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large asylums have been erected. The book is written for

the information of the public and does not in any way

profess to give medical details or discuss scientific problems.It is to be hoped that the work will have a large circulation,so that the labours of the mission may not be encumbered

with financial difficulties.

Plant life on Land Considered in Some of its BiologicalAspeots. By F. O. BOWER, Sc.D., F.R.S. Cambridge : Atthe University Press. 1911. Pp. 172. Price Is. net.-Thissmall volume, one of the Cambridge Manuals of Scienceand Literature, furnishes the reader with a succinct sum-mary on broad lines of the present position of the botanyof land plants. The meaning of botanical study is frequentlymisunderstood by the average person of education, and asDr. Bower, the author of the volume, who is Regius professorof botany in the University of Glasgow, points out, the

time-worn questions of the science are assumed to be still theliving problems of to-day, and undue importance is frequentlygiven to the mere finding and recording of new species andvarieties. When, however, botany is approached from thepoint of view of the structure and characteristics of plantsthe subject becomes a fascinating one, especially when treatedin the manner adopted by the author of this book. In a

series of chapters, each suggested by some common featuresof the country, such as the beach and rocks, sand dunes,golf links, and stretches of bracken, he describes the variousbotanical features of the country, and the biologic strugglewhich has formed them. The relation between golf andbotany does not at first sight appear obvious, but Dr. Bower

shows clearly the part which plant life takes in the formationof the golfer’s playground. Other chapters deal with theflower and metamorphosis and pollination and fertilisation,and the last chapter sums up the evidence indicating thatthe origin of plant life on land was from aquatic surround-ings. The illustrations, of which there are 27, are clearlyprinted.

llie Public Health Service Direotory and Year Book, 1911.Compiled by the Editor of the .3MM Offioer. London :

Hodgetts, Limited. Pp. 374. Price 7s. 6d. net.-We con-

gratulate Mr. George S. Elliston on having produced areally valuable book of reference. It is true that in some

cases it would be an advantage to the seeker after informa-tion if some of the entries were fuller, but the fault lieswith those who have failed to give the author the

required information, and it may be hoped that as

the utility of the work is better known more interest willbe taken in supplying the necessary details. The manydifficulties of compiling books of references are only knownto those actually engaged in the task. The book is really aguide to the whole of the work which is done under thePublic Health Acts, including school inspection, and is

divided into ten sections, dealing respectively with publicauthorities, education authorities, medical officers, publicanalysts, dental officers, veterinary officers, sanitary in-

spectors, women sanitary officers, isolation hospitals, andnational and local health societies. Each section containsan alphabetical list of officers or institutions as the case maybe, together with information regarding the persons or

institutions named, and there are also various articles

explaining such matters as the duties of the officers who

give the heading to the section. A calendar setting outthe dates of various functions, meetings of societies, and soforth, adds to the usefulness of a book of reference dealingwith a subject the importance of which is growing yearby year.

Origins and Meanings of Popular Phrases and Names.By BASIL HARGRAVE. London: T. Werner Laurie. 1911.

Pp. 350. Price 6s. net.-The compiler of this work has

produced an interesting list of names, epithets, popularexpressions, and slang phrases from Al to Zymotic, thedefinitions and explanations being generally all that the.reader can reasonably desire. The compiler points out in hisforeword that the book is not intended either as an exhaus-tive philological treatise or an academic encyclopasdia, andhe thus to some extent disarms criticism with regard to thecontents of the book ; but his decision to curtail the lengthof the list by including only that which seemed of interestto him " has added to the size of the book by words likeagnostic, Marconigram, Morse code, radium, and so forth-words with regard to the meaning of which most peoplenowadays are familiar. Those desiring an answer to the

questions-How did such and such a place, building, street,or river obtain its name ? will in many cases obtain theinformation required.

JOURNALS AND MAGAZINES.

