Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 44.djvu/137

Rh A number of useful lists are appended to the book, including the bibliography, apparatus needed by a cooking school, charts on the composition of foods, and an index.

is a volume intended for a professional audience solely. It has been written? the author states, with particular reference to the bearing of uranalysisurinalysis [sic] upon the diagnosis and treatment of renal diseases and associated disorders.

The recent literature of the subject, particularly that referring to the toxines contained in the urine of persons either in good or bad health and their influence on the organism, is but cursorily referred to; and the pathology in general seems too meager for a work of this character. The author has not been an original experimenter in the field treated of by his work, rather contenting himself in clinically determining the efficacy and truth of the observations reported by others. He has quoted from many of the more recent writers on this subject, and that portion of his work devoted to dietetics and hygienic treatment is very satisfactory. His therapeusis is that of what is called the homœopathic school, and we do not believe that the text-books of homœopathy could more carefully or efficiently discuss the subject.

is intended that this little volume should serve as a practical guide for a short laboratory course in bacteriology. The apparatus necessary for bacteriological research is described, and instructions are given for examining living bacteria, for preparing nutrient media, for making plate or tube cultivations of micro-organisms, for cultivating these organisms at high temperatures and also without the access of air, for staining the organisms and their spores, and for mounting. Certain of the more important microphytes are described in order that the student may familiarize himself with them. It is not intended that the volume should supplant the larger and well-known text-books on this subject, and it seems that its practical character fits it for a guide for students desiring a knowledge of the elementary principles of this interesting and important topic.

object of the authors has been to prepare a work that will give information on the principles of geology in so far as they concern sanitary science. There is a brief review of the origin of rocks, of their decomposition, and of the formation and distribution of soils. The relation of humus and micro-organisms is then discussed, attention being called to the soil being a habitat for pathogenic micro-organisms and to the necessity for preventing soil infection thereby.

The distribution of water in the soil is described, the subject of subsoil water affording an opportunity of presenting Pettenkofer's theory that, as the authors truly state, has not been confirmed. Sufficient reference is made to the relation between the dampness of the soil and the prevalence of phthisis, though the authors seem unaware of Bowditch's pioneer work in this matter.

There is a chapter on the constituents of water derived from the soil, and the influence that certain of these constituents exercise upon the prevalence of certain diseases.

The chapter on the relation of the soil to the air considers not only the movement of ground air, but also the influence of specific heat, radiation and absorption, conductibility, and color of the soil upon the climate.

The final chapter, on the geographical distribution of disease, very properly calls attention to the fact that while disease maps are of great value in indicating the geographical distribution of disease, they can not be used as maps illustrating the geological distribution of disease until statistics are grouped by similar geological areas where the other conditions are absolutely uniform.

There are several errors in the chapter on humus and micro-organisms. It was Laveran, not Marchiafava and Celli, that discovered