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Reviews and Notices of Books.JHIOCHEMISTRY.

Applied Biochemistry. By WITHROW MORSE,Professor of Physiological Chemistry and Toxico-logy, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia.London: W. B. Saunders Company, Ltd. Pp. 958.32s. 6‘d.

Prof. Morse’s book aims at covering the wholefield of biochemistry, both from its physiological andpathological aspects. Physical chemistry, methods ofanalyses, and even recent views on the structure ofthe’atom and matter are dealt with. The range of theauthor’s task thus will be appreciated, and Prof.Morse has succeeded to a really remarkable extentin fulfilling it. The book opens by defining theaims of biochemistry in general and tracing out thescientific ancestry of the great American biochemists.The author proceeds to a general but thoroughconsideration of the structure of matter, includingthe electron and proton theory. The lattice structureof crystals is discussed. Physical chemistry of solutionsis next dealt with and particular reference is madeto hydrogen-ion concentration. This section is anexcellent, clearly written account of the physicalchemistry of ionisation, and the author points outits application to the acid-base problems arising inthe body. Enzymes and colloids are next reviewed,after which the elementary composition of tissues isdealt with. The three succeeding chapters are takenup with the chemistry of proteins, fats, and carbo-hydrates, whilst the fourth is devoted to the chemistryof tissues in general. The following chapter concernsthe chemistry of foods, and then digestion, absorption,and metabolism are discussed. The biochemicalaspects of urine, ductless glands, and nutrition are alsodealt with quite fully. Under the title of PracticalExercises on Urine and Blood a scheme for practicalwork is included, and in an appendix methods forthe preparation of various reagents and solutions aregiven. After each chapter a series of selected referencesis included, and throughout the text appear portraitsof many of the workers referred to, in many casesshort biographical notes being given.From this outline it can be understood that here

is no ordinary volume. The conception of providinga complete work on so huge a subject is admirable,and the author has succeeded in conveying to thereader the idea that biochemistry is an active dynamicsubject. Some minor points are open to criticism.To the English reader the renaming of proteins,fats, and carbohydrates as proteids, lipids, andglucids is distasteful. There are a few errors in thebiographical notes ; for example, Dr. F. G. Donnanwould undoubtedly be surprised to see himselfdescribed as a professor of physiology. Some fewof the illustrations are redundant. But these thingsamount to nothing. Prof. Morse has performeda wonderful service to biochemistry and its students,and any reader equipped with his volume could beregarded as being well armed.

Monographs of Biochemistry. Edited by R. H. A.PLIMMER, D.Sc., and Sir F. G. HOPKINS, M.A.,M.B., D.Sc., F.R.S. Hexosamines and Muco-proteins. By P. A. LEVENE. Rockefeller Institutefor Medical Research, New York. London :Longmans, Green and Co. 1925. Pp. 163. 10s. 6d.THIS volume consists for most part of a summary

of the author’s own researches. Dr. Levene hasperformed so much pioneer work himself in this fieldthat the excellence of the volume goes without saying,and since he has published many recent papers,it is expedient to have his results in a monograph.In the present volume the subject of hexosaminesand mucoproteins is dealt with very thoroughlyand the historical summaries are full and useful.One of the most interesting chapters is that dealingwith the Walden inversion. This difficult subject

has received little attention in the English language,and Dr. Levene’s account of its importance inrelation to the hexosamines forms one of the mostvaluable features of the book. Dr. Levene pointsout in his introduction that there need be no apologyfor writing a volume on such a specialised subject,since mucoproteins are constituents of every tissue.

SEWAGE PURIFICATION AND DISPOSAL.

Second edition. By G. BERTRAM KERSHAw,M.I.C.E. Cambridge Public Health Series. Cam-bridge University Press. 1925. Pp. 339. 18s.

THE appearance of the second edition of thisuseful book will be welcomed by all who are

interested in the subject of sewage disposal. Muchwork has been done since 1915, when the first editionappeared, especially with regard to the so-calledactivated sludge process. The new chapter entitledActivated Sludge Processes, Sludge Digestion, containsan account of the Sheffield bio-aeration process,which it is intended to apply to the whole ofthe sewage of Sheffield. We regard this as an

important inclusion, because we believe that Mr.John Haworth, the manager of the Sheffield works,was the first to show that sufficient oxygen forbiological purposes could be introduced into thesewage by mechanical agitation without the necessityfor blowing in air. Mr. Kershaw, in his capacityas engineer to the Royal Commission on SewageDisposal, had an excellent opportunity of familiarisinghimself with all methods, and he has utilised thatopportunity to the full.The new edition has been brought thoroughly up

to date, and we commend it to all who have to dealwith sewage purification and disposal.

