Abstract
PHYSIOLOGISTS and pharmacologists have from the first been ready to adopt and apply the recent theories of physical chemistry. Indeed, the eagerness with which these theories have been received by biologists has frequently led to their misapplication, inasmuch as the conditions existing in the animal organism are so widely different from those for which the theories were developed, that direct adoption of purely physicochemical results is in nine cases out of ten inadmissible. In the book before us we have a series of seventeen lectures delivered by an energetic worker in pure physical chemistry to an audience of physicians. The physicochemical principles bearing on biological problems are expounded, the chief methods of experiment adequately described, and, what is of most importance, a critical account is given of many of their applications. These applications include, for example, disinfection in the light of the theory of electrolytic dissociation, the pharmacology of complex mercury salts and of uric acid solvents from the same point of view, the taste of dilute solutions, osmotic analysis, and the toxicity of electrolytic solutions. The book is admirably adapted to its purpose, and may be heartily recommended.
Physical Chemistry for Physicians and Biologists.
By Ernst Cohen. Authorised Translation from the German by M. H. Fischer. Pp. ix + 343. (New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1903.)
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Physical Chemistry for Physicians and Biologists . Nature 68, 245 (1903). https://doi.org/10.1038/068245b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/068245b0