The Jmwnal of Physiology. Edited by J. N. LANGLEY,Sc.D., F.R.S. Vol. XLII., Nos. 1, 2, and 3. London: aC. F. Clay, Cambridge University Press. 1911. Price 16s. 6d.-In No. 1 Mr. A. V. Hill’s paper on the Position Occupied bythe Production of Heat in the Chain of Processes Consti.

tuting a Muscular Contraction is highly technical, but veryimportant both from a purely scientific point of view as wellas from an economic one.-Mr. Joseph Barcroft’s paper on theEffect of Altitude on the Dissociation Curve of the Blood is of

special interest to the physiologist. -Mr. A. Harden and Mr. H.Maclean in a paper on the Alleged Presence of an AlcoholicEnzyme in Animal Tissues and Organs find that there is nosatisfactory experimental evidence that alcoholic fermenta-tion occurs in animal tissues after removal from the body,while their own experiments establish a strong presumptionthat no such process occurs. They also set aside the viewthat lactic acid forms an intermediate product in alcoholicfermentation. Alcohol found in tissues after removal fromthe body is probably not due to an alcoholic enzyme, as sug-gested by Stoklasa, but to presence of bacteria. Any alcoholfound in the tissues can be accounted for by absorption of thealcohol formed in the intestine. In No. 2 Dr. E. P. Cathcart

in a paper on the Pre-pyloric Sphincter confirms Beaumont’sobservation of the existence of a 11 transverse band "

in the stomach, an observation made on Alexis St. Martinand published in 1838. By means of gastric nstulas madeafter the method of Pawlow the presence of a pre-pyloricsphincter which can divide the stomach of the dog into twocompartments is shown. The sphincter reacts differently todifferent solutions, while it becomes active during psychicstimulation, and is also controlled to some extent by thedegree of acidity of the contents of the antrum pylori.-Thepapers by Professor N. H. Alcook and Mr. G. Roche Lynch onthe Relation Between the Physical, Chemical, and ElectricalProperties of the Nerves, and by Professor J. N. Langley andMr. L. A. Orbell containing Observations on the Degenerationin the Sympathetic and Sacral Autonomic Nervous System ofAmphibia following Nerve Section, are too technical to beconvenientlyabstracted in the space at our disposal.-Mr.Douglas Cow,lwritli3g on Some Reactions of SurvivingArteries, shows that all arteries do not behave in the sameway to various forms of stimuli or drugs. Thus the coronaryand cerebral arteries are dilated by adrenalin, whereasthis drug produces constriction of all other arteries.The pulmonary artery outside the lungs is constricted

by this drug, while the intra-pulmonary part is eithernot affected or dilated. The author has made observationson different arteries as to the dilating power of pituitaryextract.-Mr. Fred. Ransom, discussing the action of caffeineon muscle, finds that when rigor of frog’s muscle is excitedby caffeine, lactic acid is formed and diffuses into a saline

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solution and this acid disappears in the presence of oxygen.Diastase also diffuses into a saline solution.-The experi-ments on excitation and section of the auriculo-ventricular

bundle by Miss Winifred C. Cullis and Professor W. E. Dixonare of very real importance. These authors describe their

experiments in detail. They find that complete section ofthe bundle in the rabbit causes complete heart-block, andafter an hour or two the ventricle assumes its own

independent rhythm. This is a paper to be read both bymedical men and by physiologists.-Professor D. Noel Patonand Dr. E. P. Cathcart show that the glucose of the blood isused by the mammary gland in the formation of lactose. In

No. 3 the paper by Dr. F. G. Hopkins and Dr. Horace

Savory on a Study of Bence-Jones Protein and of the

Metabolism in Three Cases of Bence-Jones Proteinuria will

attract the attention of clinicians. It gives the best accountyet recorded of this remarkable form of proteinuria fromthree carefully observed cases.-In the paper by Mr. G. R.Mines we have an account of the substitution of strontiumand barium for calcium and the effect on neuro-muscularmechanisms in the frog.

