Charles Bonnet, Lettres à M. l'Abbé Spallanzani

when Davis et al. in 1962, demonstrated the breakdown of ATP in a single tetanic contraction of a muscle treated with l-fluoro-2, 4-dinitrobenzene. Chapter 15 is devoted to rigor mortis. Preceded by chapters on the general history of respiration (Chapter 16) and of oxidative phosphorylation (Chapter 17), Chapter 18 is concerned with the regulation of carbohydrate metabolism for energy supply to the muscle. In Chapter 19 the author compares the white and red striated muscles of vertebrates, while the effect of denervation is considered in Chapter 20. Muscle diseases form the subject of Chapter 21. Invertebrate muscles are considered in a historical perspective in Chapter 22, and the smooth muscles of vertebrates in Chapter 23. In Chapter 24, the author retraces the knowledge accumulated during the last twenty-five years on the presence ofATP and ATPase in diverse cells showing motility and even other uses of ATP, for instance in the production of electric current or osmotic work. 'Living beings' as the author concludes, 'differ in glory but, in deeper ways than the apostle thought, their flesh is one.' Since the book was completed, S. Lowey and D. Risby (Nature, 1971, 234, 81) have demonstrated that myosin from fast skeletal muscles consists of two large sub-units (each about 200,000 daltons) and four smaller (in the range of 20,000 daltons). While ATP has been recognized as hydrolyzed at the onset of contraction, its hydrolysis is in muscle contraction, coupled to a process which remains obscure. It may be hoped that this mystery will be solved when the most interesting and informative book of D. M. Needham appears in a second edition. There is another aspect of the book which should be emphasized: it is that only such an expert as D. M. Needham could provide us with a historical treatment in such a thorough and stimulating manner which makes the book of prime importance not only to historians but to active biochemists, as the domains surveyed with such talent and authority by Dorothy M. Needham remain the background of modern research. MARCEL FLORKIN