In this monograph Thoenes and Aschaffenburg present their work on iron metabolism and give a complete review of the literature. The critical discussion of both the literature and the authors' own work is highly interesting. The conclusions drawn are, for the most part, convincing, and the plan followed in the experimental work is logical and ingenious.
The chief object of study was the iron content of the blood serum, which was determined by the thiocyanate method. The normal range of the serum iron was established by determinations made on twelve new-born infants, forty normal infants aged between 2 weeks and 1 year, and twenty normal children between the ages of 2 and 9 years. For premature infants normal values were found, while in cases of chronic malnutrition the average values were somewhat higher than normal. Low values were found in anemias and also in some infections; in the latter condition