In short, Azarias proclaimed that Love should be free. Only a hardened sinner could make such a declaration in New Babylon, as Love had been banished from its precincts long ago, and the greatest danger was anticipated from Cupid's return. An energetic action against the offender therefore was necessary. The problem was how this could be effected without advertising the pernicious heresies of Azarias.

The fathers of the vast city applied to the police, and a plan was hatched to annihilate the enemy. Azarias by trade was a bookseller, and amongst the books he sold there were medical works which dealt with regular and irregular sexuality, and with the psychological and pathological aspects of the intricate problem of sex. These books would form the peg on which to hang the prosecution of Azarias the sinner.

His books were seized and he himself was arrested forthwith. But the greatest peril for New Babylonian morality lay in the public promulgation of the false prophet's heresies, and in a discussion of the questions of morality involved therein, which at a public trial of the offender would have been inavoidable.

Fortunately for New Babylon Azarias was weak-hearted, as all false prophets are, and the ordeal before the mighty and virtuous magistrate, combined with the imprisonment, and, last not least, the fear of the awful things yet in store for him, tended to subdue his exuberant spirits.

The culprit was to be arraigned before a jury of twelve honest citizens of the most moral city in the world, and he knew he would fare badly at their hands. But Azarias had many friends and sympathisers, who tried to elevate his sinking spirits by contributing liberally to a defence fund, and by encouraging him to resist the temptation of giving way to his accusers, who promised to restitute to him freedom and honour if he would only recant and publicly acknowledge the error of his ways. Azarias, however, was not made of the material of which true prophets are cast. With one hand the prosecution offered him long imprisonment and the application on his dorsal appendices of the cat, a peculiar instrument of castigation lately much applied to recalcitrant criminals, by the then Recorder of London; with the other hand a free pardon and absolution, if he would only acknowledge to

have sinned against the moral code of New Babylon, and confess to being a person of a wicked and depraved mind and disposition. Such a confession, in the eyes of the prosecution, would be more satisfactory than a conviction.

Azarias, cowed and trembling for fear, went on his knees before the prosecutor, promising to mend his wicked ways, and never again to lead the pious inhabitants of New Babylon from the path of true morality. More than this; Azarias swore that the real culprit who was at the bottom of the whole sinful propaganda, was one of those depraved foreigners hailing from the wicked city on the Seine, from where all the immoral literature and all the advanced ideas on love and marriage came over to the shores of the great island of which New Babylon was the metropolis.

And a compact was made there and then, a warrant was issued against the dangerous foreigner, Azarias was liberated, and New Babylon saved from a great peril.

Azarias the same day joined the Young Man's Christian Association, and forthwith donned the garb of the Salvation Army. He thus was thoroughly rehabilitated in the eyes of the good citizens of New Babylon. And there was more joy in the great city over the conversion of this one sinner that repenteth than over the six millions of just and moral persons which needed no repentance.

But New Babylon had a narrow escape.

A. VON JARCHOW.

NEW BOOKS.

THE NATURAL HISTORY OF DIGESTION. By A. LOCKHART GILLESPIE, M.D., F.R.C.P.Ed., F.R.S.Ed. Crown octavo, pp. 427. "The Contemporary Science Series." (Published by Walter Scott, Ltd., Paternoster Square.)

THIS volume is an important addition to the "Series" and to our books on digestion, covering the whole field of digestion in plants and animals; its lucid descriptions and explanatory plates make it a useful text-book, whilst it is so well supplied with original charts and tables that as a reference book its value is almost encyclopaedic; moreover, it is a record of a vast amount of original and painstaking research. Twenty pages suffice for an historical account of the ancient theories of digestion; the strict dietary rules recorded in the Papyrus Ebers are mentioned, that papyrus which has done so much to enlighten us with respect to the habits and methods of the priest physicians of Egypt-"Ra pitied the sick and his teacher was Truth." Two chapters on digestion in plants and on carnivorous plants form very pleasant reading for the student of plant physiology, a treat for the field-botanist who knows the hunting ground for pinguicula and drosera; two chapters in wonderland for the general reader. The tabulated experiments will tempt the plant physiologist to repeat some of the experiments so carefully recorded and observed by the author, the photographs render the facts unmistakable. As a medium for yeast culture is given on page 37, perhaps it would be only fair if the author had supplied a medium for water culture for the "higher plants" on page 39. Many students of plant physiology keep their specimens growing for months in such chemical solutions, e.g., slips of arbor vitæ, etc. Readers whose ideas of energy conservation by plants are only general will gain precise information, both with respect to the action of light on the chlorophyll of the plant and the formation of starch. Already vegetarians and others are beginning to recognise that the proper names of plants are erg-absorbs and those of animals erg-evolvs, and such detailed explanation is important. It is very difficult to realise in its full significance that food value per se is an imponderable force or modus, although we may see clearly the lower percentage of carbon in carbonic acid than in the three food-stuffs-fat, carbohydrate, and proteid. Such description of chlorophyll in function is peculiarly valuable. It is characteristic of the book under review, that it is self-explanatory and does not require other text-books for its elucidation. The author says: "The general principles underlying vegetable metabolism are constructive, in direct contrast to those of animal metabolism, which are, first, largely destructive; secondly, constructive." It is also true that the morphological ideals of plants are constructive, whilst those of animals, at least in their muscular system, show ( 378 )

progress towards differentiation. Again, chlorophyllous and non-chlorophyllous plants, with their distinct physiology, have at least one significant reaction in common; e.g., a slice of the tuber of a potato when rubbed with a grain of tyrosin browns, or touched with a drop of fresh guaiacum tincture blues the same as a mushroom, from its oxidasic enzymes. The forerunners of proteids in plants are discussed, asparagin found in etiolated and nonetiolated plants, or in some plants it may be replaced by glutamin.

