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T o THE EDITOR: The JOURNAL OPCHEMICAL EDUCATION for January, 1926, contains a review of Pearson and Hepburn on "Physiological and Clinical Chemistry." Certain statements made in this review are of such a nature that they may not be permitted to pass unnoticed. The reviewer stresses the absence of a chapter on lipins. According to the 1924 directory of the American Chemical Society, the reviewer is a member of the faculty of the University of Maryland. The medical school of that university is a member of the Association of American Medical Colleges according to the Proceedings of that Association for 1925. Therefore, the reviewer should be familiar with the requirements for entrance into medical colleges as formulated by that Association, and should know that organic chemistry is a required subject for admission. Since the fats, oils, and related compounds are discussed in organic chemistry, a descriptive chapter on lipins was considered unnecessary in a treatise on physiological chemistry. The reviewer comments adversely on the absence of a bibliography, claiming that collateral reading by the student is thereby discouraged. Now the American Medical Association in its monograph "Choice of a Medical School," 1925 edition, page 11, requires that a medical college "should have a working medical library, to include the more modern text and reference books with the Quarterly Cumulative Index, the Surgeon-General's Index, the Index Medicus, and other serviceable indexes. ." The collateral readicg of the student is encouraged and readily guided by these indexes, Chemical Abstracts, and the advice of a competent instructor. The reviewer claims that many of the tests are antiquated, and that the procedures of other tests are inaccurately described. As stated in the preface, the laboratory procedures have been found reliable by experience. The old tests have stood the test of time. Thus, Febling's reagent is still official in the methods of the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists and in the Pharmacopoeia of the United States, although devised in the middle of the last century. The procedures are accurately described, and are readily followed by the authors' students, and should be followed readily by any person of the same degree of intellectual development. The reviewer infers that Trommer's test is chosen as the principal test for reducing sugars, whereas no special stress is placed upon it. His
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comment concerning Benedict's qualitative test is academic; Benedict used urine, while the student is directed to use a dextrose solution and a larger volume of reagent. The reviewer's statement that Gunzberg's test is given second place is incorrect. The reviewer overlooked the direction to the student to repeat the tests for free hydrochloric acid by each of the three methods with several successive dilutions of hydrochloric acid, as high as 1 :10,000, and to tabulate the results. The student thereby learns for himself the relative sensitivity of dimethylaminoazobenzene, Gunzberg reagent, and Boas reagent. The reviewer mentions the relative order of presentation of Uffelmann's test and Kelling's test, but he has omitted to state that numerical values are given for the sensitivity of each of the three tests for lactic acid: Uffelmann's, Kelling's, and Strauss'. The reviewer apparently overlooked the preface, for i t is there stated that the course in physiological and clinical chemistry given by the authors is preceded by six collegiate courses in chemistry, including lectures and laboratory work in general inorganic chemistry, qualitative analysis, quantitative analysis, physical chemistry, and organic chemistry. Elaborate statements, definitions, and descriptions, in many instances, would be repetition in view of the students' prior training. The writer has been an abstractor for Chemical Abstracts since 1915, and bas thereby acquired the ability to state facts concisely. He has made use of this ability in the writing of the book. The reviewer errs in stating that the polariscope is described on page 65. The polariscope has been described and specific rotation bas been discussed in the course in physical chemistry mentioned above. The test to which the reviewer refers is a concise statement concerning the quantitative determination of dextrose and other sugars by the optical method. To the writer, that statement is neither vague nor deficient. The definition of acidosis as a diminution of the alkalinity of the blood is correct. The statements concerning glycosuria and hyperglycemia are ample, for the treatise does not profess to cover differential diagnosis, therapeutics, and the practice of medicine. Likewise, i t does not profess to be a monograph on parasitology, hence the absence of the pictures of the intestinal parasites and their ova. The claim that the book is defective in matter is the reviewer's individual opinion. Such a claim has not been advanced by other reviewers, men of standing in chemistry and medicine. The claim is refuted by the fact that the book represents the course in physiological and clinical chemistry as given by the authors in this college, whose graduates are admitted to the examination for licensure by the state board of medical examiners of every state in the Union, as well as by the National Board of Medical Examiners. Moreover, all the chapters are based on the personal ex-