SKULL FRACTURES.

Roentgenologically Considered. By WILLIAM H.STEWART, M.D., Roentgenologist to the LenoxHall and Harlem Hospitals. New York : Paul B.Hoeber. 1925. Pp. 64.$12.IN this volume by means of a series of fine skiagrams

practically every possible fracture of the skull isillustrated. Each illustration is accompanied by ashort clinical account of the case and the nature ofthe accident from which the injury resulted. A briefchapter on rontgenographic technique indicatesprecisely the method adopted, but we fear the surgeonmight follow its instructions implicitly withoutobtaining such results, unless he possessed thesupreme skill which these must have required. Theplates are in every instance superb, and, quiteapart from their surgical value, they present a

remarkable series of studies of the human skullwhich should be of great interest to the anthropo-logist. The book is magnificently produced.

PRACTICAL PHARMACOGNOSY.

By T. E. WALLIS, B.Sc. Lond., F.I.C., Ph.C.,Lecturer in Botany to the Pharmaceutical Societyof Great Britain. London : J. and A. Churchill.1925. Pp. 115.- 7s. 6d.

THE work of the student of medicine is now farremoved from that of his predecessors, who manu-factured their own drugs, this work to-day beingundertaken by the manufacturing chemist. Hecannot, however, altogether afford to neglect any ofthe links in the chain of the healing art. This book ofpractical pharmacognosy will make an appeal to thedoctor who takes interest in drugs as well as to thestudent in pharmacy, to whom it is of more vitalinterest. Mr. H. G. Greenish, who writes a commenda-tory foreword, points out that, too often, the teacherof pharmacognosy is contented to lecture on thesubject and to leave the student to examine the crudedrugs at his leisure, without systematic instruction

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or guidance, with the result that he acquires but asuperficial acquaintance with the drugs at his disposal.in this book the earlier portion is devoted to 18schedules of instructions, which state fully butconcisely the details of practical work for each dayof the course. The descriptions are clear and freefrom unnecessary material. The later part is devotedto the description of 45 medicinal plants indigenousto Great Britain ; this sets out their characteristicsand makes their recognition easy.The writer is to be congratulated on his book and

especially on the illustrations, largely by himself andhis wife, which make the volume attractive.

PREVENTIVE MEDICINE.Second edition, revised. By MARK F. BoYD,M.D., M.S., C.P.H., Member of the Regular FieldStaff, International Health Board of the Rocke-feller Foundation. London: W. B. SaundersCompany, Ltd. 1925. Fully illustrated. Pp. 429.20s.

THIS book, the first edition of which appearedin 1920, bears impress of a somewhat differentoutlook on public health from that of this country.Thus the subject of meat inspection is dismissedwith a few words because " in the United States butlittle progress in meat inspection has been made " ;on the other hand, rather more attention is paid totropical diseases, such as malaria and uncinariasis.Interest attaches to a statement that " thanks tonational prohibition this disease (alcoholism) will soonbe a matter of historical interest in the United States."The book has not been written for the specialist butfor practitioners whose daily work is causing themmore and more to require general knowledge of pre-ventive medicine, and the perspective is good. Oneof the most difficult subjects to deal with in anelementary way, that of statistics, is clearly andsimply discussed. The book may be recommendedto medical students who to-day in certain schoolshave to face a separate examination in public health ;they can easily supplement their knowledge by refer-ence to English standard text-books, many of whichare not presented in so simple or so readable a form.The volume is profusely illustrated ; for the mostpart the illustrations are good, but some are notinformative.

. EVOLUTION AND GENETICS.

By T. H. MORGAN. Princeton : UniversityPress. 1925. Pp. 211. 9s.