United States Naval Medical BtÛletin. For the informationof the Medical Department of the Service. Vol. V., No. 2,April, 1911. Issued quarterly. Washington : GovernmentPrinting Office.-Besides a mass of valuable information of amedical character of special importance to the medical

service of the United States Navy, this Bulletin containsmuch that is of value to the medical profession at large. Its

scope is limited to professional matters as actually observedby the service medical officers in all parts of the world-thatis to say, the contributions are essentially practical. PassedAssistant Surgeons George B. Trible and Harry A. Garrisongive a detailed account of the intravenous administration of606 " in 56 cases, including the technique and general regimeadopted. They find that the most striking results have beenobtained in the early stages, and the more severe the infec-tion the more rapid and striking the healing. The authors

consider the method, when properly used, indispensable as arapid means of returning men to duty, and that, whether itproves to be a permanent or only a temporary cure, it shouldsupersede the mercurial treatment in the first and second

stages. The intravenous method they consider the most

effective, simple, rapid, painless, and free from danger ifproper care and judgment be used. "606" should not be

given intravenously in a higher concentration than 1 to 500or 600. Assistant-Surgeon E. W. Brown contributes a

further note with reference to the preparation of a culturemedium from dried blood serum, in which he points out thatspecial care must be taken in the sterilisation of such media.He details his method of sterilising in the autoclave in zaeuo,discusses the stability of the material, and recommends as asubstitute for bouillon in this medium the use of fat-freedried milk. Intestinal parasites, particularly ankylostomaffaddishly spelled "agchylostoma," oblivious of the fact that11 before y, K, and X, was always latinised as n, to conform toits Greek pronunciation), form the subject of notes andarticles by Assistant-Surgeon W. M, Kerr, Surgeon E. G.Parker, Passed Assistant-Surgeon W. A. Angwin, and

Surgeon C. B. Camerer. Passed Assistant-Surgeon GordonD. Hall describes the practical use of carbon dioxide snowas practised by Dr. Reginald Morton at the West Londonhospital Surgeon C. N. Fiske submits a tentative nomen-clature for causes of physical disability in the navy,including a tabulated comparison of the terms usedin the army and navy with those of the international

nomenclature, as well as an expansion thereof, especiallydevised to meet the needs of the navy. The Work of theUnited States Naval Medical School Laboratories follows,and a description of an intestine tray for necropsies, and of

a suggested improvement in taking finger-prints are given.The last-named consists in lightly dabbing the finger-tipswith a gauze pad on which one drop of oil of turpentine hasbeen dropped, which prevents moisture from interfering withthe ink film on the fingers. The Clinical Section containssome cases of interest.

New Inventions.THE PURE-AIR SHELTER.

THE first principle of open-air treatment is ’’ the pureatmosphere freely administered without fear." Under idealclimatic conditions this could best be attained by a life inthe open, the patient sleeping literally under the stars. Ina changeable and uncertain climate various forms of shelterhave been devised to protect the patient from rain whilestill exposed to the open air. The defect in the majority ofshelters is that they are constructed with a view to keep outthe rain, whereas the first essential of a shelter should be tolet in the air. Moreover, in some shelters the amount of airentering can be diminished by the patient, and if windowsand doors be shut to keep out rain the shelter is convertedinto a hut with little or no ventilation. Again, a veryfrequent defect is that the roof slopes downwards from backto front, constituting a cul-de-sac for the collection of

polluted expired air. All revolving shelters, part frommechanical difficulties, have the defect that their exposureis determined by the direction of the wind.The Pure-air Shelter (Fig. 1) is a timber structure, made in

FIG. 1.

sections, easily put together, varnished inside, paintedoutside, and roofed with rubberoid. It is designed to ensurethat the patient shall never breathe the same air twice, therebeing through ventilation in all conditions of weather, as

even with the windows and doors shut, the shelter is open to