SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



563 



papers are limited to the ten years pre- 

 ceding their publication and reileet 

 great credit on their authors. To 

 attempt any synopsis of the contents 

 of these volumes would lead to tech- 

 nical details beyond the scope of these 

 columns. 



Text-books in English and in other 

 languages continue to flow from the 

 press in undiminished numbers; some 

 are very elementary, giving no novelty 

 in treatment nor other advantages over 

 the host of those preceding them, but 

 others are on a higher plane, endeavor- 

 ing to embody the most recent theories 

 and to adapt them for the purposes of 

 instruction. One of the most praise- 

 worthy of the latter group first ap- 

 peared in Holland in 1898, was soon 

 translated into German, and two years 

 later into English. Its author is Dr. 

 A. F. Holleman, professor at the Uni- 

 versity of Groningen, its translator is 

 Dr. Harmon C. Cooper, of Syracuse 

 University, and it bears the imprint of 

 John Wiley and Sons, New York City. 

 Holleman's text-book combines the new 

 achievements of physical chemistry 

 with the mass of long-established facts 

 of inorganic chemistry so as to form 



a unified whole; it makes it unneces- 

 sary for beginners to get acquainted 

 with the common phenomena of ele- 

 mentary chemistry by the study of one 

 book written on the old plan, and then 

 to take up the independent study of 

 those laws of physical chemistry es- 

 tablished by Ostwald, van't Hoff, Ar- 

 rhenius, and their disciples, as set 

 forth in some other manual devoted to 

 those subjects. All these features are 

 combined by Holleman in a single gra- 

 ded course, making it a superior, up-to- 

 date work. The translation by Dr. 

 Cooper is satisfactory and free from 

 ambiguity. 



Another book of very high grade is 

 that by Dr. Mellor, of Manchester, 

 England, entitled : ' Higher Mathe- 

 matics for Students of Chemistry and 

 Physics.' Chemistry is developing 

 along mathematical lines, and it is evi- 

 dent that its students must hereafter 

 be practical mathematicians. Of sev- 

 eral books applying mathematics to the 

 scientific evolution of chemistry, Mel- 

 lor's book is very complete and satis- 

 factory, and can be warmly recom- 

 mended. 



