84 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XI. No. 263 



are to some extent partisans of a definite school of hypnotism, and 

 that some of the phenomena upon which they lay stress would be 

 otherwise interpreted by other workers, or even entirely discredited. 

 About nothing- is this caution more necessary than the results these 

 authors describe as due to the action of the magnet. As long as it 

 has not been proved that the normal nervous system is to the 

 slightest degree subject to magnetic influence, it seems premature 

 to have it play so great a part in the observation of hysterical 

 hypnotics ; and the more so, as the same results have been ob- 

 tained by suggestion ; and, in so far as this has been ruled out, 

 the results have failed to follow with other experimenters. 



Lectures on Bacteria. 2d ed. Tr. by H. E. F. Garnsey. Rev. by 

 I.B.Balfour. New York, Macmillan. 12°. $1.50. 



This book is a translation of De Bary's ' Vorlesungen iiber Bac- 

 terien,' and, as Dr. Balfour states in his preface, has been prepared 

 because there is at present no book in English which gives in like 

 manner a general view of the subject of bacteria. It sets forth the 

 known facts in the life of bacteria in their connection with those 

 with which we are acquainted in other branches of natural history. 

 The second edition of De Bary's lectures appeared in October, 

 1886 ; so that we have the researches into this abstruse field of 

 science brought down to a very recent date. In the introductory 

 chapter the author considers the position which bacteria occupy in 

 the vegetable kingdom among the fission-fungi or Schizomycetes, 

 and their structure. He then defines the meaning of the terms 

 ' coccus,' ' bacterium,' and ' spirillum.' In speaking of these three 

 forms, he says that they are so exactly represented by a billiard-ball, 

 a lead-pencil, and a corkscrew, that no one requires for his instruc- 

 tion the costly models which are offered for sale. 



The course of development of bacteria, and the distinction between 

 the endosporous and arthrosporous groups, next receive attention. 

 From this the author passes on to the consideration of the much- 

 mooted question of whether there are specifically distinct forms, spe- 

 cies of bacteria, and, if so, how many such species can be determined. 

 In treating of this interesting topic, he says that species are deter- 

 mined by the course of development, and defines the term ' species ' 

 as the sum-total of the separate individuals and generations which, 

 during the time afforded for observation, exhibit the same periodi- 

 cally repeated course of development within certain empirically de- 

 termined limits of variation. In the list of those who believe that 

 the bacteria may be distinguished into species, are Leeuwenhoeck, 

 their discoverer, Ehrenberg, and Cohn. Among those who deny this, 

 and who consider that the observed forms proceed alternately from 

 one another, the one being converted into the other with a change 

 in the conditions of life, are Billroth, who, in a publication issued in 

 1874, included all the many and various forms which he had exam- 

 ined in one species, which he named Coccobacteria septica ; and 

 Nageli, who has supported the same views since 1877. NageU 

 says that he finds no necessity for separating the thousands of 

 bacterium-forms even into two species, but that it would be 

 rash to speak decidedly on a subject that is so imperfectly explored. 

 But he also says, that, if his view is correct, the same species, in 

 the course of generations, assumes a variety of morphologically and 

 physiologically dissimilar forms one after another, which, in the 

 •course of years and decades of years, at one time turn milk sour, 

 at another give rise to butyric acid in 'sauerkraut, or to ropiness in 

 wine, or to putrefaction in albumen, or decompose urine, or im- 

 part a red stain to food-material containing starch, or produce 

 typhus, relapsing-fever, cholera, or malarial-fever. In commenting 

 on this view of Nageli's, De Bary truly says that our practical in- 

 terests require that we should obtain a decided answer to the ques- 

 tion of species ; for it certainly is not a matter of indifference in 

 •medical practice, for example, whether a bacterium which is every- 

 where present in sour milk or in other objects of food, but without 

 being injurious to health, is capable or not of being changed at any 

 moment into a form which produces typhus or cholera. The scien- 

 tific interest demands that the question should be set at rest. The 

 opinion to which De Bary himself comes, in reference to this im- 

 portant question, is that it may safely be maintained that continued 

 investigation has at length arrived at the decision that there is no 

 difference, as regards the existence of species and their determina- 

 tion, between this and any other portion of the domain of natural 



history, and that species may be distinguished provided the course 

 of development is followed with sufficient attention. The origin 

 and distribution of bacteria, their vegetative processes, the effects 

 of temperature and the presence or absence of moisture upon them, 

 and the subjects of culture, disinfection, and antisepsis, are discussed 

 by the author, but lack of space prevents us from following him 

 into these subjects in detail. 



