582 
Reviews. 
(  Am.  Jour.  Ptaarm. 
I     October,  1896. 
supply  an  enormous  demand  has  been  shown  to  be  incorrect,  and  it  has 
thus  far  been  difficult  to  produce  it  rapidly  enough  to  furnish  a  certain 
supply. 
This  Bulletin  is  the  second  issued  on  this  subject  by  this  Station,  and 
others  have  been  issued  by  the  Experiment  Stations  of  New  Mexico,  California 
and  Florida.  The  plant  will  grow  in  almost  any  climate,  but  it  appears  to  be 
especially  adapted  to  the  arid  Southwest.  Professor  Forbes  has  gone  into  the 
subject  very  thoroughly,  and  given  us  a  very  interesting  contribution  to  the 
various  phases  of  this  promising  material. 
The;  Energy  of  Living  Protoplasm.  By  Oscar  Loew,  Ph.D.  London  : 
Kegan  Paul,  Trench,  Triibner  &  Co.,  1896.    Pp.  115. 
The  appearance  of  Dr.  Loew's  contributions  on  this  subject  in  one  volume  will 
be  welcomed  by  all  those  who  wish  to  study  the  origin  or  meaning  of  plant  life. 
Some  of  the  chapters  of  this  treatise,  in  a  more  or  less  abridged  form,  have 
already  appeared  in  the  Bulletin  of  the  Agricultural  College  of  the  Imperial 
University,  Japan,  and  have  been  noticed  in  the  American  Journal  of 
Pharmacy  (1894,  p.  412,  and  1895,  pp.  179  and  638). 
In  the  work  as  now  published,  the  author  is  prepared  to  express  some  con- 
clusions, or,  as  he  puts  it,  he  waives  all  speculation  and  presents  them  as  facts. 
We  think  he  has  made  a  masterly  presentation  of  the  results  of  his  investi- 
gations, although  every  one  will  admit  that  he  set  for  himself  a  hard  task  when 
he  undertook  to  explain  the  nature  of  the  so-called  vital  energy.  The  con- 
clusions are  summed  up  as  follows  :  "A  great  activity,  in  the  form  of  oscilla- 
tions of  certain  atoms  in  labile  position  exists  in  the  proteids  of  living  proto- 
plasm, and  that  this  ever  active  chemical  energy,  leading  to  respiration,  and  in 
turn  intensified  by  it,  is  especially  well  adapted  to  do  chemical  work,  since 
atoms  can  be  set  in  motion  by  others  already  in  motion,  just  as  molecular 
motion  (heat)  can  be  imparted  to  other  molecules,  i.  conveyed  by  impact. 
The  peculiar  mode  of  motion  in  the  labile  proteids  is  also  the  source  of  vital 
activity.  This  energy  is  the  necessary  link  in  the  chain  of  constructive  and 
destructive  metabolism.  It  must,  on  the  one  hand,  help  radiant  energy  to  con- 
struct carbohydrates  from  carbonic  acid  in  green  plants,  and  on  the  other  lend 
its  aid  to  burn  up  carbohydrates,  fats,  and  amido-acids  in  the  respiration  pro- 
cess. However,  not  only  the  potential  energy  of  the  thermogenes,  but  also  the 
kinetic  energy  of  the  labile  proteids  composing  the  living  protoplasm,  is,  in  the 
long  run,  but  one  of  the  vicissitudes  of  solar  energy." 
Department  of  Agriculture,  Central  Experimental  Farm.  Flax. 
Bulletin  No.  25.    Ottawa,  Canada.    May,  1896. 
This  pamphlet  gives  statistics  concerning  the  cultivation  of  flax  in  the  United 
States  and  Canada.  In  the  province  of  Manitoba  and  in  the  Northwestern  sec- 
tion (the  principal  area  devoted  to  its  cultivation)  of  the  United  States  the  crop 
is  grown  almost  entirely  for  its  seed,  the  fibre,  owing  to  climatic  conditions, 
being  of  inferior  quality.  The  crop  in  the  United  States  in  1894  amounted  to 
about  7,500,000  bushels,  and  the  price  ranged  from  $1.40  to  $1.50  per  bushel.  In 
1895  the  area  under  cultivation  was  much  increased,  and  the  yield  was  esti- 
mated at  19,000,000  bushels,  which  brought  the  price  down  to  from  90  cents  to 
$1  per  bushel. 
