328 



THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



BOOK REVIEWS. 



Laboratory Manual of Inorganic Prepara- 

 tions; by H. J. Vulte, Ph. D., and Geo. M, I 

 Neustadt. Pub. by G. Peck, n Murray street, 

 New York City. $2.00. 



This manual which is devoted to the synthe- 

 tic preparation of the more difhcult inorganic 

 compounds, and C. P. reagents, will certainly 

 be welcomed by the various laboratories devoted 

 to inorganic work. Outside of a few elementary 

 works on chemistry, little is to be found bearing 

 directly on this subject in the English language, 

 and those that are given, are so simple as not to 

 be of any practical value to the student. 



In criticism of the book, it might be said that 

 some of the descriptions are rather laconic and 

 more illustrations might have been included, 

 however it seems to have been the endeavor of 

 the authors to keep the book from becoming too 

 bulky, as this is an item not to be overlooked. 

 This book cannot certainly be too highly recom- 

 mended for the use of pharmaceutical students 

 and progressive pharmacists. C. 



When the final events of the Graduating Class 

 of '95 terminated after a customary fashion be- 

 hind the foot lights of Carnegie Hall upon the 

 ninth evening of last May, there was a general 

 departure of the one hundred and five vic- 

 torious students for "parts unknown," how- 

 ever, one of them is now an inhabitant at a 

 rural spot among the Rocky Mountains, and 

 from thence this article comes. My location, a 

 particularly interesting one in the study of geol- 

 ogy and in those studies of concern to all phar- 

 macy students, viz., chemistry and botany, is a 

 distance of eighty miles from Denver, Col., and 

 twelve miles from the snowy summit of Pikes 

 Peak. Here, metals of the First, Second, Third, 

 Fourth and Fifth Groups abound in unlimited 

 quantities, in fact, the whole material that goes 

 to make up the earth's substance at this point 

 seems to consist of characteristically distinct 

 metals that may be detected and named with 

 ease. Beginning with the members of the first 

 group, lead, silver and mercury, it is well 

 known that the financial welfare of this State 

 depends largely upon the existence of the former 

 two and immense mines of these metals are in 

 operation throughout the "Rockies" from 

 which I have recently seen " lead ore " that 

 yielded S3. 5 per cent, of pure metallic lead and 

 "silver ore" where the valuable metal itself was 

 deposited in a native etate to the amount of 90 

 percent of the weight of the ore 



Belonging to the second group, copper, ar- 

 senic, antimony and gold are the most plenti- 

 ful. 



Antimony occurs in this locality as stibnite, 

 in handsome prismatic crystals of the ortho- 

 rhombic. These crystals are often acicular and 

 arranged in radiating groups ; magnificent in 

 size and brilliancy of luster. 



Arsenic is found associated with sulphur, giv- 

 ing the fine red and orange colored " realgar,'^ 

 which is 70.1 per cent, arsenic. 



Of the remaining three groups of metals, iron, 

 manganese, calcium, magnesium, sodium and 

 potassium are the most important in occurrence 

 within this section of the Mountains : Iron es- 

 pecially is a metal of great abundance and the 

 beautiful pieces of iron pyrites from various 

 mines range in value, to the seekers of "curios," 

 from one to twenty dollars. Calcium exists in 

 numerous caves in the form of stalactites, 

 which were thoroughly treated in the October 

 issue of The Alumni Journal. Manganese is 

 found principally as a carbonate while magne- 

 sium, sodium and potassium are most promi- 

 nent to us as they occur in spring waters. Many 

 mineral springs throughout this vicinity give 

 waters holding in solution as high 1.36 grams 

 of calcium bicarbonate and 0.85 grams of sodium 

 bicarbonate to the liter, besides worthy quan- 

 tities of K 2 SO 4 , Na 2 S0 4 , NaCl, MgHC0 3 , SiH 

 C0 3 and FeO — being also strongly charged 

 with carbon dioxide. 



A number of plants of very prolific growth in 

 this region are deserving mention, but I wil' 

 here refer to one only, the "Loco." It was 

 this plant that caused such a rapid death rate 

 among the stock of this section of the country 

 a few years ago and for which the government, 

 thinking that it might be exterminated, offered 

 a liberal bounty, but of no avail, acres of it were 

 soon under cultivation and farming in a soil of 

 sand was a pronounced financial success. 



Jesse I. Bailey. 



Foods preserved in Carbonic Acid, — An im- 

 proved appparatus for preserving food is a tank 

 filled with carbonic acid gas, which, being 

 heavier than air, does not escape. The gas im- 

 pregnates the foods stored on the shelves and 

 preserves them indefinitely without injury, and 

 also keeps them free from insect life. The gas 

 is thrown off from the foods very soon after be- 

 ing exposed to the open air ; their natural fresh- 

 ness and flavor are retained much better than if 

 they had been in contact with ice. — Mineral 

 Water Trade Recorder. 