One of the most interesting chapters in the book is that which 

 treats of the causal connection of parasitic bacteria with infectious 

 diseases, especially in warm-blooded animals. De Bary regards as 

 proved the causal connection between the Spiroc/icstc obcnneieri 

 and relapsing-fever, Koch's bacillus and tuberculosis, Neisser's 

 gonococcus and gonorrhoea, and Koch's spirillum and Asiatic chol- 

 era. Among the diseases due to the action of bacteria, he reckons 

 also traumatic infectious diseases, affections incident to child-bear- 

 ing, and others connected with the formation of groups of ulcers, 

 abscesses, and boils. He does not think that we have any precise 

 determination of the nature of the contagium or miasma virum of 

 malaria. The relation of bacteria to typhoid-fever and diphtheria 

 in men, he regards as uncertain, notwithstanding Goffky's and 

 Loffler's model investigations. The concluding chapter of De 

 Bary's admirable resume is concerned with the discussion of the 

 diseases caused by bacteria in the lower animals and in plants, 

 while this is followed by a conspectus of the literature of the sub- 

 ject, and notes on the text. The whole volume is admirably ar- 

 ranged, and we know of no book which gives so concise and at the 

 same time satisfactory an account of bacteria as the one before us. 

 It is well translated ; and its revision by Dr. Balfour, who is pro- 

 fessor of botany in the University of Oxford, is a sufficient guaranty 

 of its scientific accuracy. 



Catalogue of the Pedagogical Library, Philadelphia. Philadel- 

 phia, Board of Education. 12°. 



When Superintendent MacAlister went to Philadelphia from 

 Milwaukee four or five years ago, he saw and felt the need of hav- 

 ing at his command the best authorities on the history, science, and 

 art of education. The Board of Education appreciated the need, 

 and by liberal appropriations it has been made possible for Mr. 

 MacAlister to get together the volumes for which he has now 

 printed a catalogue. Naturally, he has only selected from the field 

 of educational literature, and has made no attempts to cover it in 

 all its extensiveness. What he has gotten together is a good work- 

 ing pedagogical library, and "it is believed that the selection made 

 furnishes the essentials for a pretty thorough study of the history 

 and theory of education in the past, as well as ample materials for 

 dealing with the living questions of our own time." Therefore it 

 is that this catalogue, while referring to this one collection only, really 

 serves as a carefully selected bibliography of pedagogics. In this 

 respect it is far more useful than that of Messrs. Hall and Mansfield, 

 published a year or two ago. That is too diffuse to be really use- 

 ful, and it is disfigured by hundreds of mistakes and typographical 

 errors. We trust that professor MacAlister has printed a sulTiciently 

 large edition of his catalogue to permit its general sale. 



Naticral Resources of the United States. By J. H. Patton. 

 New York, Appleton. 12°. 



The present volume is a concise review of the resources of the 

 United States, compiled from the publications of the various Na- 

 tional and State departments, and from private information obtained 

 from the State governments. Therefore the data are presumably, 

 as a rule, reliable ; and as the book deals not only with the mineral 

 resources, but comprises others also, it will be found handy as a 

 brief review of the whole subject. 324 of the 523 pages of the 

 book are taken up by a report of the mineral resources, on 

 which D. T. Day treats in his annual summaries. This part is fol- 

 lowed by notes on mineral springs and health resorts. The follow- 

 ing sections, dealing with the vegetable products of the United 

 States, grain, fibre plants, and timber, are very superficial ; that on 

 grasses, such as are the basis of American stock-raising, is even 

 more so, the whole subject being treated in nine pages. 



In the book we find a considerable number of remarks on physi- 

 cal geography which show that the author's knowledge of this sub- 

 ject is not very extensive. The authorities he quotes for his views 



