230 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [SEPTEMBER 
to purify a room, our only chance’ consists in spraying the walls, the floors, and 
the objects in the room with a reliable liquid disinfectant. This tends to purify 
the places from whence the air derives its supply of bacteria.” The admirable 
work of Cuick on the action of disinfectants receives no comment, whereas 
MiQvuEt’s work, so long out of date, is given great prominence. 
In the chapter on sewage and sewage disposal (p. 239) are to be found remarks 
that in this country at least would be deemed erroneous, improper, and inadvisable. 
For instance, who would willingly subscribe to the following: ‘There is great 
similarity between Bac. typhosus and Bac. coli communis, an organism which 1s 
very common in sewage, and which is strongly suspected of being the cause of 
epidemic diarrhea, though positive proof is still wanting” ? Dr. Extis condemns 
the methods of killing off bacteria in sewage by antiseptics as “not practicable,” 
whereas REAL in his own country, and PHELPs and CARPENTER and others 
in the United States, have shown how valuable an agent is calcium hypochlorite 
in this direction. 
In the section heading “Disposal without purification” (p. 247), discussing 
the disposal of the contents of cesspools, the author writes: ‘“The other [insoluble] 
substances that in larger places usually find their way to the sewage dam a 
thrown broadcast on to any convenient spot, such as a roadside or a neighboring 
common. This method is efficient enough for very small places, though it must 
detract somewhat from the healthiness of village life.”” It is to be regretted that 
Dr. Extis puts himself on record as condoning such a practice; no matter under 
what conditions of life, the practice is sufficiently vile and unsanitary to be most 
strongly condemned. : 
It is very noticeable that no chapter on the biological methods of water purifica- 
tion found a place in the book, despite its importance to technical students. 
One cannot turn over the pages of the book without remarking upo the eee 
cusable crudeness of some of the drawings, which actually mar what otherwise 
makes a most presentable volume.—Norman MacL. Harris. 
Vegetable proteins 
N 
Another of the monographs on biochemistry edited by PLIMMER and Hopk? : 
has just appeared,* and deals with vegetable proteins. It is hardly oaenige 
state to biological chemists or plant physiologists that no one can spea ssa 
authoritatively upon this topic than OsBorNe. Plant physiologists = 
da 
Oo 
] 
: : re to 
fundamental knowledge in several ccessory sciences is deman ed, are Su 
author, who is the greatest producer in the subject he is discussing. 
ography consists of 608 citations. 
A list of the chapter headings will give a good idea of the scope of 
the work: 
ae A d 
historical review; occurrence of proteins in. different parts of plants an 
their 
bee » New York: 
4 OsBorNE, THoMAs B., The vegetable proteins. 8vo. pp. xiii + 125- 
Longmans, Green & Co. 1909. 
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Sa hee ee eer nee 
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