The Biochemistry of Symbiotic Nitrogen Fixation

Abstract

THE study of the nitrogen fixation which proceeds within nodule-bear ing leguminous plants provides a common meeting-ground for several branches of natural science. Bacteriologists, botanists, chemists, students of agriculture, all have found opportunities, not always lucrative, for investigation. The attention lavished on the subject by such varied workers, while it ought to result in a more all-round progress, inevitably complicates the task of anyone attempting to keep in direct touch with the multitude of original publications, dispersed as these are through scientific journals of every description. There should, therefore, be a ready welcome for a monograph such as that prepared by Prof. P. W. Wilson with the help of his colleagues in the Department of Agricultural Bacteriology of the University of Wisconsin, especially since it bears the hallmark of authority of a distinguished centre for the study of biological fixation of nitrogen.

The Biochemistry of Symbiotic Nitrogen Fixation

By Prof. Perry W. Wilson. Pp. xiv + 302 + 34 plates. (Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, 1940.) 3.50 dollars.