The formation of fats from starch is described in a few lines, an interesting subject, tantalisingly brief although definite. Digestion by plants is altogether a seductive and exhilarating section.

The main subject-digestion in animals-is begun at the eighty-first page with a short description of the development of the alimentary canal, illustrated by diagrams. "Twelve hours after the commencement of incubation of an egg the first trace of the formation of the chick appears as the 'primitive streak.' In the rabbit seven days elapse before the impregnated ovum shows a similar line." Impregnated ovum, then fertilised egg. The remainder of the chapter deals with the anatomical description of the alimentary canal in various animals, the survey is thorough and diagrams numerous, a diagram of the liver would be a useful addition. "The pancreas is an acino-tubular gland," it might be perhaps a glandular organ. Ferments and ferment action are adequately discussed, lucid description and sharp delimitation allow the reader to easily grasp the important differences of prepotential zymogen and potential enzyme. "The organised ferments are killed by the action of alcohol, formalin, chloroform, and many antiseptics which do not prevent, though they may retard, the processes rendered possible by the unorganised bodies" (page 110). The word enzymes for bodies would make this sentence clearer to the reader. Those who are familiar with the work done on ferment action by different workers will find a most interesting chapter of comparative data from many sources, accurately appreciated and discussed, followed by able conclusions. "Reasoning from analogy, we may confidently assert that all ferments are produced when required by the active cells of the different glands from an inactive precursor, formed by and present in these cells." A discussion of the food-elements-carbohydrates, proteids, fats-is a short but important chapter, by no means easily assimilated, although excellent for study. The formation of sugar from albumens, the arrangement of chlorophyll and hæmoglobin in one group, are like countless other important facts in the book, relegated to smaller print and foot-notes, but they serve to show how thoroughly up to date and comprehensive the book is throughout. The section on fat is somewhat short compared with the space devoted to the carbohydrate and proteid, saponification of fats by alkalies would simplify some of the aspects of fat both on pages 147 and 212. However, this seems an ungrateful demand arising from interest in that subject.

Suppose a "carbohydrate test" of a simple character be applied to fats, one in certain respects comparable to tissue combustion, there is so much which is interesting but which requires explanation. The "carbohydrate test" shall be a tea-spoonful of four per cent. solution of potassium permanganate made acid with a cubic centimetre of dilute sulphuric acid, the

heat evolved from a gram of fat, ascertained by a small thermometer, will be only a few degrees, no more if we emulsify by an alkali or with gumwhilst the heat degrees evolved by glycerin is almost a hundredfold that of fat, saccharines and alcohol nearly as high. Hence page 212 becomes a starting point of critical inquiry emphasized by the urotoxies of fat. The chapters which are intermediate are largely concerned with the digestive processes in the body; here we have medical and expert knowledge of the deepest interest; digestion of starches, peptone formation, chyme, chyle, and absorption, are all carefully detailed; elaborate work, laborious details, illustrative tables, are everywhere in evidence, the whole masterly and complete. As regards the experiments of Hammarsten on starch, we must be on our guard, and remember that cooked potato starch, also tous-les-mois and arrowroot, are more quickly saccharified than cereal starches.

Absorption by the alimentary canal and the micrococci therein form a short but profound study in physiological chemistry and bacteriology. Tables of the composition of chyle and lymph, of the composition of the contents of various portions of the alimentary canal during digestion, accompany the text, so that the information is abundant. Medical men will be reminded how far urinology has advanced in the laboratory, how absolutely necessary routine examination of urine becomes in practical medicine; the relations of ptomaines, leucomaines, and toxic co-efficients of urine, are important. "The mucous membrane of the bowel appears to constitute one of the bulwarks which defend the animal organism from outward infective agents." We might add there would be no great exaggeration if we were to regard the whole aero-digestive system as a physiological immunising apparatus. The comparative study of digestion in animals is an excellent chapter in comparative physiology in man and animals, comprehensive and scientific, it contains fewer notes in small type and its paragraphs are more easily assimilated.

In dealing with the special senses, sight, very properly, is not included with smell and taste, hunger and thirst. Nevertheless, the sight of food perceived or imagined is a real physiological impression and stimulus to gland function. Metabolism of food-stuffs forms a carefully-prepared chapter, supplemented by diagrams and charts of the greatest interest and importance, so arranged as to be understood at sight. The work of various experimenters in the changes which occur in metabolism, the organs engaged in metabolism, are all given at length or apposite points selected; the whole story of urea, uric acid, lactic acid, and other formations, is interestingly told in about thirty pages. The paragraphs dealing with uric acid, hippuric acid, the conversion of hippurates into benzoates by work, might have been extended, vide the work of Professor Williams on veterinary medicine, and that of A. B. Griffiths' Physiology of the Invertebrates.

Perhaps also it would be safer to use at the present time the term "glycosuria" for the condition of sugar in the urine, reserving the term diabetes for the more essential" "disease. It would be interesting to certain medical readers, seeing fat is apparently rapidly burned up and oxidised into carbonic acid and water, to know why after a diet of fat the urine should have a higher uro-toxic co-efficient than after a milk diet.