LITERARY NOTICES. 



849 



and a list of contributions to Volume III. 

 The article in the midst of which the part 

 opens, on " Sketches," is one of great inter- 

 est, and is liberally illustrated with musical 

 citations. " The Sonata " is fully consid- 

 ered. Forty-eight pages are given to the sub- 

 ject of " Song," which is treated historically 

 and systematically with reference to the 

 characteristic features of the songs of differ- 

 ent nationalities. The work appears des- 

 tined to be one that no musician will be will- 

 ing to be without. 



Evolution : A Summary of Evidence. By 

 Robert C. Adams. New York : G. P. 

 Putnam's Sons. Pp. 44. 



This paper is the substance of a lecture 

 delivered in Montreal, in which the evidence 

 in favor of the doctrine of evolution is re- 

 viewed and stated in brief in a very clear 

 and forcible manner. Concerning the orders 

 of life, the author shows that animals and 

 plants appear as they would have done if 

 one race sprang from another; that each 

 being does spring from (embryonic) forms 

 common to the races below it ; and that life 

 has appeared on the earth in the order that 

 it would have done if each higher race had 

 been developed from a lower one. Brief 

 consideration is also given to the evolution 

 of mind and of the universe as postulated 

 by the nebular hypothesis ; and, finally, the 

 author, admitting that evolution does not 

 solve all the mystery of life, asserts that it 

 does not either question the existence of 

 God, but "only concerns itself as to the 

 manner in which the Supreme Power works, 

 and claims that it acts through natural law, 

 and not through miracle. 



Lessons in Qualitative Chemical Analy- 

 sis. By Dr. F. Beilstein. Translated, 

 with Copious Additions, by Charles 0. 

 Curtman, M. D. St. Louis Stationerv 

 and Book Co. 1883. Pp. 164, and Thir- 

 teen Woodcuts. Price, $1.50. 



Dr. Beilstein's little work is the text- 

 book in several German and Russian uni- 

 versities, and more than one English trans- 

 lation has already appeared in this country. 

 The present translation differs essentially 

 from the previous ones in the amount of 

 new matter added. The short introduction 

 on chemical manipulations will prove valu- 

 able to the student who is working alone or 



vol. xxiv. 54 



in laboratories imperfectly supplied with in- 

 structors, and in any case saves a great deal 

 of oral teaching and demonstration. Next 

 follow the special examples of the original 

 with several additional ones, but rearranged 

 so as to place the reactions for bases and 

 acids under separate headings, and elimi- 

 nating those which require too long a time 

 in preparation. A new chapter is then in- 

 troduced to serve as a guide in the various 

 practical examinations during the course. 

 An excellent table of spectra accompanies 

 the book, with a chapter on the use of the 

 spectroscope. Directions are also given for 

 the detection of a few organic substances 

 such as alcohol, chloroform, glucose, phenol, 

 and the alkaloids. The book closes with a 

 j chapter of thirty- eight pages on volumetric 

 1 analysis, in which very full directions are 

 given for preparing test solutions, with de- 

 I scription of apparatus employed. The course 

 1 embraced in Dr. Curtman's book is sufficient 

 : for physicians and others who do not intend 

 i to become chemists, while it is a useful in- 

 I troduction to a more thorough course for the 

 latter. 



A Manual of Chemistry, Physical and In- 

 organic. By Henry Watts, B. A., F. 

 R. S. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son 

 & Co. 1884. Pp. 595. 



The name of Watts is already familiar 

 to the chemists of all countries, not only as 

 the author of the only complete dictionary 

 of chemistry in the English language, but 

 also as the editor of the leading English 

 journals of that science, " The Chemical 

 News" and the "Journal of the London 

 Chemical Society." In 1868 Mr. Watts 

 revised Fowne's well-known "Manual of 

 Chemistry," and from time to time new edi- 

 tions of that work have appeared under his 

 editorial care. The book continued to in- 

 crease in size until it became necessary to 

 divide it into two volumes, the one contain- 

 ing the inorganic and physical portion, the 

 other being devoted to organic chemistry. 

 The work before us is but a new edition of 

 the first volume of Fownes's, having the same 

 ancient woodcuts, and in most cases the 

 same matter accompanies them. We notice, 

 however, new cuts of a Holtz machine and 

 a Ruhmkorff's coil, but none of any modern 

 dynamo, although the obsolete cylinder ma- 

 chine is still paraded before the reader. In 



