The San Francisco call., 1895-08-02
A REMARKABLE BOOK.

1t is rarely that technical work, partic-
ularly one on physiology, intended for the
use of medical students and practitioners,
proves interesting to that creature vaguely
known as the general reader" but when
such book as that which has been issued
by DR.. John P. Schmitz is presented it
challenges the attention of all intelligent
persons. Apart from the fact that DR..
Schmitz is physician and medical lee
turer in this City he has introduced into
his scholarly production some theories
and demonstrations that constitute bold
challenge to the traditions of the past and
that open up wide view beyond the
bounds of empiricism.
1t is not the purpose here TO review this
mastery work, but merely to mention
some of its unique features. In general it
is an able and finely written book and will
prove as interesting to the average lay
scholar as to the specialist in pathology.
The wisdom patience and scholarship OF
the German have received a bold touch of
the daring and originality which a long
residence in California seems to impart to
intellectual tasks, with the result that DR..
Schmitz has given the most meaty of fruits
and the most fruity of meats for cranial
digestion.
On page 104 he gives the first shock to
ancient tenets. He denies that carbonic
acid gas is a product of decomposition of
the bodily elements, or that this gas exists
in the blood at all but asserts that the ele-
ments ofits production do exist and that the
gas is generated only at those places in the
system where its expansive force will not
produce rupture of blood conduits and
vessels-that is, in the so-called air cells of
the lungs. He will explain, further, that
carbonic acid gas should not be regarded
as the deadly poison which tradition has
declared it to be; further, that carbonic
acid gas is equally as important as oxygen
in sustaining the vital organism; and fur
ther still, and more important yet, that
carbonic acid gas is the stimulating agency
which keeps the vital activities at work.
Hence, asphyxiation from this gas is the
result of overstimulation. Hence, also, an
excess OF oxygen is poisonous, the two
central ideas being that both carbonic acid
gas and oxygen have their important vital
uses and that it is disturbance of their
equilibrium in the system that produces
evil. This may prove strong and unpalat-
able meat for believers in the "oxygen
treatment" but it is evidently fed by the
hand of a master.
DIR. Schmitz has dug deeply into so many
of these profound matters that it is diff
cult to make choice among them. 1t is
disappointing to observe, however, that he
dismisses with word that most mysteri-
Gus of organs, the pituitary gland, which
determines whether we shall be dwarfs,
giants or ordinary persons, and that he
confesses partial ignorance concerning the
pineal gland, which looks as though
it might be the rudiment of an eve that
we once carried in the back of the head.
But the learned doctor has not written to
enthrall the imagination. He has set
forth merely the observations of hard,
intelligent and conscientious student
The illustrations and diagrams, many of
them, which abound in the book are orig
inal and exceedingly instructive. This is
the case particular in the authors treat
ment of nerve functions, and to this ex-
tent he is somewhat remindful of Herbert
Spencer in his great works on the physi-
ology of the brain and mind. Altogether,
DR.. Schmitz has produced work which
must command the admiration of physi-
Glars and students and the attention of
educated and knowledge-loving laymen.