132 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of the measure proposed would be the em- 

 ployment of a great number of laborers 

 who are now idle. The permanent effects 

 would be most quickly seen in the younger 

 laborers ; for, by the application of half- 

 time, " within a single decade every laborer 

 of twenty years of age . . . would have 

 bad five, and many of them seven or eight 

 years' daily contact with the educational, 

 moral, and social influences of school life. 

 It is clear, therefore, that the necessary 

 consequence of the general adoption of the 

 half-time school system alone would be not 

 only to greatly improve and elevate the 

 home, but to almost revolutionize the do- 

 mestic and social atmosphere of the masses 

 within a single generation." The effects 

 of this system upon wages, production, and 

 prices, on profits, and on rent, are next 

 considered, and declared to be all benefi- 

 cial. The feasibility of short-hour legisla- 

 tion is shown from the history of the meas- 

 ures in that direction that have been taken 

 in England. The lessons which they teach 

 are drawn from comparative reviews of 

 industrial progress in England, continental 

 countries, and the United States ; the eight- 

 hour and half-time system is presented as a 

 social and political necessity ; and the con- 

 clusion is expressed that if such a system 

 could be uniformly adopted in the principal 

 manufacturing countries, " its effect upon 

 emigration, enforced idleness, business de- 

 pressions, and upon real wages, together 

 with the growth of intelligence and social 

 character, would in twenty-five years change 

 the face of the industrial and social institu- 

 tions of Christendom." 



We have received from Macmillan an 

 Elementary Chemistry, by Muir and Slater 

 ($1.25), and a Practical Chemistry, by 3fnir 

 and Carnegie (80 cents), two books, adapted 

 to university students, which are designed 

 to be used together in learning the elements 

 of chemical science. The former volume 

 deals mainly with chemical philosophy, 

 using descriptive matter to show the basis on 

 which the principles of chemistry rest. Its 

 companion embodies a course of laboratory 

 work. 



In the third edition of the Manual of 

 Analytical Chemistry, by John Muter (Blak- 

 iston, $2), a considerable amount of special 

 matter has been introduced, but, by means 



of a change in the style of printing, the 

 bulk of the volume has been diminished in- 

 stead of increased. This manual embraces 

 both qualitative and quantitative analysis, 

 and deals with organic as well as inorganic 

 substances. 



Sir William Aitlceii's little book on the 

 Animal Alkaloids (Blakiston, $1) embodies 

 a lecture delivered before the British Army 

 Medical School, in which he summarizes the 

 recent researches as to the poisonous effect 

 of the leucomaines, and other substances 

 formed within the body by the physiological 

 pi'ocesses. 



The sixth edition of Bloxam's Chemistry 

 has been issued (Blakiston, $4.50). This 

 work includes both organic and inorganic 

 chemistry, and its distinguishing features 

 are its comprehensiveness and the large 

 space it gives to technological applications 

 of chemical principles. The number of ex- 

 periments introduced is also large. The 

 work has been carefully revised, and a large 

 part of it has been rewritten for this edi- 

 tion. The first edition having appeared 

 when metallurgy was still treated as a 

 branch of chemistry, more space is devoted 

 to it than is usual in modern chemical 

 works. As the author had been for many 

 years before his death, which occurred just 

 after the present book had passed through 

 the press, a professor in the Military Acad- 

 emy at Woolwich, England, the chemistry 

 of the various substances employed in war- 

 like stores is quite fully treated. 



Prof. Victor von Hichter^s Inorganic 

 Chemistry (Blakiston, $2) has reached a 

 third American edition. The present edition 

 contains a rather extended section upon the 

 thermal behavior of bodies, and throughout 

 the work frequent occasion is taken to call 

 attention to the dynamical side of chemical 

 reactions. The sections upon the pressure 

 and condensation of gases, and that upon 

 the dissociation phenomena, have also been 

 considerably increased, while new facts re- 

 lating to the elements and their derivatives 

 have been introduced. 



First Steps in Geometry, by Richard A. 

 Proctor (Longmans, $1.25), differs from the 

 common text-books on this subject in deal- 

 ing mainly with the methods which the 

 student should follow in finding out for him- 

 self solutions to geometrical problems. The 



