A Page of Science, Chemistry and Medicine

ASERIES of Lowell Lectures has recently been published under the title of "Living Machinery;" a series, now bound together not only in substance but in thought and in purpose, fascinating from beginning to end, and giving in the clearest fashion an explanation of "living machinery", that is, of our own bodies. The interplay of nerve and muscle, and of chemical and electrical reaction that takes place within the living animal is graphically and entertainingly set forth. Curiosity is constantly piqued by such statements as-"Even when a nerve carriers 280 messages in a second, its temperature rises only 1-14,000th part of a degree." Who ever dreamed that a nerve is capable of carrying 280 messages in a single second? Or that the transportation thereof involves so minute a loss of heat? And by what means; pray, could such phenomena have been so accurately determined? Having thus aroused our curiosity, Professor Hill proceeds to tell us the whole story, sometimes in words alone, but oftener with the aid of well chosen diagrams, charts, or photographs.

It is characteristic of the book, moreover, that may ideas are impressed on the perhaps forever, because the author invokes a lasting image for us by writing; for example: "Such a cell is an individual soldier of the army, having his proper place in the company of his fellows-." For Professor Hill is of those rare and fortunate men who having something worth while to say, can say it as well as it could be said.

Turing to chapter 2, or rather lecture 2, on "Muscles and How They Move," we learn a lot of things which we ought to know; this statement, in fact, being true of the whole book. Are you aware, for example, that muscular activity is effected by chemical reaction; that the efficiency of our muscles is 25 per cent something better that that of a steam engine; that a frog's muscle can lift one thousand times its won weight? Have you a clear conception of what causes the "lubb" and the "dup" of the heart beat? All these question open up a new field to the casual reader, along

with the subject mater of the remaining chapters: "The Lungs and the Blood," "Speed, Strength and Endurance," where-in the sprinter learns that scientists can predict his times from only two or three "medical" observations, and so on. Nor do all these facts and thoughts stick out like a sore thumb in the book, as they do here. Far from that, they form part of the fabric of the text, and all contribute to give the reader a clearer and broader view of the place that he and his body, and all "living machinery" hold in the scheme of things.

It is interesting, also to see what he writers of our "purpose" on earth: as to the ultimate purpose of human existence, he is at a loss, though he does say that Science, far from eliminating the supreme Life-giver, tries to proceed hand in hand with Him. "Is it reasonable to regard a painting as nothing but paint and canvas, a poem or mathematical proposition as nothing but ink and paper?"

After absorbing the thought, as well as those facts which naturally stick in the memory, of "Living Machinery", one is left with a perceptibly broadened vision, and with a greater sense of what scientific research has done, and will continue to do