W. M. Bayliss. Principles of general physiology. London, 1915. (850 pp.).

Questions of general physiology are at present passing beyond the circle of interests of representatives of pure biology. Chemists and physicists are beginning to take a lively interest in them, and therefore Bayliss’s book, published during the war and devoted to questions of general physiology, acquires very great significance. For physicists and chemists, the chapters treating energetics in its relation to physiology (Chapter II), the chapters on surface tension (Chapter III), the chapter on the colloidal state (Chapter IV), and further Chapters V, VI, VII, and VIII, setting forth the doctrine of semipermeable membranes, of osmotic pressure, of the action of electrolytes, and of water and its properties, may be of particular interest. Also important are Chapters X (catalysis), XIII (the doctrine of excitation), and XIX (the action of light). The book is supplied with an extensive bibliographic index (82 pages) of the principal works in fields bordering on general physiology, including major books and journal articles. The book is excellently produced and richly illustrated with explanatory drawings and diagrams, as well as with photographs from laboratories, of historical instruments, and portraits of men of science.

P. Lazarev.