248 Scientific Intelligence. 



of alcohol. Whence, it seems reasonable to suppose that the 

 fusel-oil, rather than the alcohol contained in cheap whiskeys, 

 is responsible for some cases at least of chronic alcoholism, par- 

 ticularly when we know that many inebriates prefer the cheap 

 adulterated liquors, as being stronger than the better brands." 

 Nor do the despised "laboratories" furnish authority for Mr. 

 Flint's statement (p. 85) that "every particle of sugar taken 

 into the human stomach is changed into alcohol, carbonic acid 

 and water by the digestive ferments." It is needless to add 

 further quotations to refute Dr. Jacobi's prefatory assertion that 

 "the author's statements are based on scientific facts." 



A. F. M. 



2. The Blind; their Condition and the Work being done for 

 them in the United States; by Henry Best, Ph.D. Pp. xxviii, 

 763. New York (The Macmillan Co.).— Dr. Best has written a 

 comprehensive social survey of the blind in the United States. 

 Eegarding them as certain components of the population, who 

 demand classification and attention in the machinery of organi- 

 zation of the state, he examines the various problems that are 

 raised by their presence in the body politic, and the several 

 measures that have been put forth to deal therewith. In this 

 way, he elucidates the attitude of the State toward the blind, as 

 well at its duties to them; and the extent and form, the 

 adequacy and correctness of the treatment accorded to them. 

 Best concludes with a message of hope, grounded "in the 

 increasingly determined efforts to reach and help all those who 

 sit in darkness"; a hope that goes deeper still, looking to "the 

 time when blindness itself shall be no more." a. f. m. 



3. Colloids in Biology and Medicine; by H. Bechhold. 

 Authorized translation from the second German edition, with 

 notes and emendations by Jesse G. M. Bullowa. Pp. xiv, 464. 

 New York City, 1919 (D. Van Nostrand Company. Price 

 $5.00). — The first part of this volume serves as an introduction 

 to the study of colloids, those states of matter which have been 

 endowed, in the recent development of science, with all manner 

 of novel properties. Here the latter are discussed, and the 

 manner of investigating them is pointed out. The living organ- 

 ism is considered as a colloid system which is called upon to 

 explain many of the mysteries of secretion, metabolism, growth 

 and development. At the present time any attempt of this sort 

 must still be in good part a compilation of experimental observa- 

 tions and a formulation of bold hypotheses, as the author frankly 

 admits. Nevertheless one must express surprise at such extreme 

 statements as that, on p. 168, asserting: "Our foodstuffs con- 

 sist entirely of colloids and their nutritive value is to be judged 

 mainly from a colloid-chemical point of view." Many facts 

 of unusual interest not commonly correlated have been brought 

 together in the book. In part it is a story of long known phe- 

 nomena expressed with the help of a new scientific vocabulary. 



L. B. M. 



