Chemistry and Physics. 81 



6. A History of Chemistry ; by Hugo Bauer, translated by 

 R.V.Stanford. 12rao, pp. 232. London, 1907, Edward Arnold 

 (Longmans, Green & Co., New York). — This book gives a very 

 readable, well-balanced account of the development of chemical 

 science. The chemistry of the ancients as well as the periods of 

 alchemy and iatrochemistry are rather briefly treated, while the 

 more important modern epochs, here called the period of Lavoi- 

 sier, and the period of prganic chemistry, take up more than two- 

 thirds of the space in the book. The period of modern chemistry, 

 which the author considers as beginning about 1885, is very 

 briefly touched upon. h. e. w. 



7. Beitrage zur chemischen Physiologie, herausgegeben von 

 Franz Hofmeibter. Band X. Pp. 500. Braunschweig, 1907 

 (F. Vieweg und Sohn). — Among the thirty-two contributions in 

 this volume, including eight from the Vienna laboratory of Pro- 

 fessor v. Fiirth, sevei'al papers deserve specific reference here. 

 Knoop has finally determined the constitution of histidine as 

 /3-imidazolalanine : 



CH 



A\ 



HN N 



I I 

 HC = C-CH 2 -CH(NH 2 ).COOH 



and the long known inosic acid discovered by Liebig has been 

 shown by Fr. Bauer to be a crystalline compound of hypoxan- 

 thine, arabinose, and phosphoric acid of the probable structure : 

 (H0) 2 .P0.0 CH 2 (CHOH) 3 .CH:(C 6 H 3 N 4 0). A study of pancre- 

 atic nucleic acid by v. Fiirth and Jerusalem has shown that it 

 yields adenine and guanine as its sole purine bases, and that gly- 

 cerol is not present in the molecule. Among the numerous inves- 

 tigations on enzymes reported, the careful research on the animal 

 peroxydases, by v. Czyhlarzand v. Fiirth, deserves notice. They 

 have reviewed the literature on this perplexing topic very thor- 

 oughly and have added new reactions and a new method of quan- 

 titative study. The peroxydases are distinct from the catalases 

 and the glycolytic enzymes. The papers on intermediary meta- 

 bolism are likewise of interest ; for example, Pfeiffer's failure to 

 obtain synthesis of uric acid in man and the mammals, and vari- 

 ous papers on acidosis from Professor v. Krehl's Strassburg clinic. 

 Several researches on carbohydrate metabolism are also reported : 

 Bang's studies on glycogen transformation by the liver ; Embden, 

 Liithje and Liefmann's on the sugar content of the blood ; and 

 Spiro's on the direct relation between carbohydrate and pi'otein in 

 metabolism. l. b. m. 



8. I.mmuno- Chemistry. The Application of the Principles 

 of Physical Chemistry to the Stitdy of the Biological Anti- 

 bodies ; by Svante Arrhenius. Pp. ix, 309. New York, 1907 

 (The Macmillan Company). — The book comprises a series of six 

 lectures given at the University of California in 1904. Although 



Am. Jour. Sci.— Fourth Series, Vol. XXV, No. 145. — January, 1908. 



