CURRENT LITERATURE 
BOOK REVIEWS 
Physical chemistry and biology 
McCLenpon' has performed a valuable service to biologists by organizing 
the more important facts and principles of physical chemistry that have to do 
with biological problems. These are stated briefly and concisely, and the 
usefulness of the book is increased by clearness in definitions. Several passages 
in the introduction are suggestive of helpful lines of work and interpretation. 
, The following paragraph from the preface suggests the viewpoint: “The 
purpose of this book is not to go far into physical chemistry, but to develop 
a tool for physiological research. Lengthy discussions of debated questions 
are avoided by tentatively accepting the hypothesis which fits the most facts, 
until a better one appears. For further discussion of any subject the reader is 
referred to the literature list and index. For facts, however, he is referred 
to nature. It is not to be hoped that theories should coincide exactly with 
data available at present. Even in the most exact branches of chemistry 
the atomic weight determinations, for instance, do not exactly coincide with the 
values calculated from the atomic numbers, and there seems to be some doubt 
as to whether lead is one element or several. How much more uncertainty 
there should be about physiology, where determinations are vitiated by the 
great variability of the material and its physiological states.” 
The book seems to be more from the biological standpoint and much better 
biology that have come to the attention of the reviewer. In the introduction 
the author says, “Though the problems considered in this book are physiitogis 
the methods of attack are chiefly those of the physical chemist.” The book 
should do much toward encouraging the kind of work and thought that is 
neither distinctly chemical, in the sense of ignoring the structures and physical 
environment within which the reactions must take place in organisms, nor 
yet strictly biological, in the sense of ignoring any of the chemistry involved. 
When the author states (p. 1) that the methods that may be applied to the 
interior of living cells are at present very few and concerned chiefly with the 
inorganic constituents, he is putting entirely too low an estimate on micro- 
chemistry as a means of investigation. It is true that this is as yet an imperfect 
— but still it is useful in a great many cases in detecting organic compounds 
well as inorganic. While his statement that ‘‘modern biochemistry is 
ee not yet concerned directly with the composition of normal living 
* McCLENpoN, J. F., Physical chemistry of vital phenomena. For students and 
investigators in the biological and medical sciences. 8vo. pp. vi+240. figs. 30- 
Princeton Univ. Press. 1917. 
438 
