BOOKS AND CURRENT LITERATURE 



237 



Practical Bacteriology. — Dr. J. G. Lipinan, of the New Jersey 

 Experiment Station, has prepared a third cchtion of his book Bacteria in 

 Relation to Country Life,^ which is a thoroughly physiological treatment 

 of bacteria in their relation to all the arts and industries, particu- 

 larly to those of the farm and home. In a series of forty-nine chapters, 

 of varying length, the entire field of activity of the non-pathogenic bac- 

 teria is well co\'ered. The shortness of some chapters is in direct relation 

 to the amount of knowledge of the forms discussed, rather than to less 

 detailed treatment. This is illustrated in the case of the short chapter 

 on the bacterial agencies which cause bad bread in rare instances ; the 

 normal processes in bread making being due to quite different organisms. 

 The questions of contamination of food and drink, of purification of wastes, 

 of decay of organic sul)stances, and the ripening processes — as in cheese 

 and butter — are considered successively in a clear and non-technical 

 manner, and the industrial uses of bacterial activity — as in the prepara- 

 tion of hemp and flax — are explained. The book is written for that im- 

 portant group "the general reader, " and to this end the "technical terms 

 and expression'* have been eliminated as far as possible." The l)ook is 

 therefore not a text for students but rather a discussion of the life proc- 

 esses, uses, and occurrence of the various bacteria "as thej^ affect the daily 

 tasks upon the farm." Good illustrations add to the clearness of the 

 text, and are sufficiently numerous to meet the purpose of the book. — 

 Frederick H.| Blodgett. 

 i 



Transpiration in Parasitized Leaves. — Few studies have been 

 made of the transpiration of parasitized plants, although it is frequently 

 assumed that the host reacts to its diseased condition by a change in the 

 rate of trans] )irat ion. In the present investigation^ use was made of a 

 .special apparatus that did not necessitate the removal of the leaves from 

 the trees, with a resulting rliscovery of d(;creased water loss in apple 

 leaves affected with the rust as compared with normal leaves. This con- 

 dition is the reverse of that previously reported by Blodgett for a rust 

 on Rubiis. The difference in results may be exjilained by the fact that 

 the loss of water is facilitated in the latter form by the destruction of the 

 ventral epidermis, which exposes the parenchyma to dcssication, while 

 the form on apple leaves diminishes the amount of transpiration by the 



'Liprnan, J. (',., Bacteria in Relation to Country Lifo. Pp. 480. New York: 

 The Macmillan Company, 1911. (S1.50). 



^Reed, H. S. and Coolcy, J. S., 'I he transpiration of apple leaves infected 

 with Gymnonpiirnngiiim. Bot. Gaz. 55: 421-430. Fig. 1. 1913. 