Prof. Morgan says : " It has been pointed out thatthe power to reproduce itself puts the problem ofthe construction of a living organism on a differentfooting from the construction of a complex machineout of inorganic material." It is easy to believethat a problem is likely to reproduce itself a goodmany times if it is written about in this way.Unfortunately, Prof. Morgan’s most interestingdefence of the possibility of Mendelian mutants beingthe origins of new’ species is spattered with sentencesmore appropriate to those mystics of biology on whomhe pours so much scorn. The book is a robust state-ment of his belief and is framed mainly as ananswer to Bateson’s statement that modern geneticshad thrown no light on the production of freshspecies of animals and plants. It is true that noobserved mutant has shown the hybrid sterility ofnatural species ; it is equally true that most mutantswhich have occurred under observation would haveapparently no chance of survival in the real competi-tive world. But it is only necessary to suppose thatone or both of these things happens very occasionally,and it may well be that it is necessary for permanentestablishment that a hybrid should be sterile withthe original stock so that the fresh form may have aposition in nature delimited from that of its pro-genitors. And in a general way Prof. Morgan putsforward a strong case for looking on animals andplants as compounded on a gene basis. But it is

not really necessary to his argument to show thatLamarckians are wholly wrong-which, indeed, heplainly fails to do. It seems much more likely thatboth views are partly right.With some reservations we can commend the book

as a stimulating critique of evolution theory froma modern point of view.

THE PHYSIOLOGY OF MIND.An Interpretation based on Biological, Morpho-logical, Physical and Chemical Considerations.By FRANCIS X. DERCUM, A.M., M.D., Ph.D.,Professor of Nervous and Mental Diseases in theJefferson Medical College, &c. London andPhiladelphia : W. B. Saunders Company. 1925.Pp. 287. 16s.

Prof. Dercum believes that he has solved the greatproblem of mind and body. This he does by a seriesof ingenious speculations, based upon the findings ofphysiology and chiefly concerning neurones, whichrenders unnecessary the conceptions of psychology;in fact, he says in his preface that there is an inherentobjection to the term " psychology," for psychologycan only be regarded as a department of brainphysiology. An example will show the apparentsimplicitv of this point of view, which is not novel,though the author uses the latest advances in know-ledge to elaborate his explanations. He points outhow " the retraction of the dendrites and axones ofthe neurones explains the palsies and anaesthesiasof hysteria " (p. 225), and then describes howBabinski showed that the anaesthesia arises becauseof the method of examination. So we may imaginethe examiner saying, " Do you feel this ?" whenstraightway the dendrites and axones retract and theanaesthesia comes into being. There is no doubt thatevery human action, thought, or emotion can, withsome ingenuity, be explained by a similar postulate.But is this helpful ? And is it physiology ?

WELFARE WORK IN INDUSTRY.Edited by ELEANOR T. KELLY, B.A. London :Sir Isaac Pitman. 1925. Pp. viii. + 119. 5s.

THIS volume has been written by members of theInstitute of Industrial Workers, under the editorshipof its President, Miss E. T. Kelly. It contains a con-cise outline of the principles and practice of welfarework in factories, and while chiefly intended forthose engaged in industry, is of considerable interestto all whose work brings them into contact withcognate problems. The book is written from anidealistic standpoint, and the chapter dealing with theactivities of the works’ doctor demands an extremelyhigh standard of service from this hard-workedofficer. A valuable section is the appendix, containing,amongst other things, specimen record cards formedical inspection, for the categorisation of accidents,and an interesting section on industrial fatigue.The book is a reasoned attempt to establish a

philosophy which will be a guide to the student anda basis for the professional worker.

JOURNALS.QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL PHYSIO-

LOGY. Vol. XV., Nos. 3 and 4. 1925. Pp. 201-450.25s.-Among the articles appearing are the following.The Effect on the Stomach of Stimulation of thePeripheral End of the Vagus Nerve, by E. D. McCrea,B. A. McSwiney, and J-. S. B. Stopford. The authorsgive a summary of the facts elicited by previous workerson the effects of vagal stimulation as regards (1) motoreffects, (2) inhibition, (3) on the fundus and cardia,(4) on the pyloric sphincter, (5) the vasomotorphenomena, (6) on the duodenum, and (7) the relationof vagal stimulation to tonus. They discuss advantagesand disadvantages of their technique, which consists ofthe introduction into the stomach of a balloon withan air system, or with a water system, or the waterdistension method, the observations being made by