350 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



There is sound truth in the statement that follows : " Ozone does its work. 

 That is a fact beyond question, ozone can be made in any quantity. That is 

 another fact, but it does not include ( !) that every layman who ' invents ' an 

 ozonator will be able to manufacture ozone on a large scale and apply it on a 

 commercial basis." 



The use of ozone for the purification of drinking water and for sterilisation, its 

 advantages for the purification of air, for bleaching and other industrial purposes, 

 and for therapeutics, of which detailed descriptions are given, are sufficient to 

 emphasise the importance of the study of its production, and its practical utility 

 under modern conditions. For all those interested in ozone from that standpoint 

 this book should provide a useful work of reference. 



Theoretical Chemistry from the Standpoint of Avogadro's Rule and Thermo- 

 dynamics. By Prof. Walter Nernst, Ph.D. Revised in accordance 

 with the Seventh German Edition by H. T. Tizard, M.A. [Pp. xix 4- 853.] 

 (London: Macmillan & Co. Price 15.?. net.) 



PROF. Nernst'S Theoretical Chemistry has become so much a standard work that 

 the appearance of a new edition calls for little fresh criticism. As the translator 

 points out, the gradual evolution of the book has caused it to assume a rather 

 specialised form owing to the impossibility of discussing the whole realm of 

 theoretical chemistry within two covers. 



Thus the present edition contains practically no account of recent work on 

 radioactivity or the atomic theory, whilst Prof. Nernst's own researches are treated 

 fully ; again, the important subject of tautomerism, which plays so large a part in 

 the mechanism of organic chemical reactions, is compressed within a page and a 

 half, and the valuable work of Dimroth, K. H. Meyer, Acree, and others on the 

 mechanism of the changes and the influence of solvents, is summarily dismissed 

 with a single reference to Dimroth's work ; catalysis again is surely a subject 

 deserving of somewhat lengthier treatment than the paragraphs allotted on 

 pp. 616-17. 



In spite of the mass of valuable material contained in the book, one cannot but 

 feel that it has reached a point in its development when it must either expand into 

 two volumes, so as to cover the whole field of chemistry, or else the work must 

 definitely specialise on certain points on which Prof. Nernst is a recognised 

 authority. 



As it stands, one is bound to notice a certain patchiness in the work, due to the 

 elaboration of certain aspects of chemistry at the expense of others. 



In general, however, the book is fully up to the standard of previous editions, 

 and the interesting account of Nernst's own researches almost makes up, perhaps, 

 for the scanty treatment of other branches of chemistry. 



Frederick A. Mason. 



The Problems of Physiological and Pathological Chemistry of Metabolism 

 for Students, Physicians, Biologists, and Chemists. By Dr. Otto von 



Furth, Professor Extraordinary of Applied Medical Chemistry in the 

 University of Vienna. Authorised translation by Allen J. Smith, Pro- 

 fessor of Pathology and of Comparative Pathology in the University of 

 Pennsylvania. [Pp. xvi + 667.] (Philadelphia and London : J. B. Lippin- 

 cott Co. Price 25*. net.) 



The present work is described as a translation of the second volume of v. Fiirth's 

 Probleme der Physiologische?i und Patfwlogischeti Chemie. It deals with the 



