REVIEWS. 125 



instance, the chapter on osmosis, while containing a number 

 of facts, does not give the experimental basis for these facts. 

 The method of determining osmotic pressure by means of 

 vegetable cells and known solutions isotonic with the contents 

 of these cells should be more interesting to the medical student 

 than the discussion of the apparatus of Pfeffer. In other 

 words, the attempt to compile what the modern medical man 

 needs to know about chemistry in one volume of about 6.30 

 pages results of necessity in leaving out many important things 

 and cutting many others short. However, the volume would 

 still be useful to practitioners who have not access to more 

 extended works on chemistry. 



P. C. F. 



Microbiologry for Agricultural and Domestic Science Students. Edited by 

 Charles E. Marshall, professor of Bacteriology and Hygiene, Michigan 

 Agricultural College. Cloth, 8vo. Pp. 724 and 128 illustrations. Price 

 $2.50. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston's Son & Co. 1911. 



As the title indicates, this book is intended primarially as a 

 text for students. Unlike most textbooks the work follows the 

 plan usually adopted by larger reference books and is the product 

 of a number of different contributors. These, some nineteen in 

 all, are from various educational institutions and experiment 

 stations of the United States and Canada. 



The subject matter is treated under three chief divisions: Mor- 

 phology and Culture of Microorganisms, Physiology of Micro- 

 organisms, and Applied Microbiology. The last named division 

 comprehends by far the greater part of the book and treats of 

 the microbiology of air, water and sewage, soil, milk and of 

 special industries. There is, besides a division on the microbial 

 diseases of plants and one on those of man and animals. 



As a briefer book of reference this book will be of much service 

 to students especially as it touches such subjects as Invisible 

 Microorganisms (treated by M. Dorset) and descriptions of 

 certain special industries, subjects not commonly treated except 

 in rather extensive books of reference. 



In discussing the merits of a book of this sort as an elementary 

 text for students one might quote the Editor in his preface: 

 "In presenting this textbook, the product of several hands, there 

 is the most serious difficulty in obta,ining unity of thought and 

 expression without repetition ; besides, that very conspicuous 

 weakness of emphasizing some feature unduly while other 

 features of importance are .scarcely mentioned, confronts us." 



