424 Scientific Intelligence. 



and ils interpretation are clearly sel Oorth. The references to 

 tin- now journal Soil Science, publication of which was only 

 recently begun in this country, indicate the up-to-date character 

 of the book. The non-agricultural student with some biochem- 

 ical training as well as the specialist in plant growth will find 

 this monograph readable and stimulating. L. B. M. 



2. Agricultural Bacteriology; by II. W. Conn. Third edi- 

 tion, revised by Harold Joel Conn. Pp. \, 357. Philadelphia, 

 1918 (P. Blakiston's Son & Co.). — A timely revision of a popu- 

 lar textbook and laboratoiy manual prepared after Hie death of 

 Professor H. W. Conn by his son, a bacteriologist at the New 

 York Agricultural Experiment Station. As might be expected, 

 a large part, of the volume is still taken up with consideration 

 of bacteria in dairy products — a field in which the senior author 

 was part icul arty competent. Beside general considerations the 

 problems of bacteria in soil and water, their parasitic aspects, 

 and the relation of micro-organisms to various*farm products 

 are not overlooked. The inclusion of bacteriology more exten- 

 sively among the disciplines of scientific agriculture, as exem- 

 plified by books like this one, marks a helpful step in advance. 



L. B. M. 



3. The Linacre Lecture on the Law of the Heart; given at 

 Cambridge, 1915 ; by Ernest H. Starling. Paper covered. 

 Pp. 27. London and New York. 1918 (Longmans, Green and 

 Co.). — Mainly an interpretation of the researches, in Professor 

 Starling's laboratory, upon the surviving heart-lung prepara- 

 tion. "The law of the heart is thus the same as the law of 

 muscular tissue generally, that the energy of contraction, how- 

 ever measured, is a function of the length of the muscle fibre." 



L. B. M. 



4. Index to the Philippine Journal of Science, vols. 1 to 10. 

 — The long series of publications of the Philippine Bureau of 

 Science does honor to all the gentlemen who have been connected 

 with its work (see this Journal 21, 336, 408, 1906 ; 23, 322, 1907). 

 It is interesting now to note the issue of "Publication No. 8, Con- 

 tents and Index of the Philippine Journal of Science, volumes 

 1 to 10." This is sent without charge to subscribers and 

 exchanges' that have received volumes 11 and 12 of the Journal ; 

 to others the price is $2.00 United States currency. 



Obituary. 



Profi;ksok (i. A. Lebour, who occupied for nearly forty years 

 I he chair of geology in the Royal School of Mines. London, died 

 on February 7 in his seventy-first year. 



Professor E. A. Letts, the British Chemist, since 1879, of 

 Queens College, Belfast, died on February 19 in his sixty-sixth 

 year. 



