 form by the poison. It is further shown con- 

 clusively that the action of tetanus is entirely 

 central, and that the greater part of the time 

 of incubation is consumed in the slow passage 

 of the poison to the central ganglia, and only a 

 brief period in the performance of the chemical 

 reaction in the cells alfected. Finally, Meyer 

 concludes that the neutralizing action of the 

 antitoxin must occur outside the nervous sys- 

 tem, since this substance never penetrates into 

 either the peripheral or central ganglia, and 



