690 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



latest productions, such as "non-rusting" chrome-steel, or the resistent silicon- 

 iron alloys which play such a large part in modern chemical industry. These, 

 however, are relatively minor points, and the volume as a whole maintains the 

 position the previous editions have won amongst text-books of Inorganic Chemistry. 



F. A. M. 



Introduction to the Rarer Elements. By Philip E. Browning, Ph.D., 

 Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Kent Chemical Laboratory, Yale 

 University. [Pp. xii + 250, with tables and diagrams. Fourth edition.] 

 (London : Chapman & Hall, Ltd., 191 7. Price 7s. net.) 



The fact that Prof. Browning's book has already reached a fourth edition shows 

 on the one hand that the work continues to be in demand and on the other that 

 interest in the rarer elements is in no way diminishing. 



As some fifty elements are mentioned, including such diverse substances as 

 the radio-active elements, the rare earths, gallium, vanadium, tungsten, selenium, 

 gold, and the inert gases of the atmosphere, it will be realised that it is no light 

 task to discuss all these within the pages of a relatively small book. 



Of necessity, therefore, one finds that some points have been enlarged upon 

 at the expense of others, and that one cannot look upon Prof. Browning's book 

 as a substitute for the more comprehensive works devoted to special groups of 

 elements. As an introduction, however, the work is of distinct value, and as, 

 moreover, it has been prepared from the material used by the author in a course 

 of lectures for students at Yale, it possesses distinct educational interest. The 

 uses to which the rare elements are put increase from day to day, and it is very 

 desirable that senior students should gain an insight into the properties and uses 

 of those elements not generally treated in much detail in the usual text-books. In 

 this connection Chapter XII. on some technical applications, is very informing. 



It would, of course, be comparatively easy to criticise certain aspects of the 



work, such as the absence of quantitative experiments in the practical work on 



analysis, or the almost excessive condensation of facts and figures which is 



apparent here and there ; but, as the book undoubtedly fulfils its avowed object of 



serving " as a convenient handbook in the introductory study of the rarer elements," 



it would be unfair to exaggerate what are, after all, quite minor defects in a really 



useful book. 



F. A. M. 



Our Analytical Chemistry and its Future. By William Francis Hille- 

 brand, Ph.D., Chief Chemist of the Bureau of Standards, Washington, D.C. 

 [Pp. 36.] (New York : Columbia University Press ; London : Oxford 

 University Press, 191 7. Price is. 6d. net.) 



This pamphlet contains the Chandler Lecture for 1916 delivered at Columbia 

 University and, both by reason of the interest and importance of the subject and 

 the weight which Dr. Hillebrand's words necessarily carry, it deserves to be read 

 with care by those who are concerned in the future welfare of chemistry, equally 

 in this country as in the United States. 



Whilst one cannot agree with Dr. Hillebrand's criticisms in their entirety, most 

 chemists will consider the views and aims set forth as worthy of serious con- 

 sideration. The author points out the necessity for greatly increased accuracy 

 in analytical determinations : methods which were considered suitable even quite 

 a few years back are to-day no longer of sufficient accuracy. One has only to 



