1864. | Pamphlets. 379 
questions, but we may state that they are all of more or less general 
interest, and that the large majority are practically useful. Some deal 
with local improvements ; others, with the statistics of the country ; and 
others, again, require investigations in the various branches of Physical 
and Mechanical Science, in Crystallography, Geology, Chemistry, 
Botany, Physiology, &e. 
The replies of competitors, which are expected to take the form 
of short essays, may be indited in the Dutch, French, English, 
German, or Latin languages, and as far as we are enabled to judge 
from the precautions taken to ensure impartiality to all candidates, and 
secrecy to unsuccessful ones, we should say that students are justified 
in placing their labours in the hands of the Society in perfect confi- 
dence that they will receive fair treatment. 
As we have already observed, we hope that some move will be made 
in this practical direction amongst our English Institutions; the 
Society of Arts already awards such prizes, but there is no reason why 
every important “ Philosophical” Society should not do the same, and we 
shall be glad to receive more of these programmes from other countries, 
in order to extract from them any new features in their management, 
for the benefit of our English readers. 
Spectrum ANALYSIS. 
Tose of our readers who may be able to read the Dutch language, will 
find in it one of the best works yet published on Spectrum Analysis.* 
The book is so good that it deserves translation into a language that 
would ensure it a wider circulation; and as we are in want of such a 
work in England, we commend it to the notice of any good Dutch 
scholar and chemist. Tracing the art from its first origin, the author 
brings down his account of the successive discoveries to the latest 
published observations of Bunsen, Kirchoff, and Miller, describing 
most of the observed spectra, and giving what will be found extremely 
useful to many—a very complete bibliography of the subject. The 
work is accompanied by some beautifully-executed coloured drawings 
of various spectra. 
One of the earliest applications of the prism to chemical analysis was 
that of Plucker, who observed the lines produced by the passage of 
electricity through a rarefied gas, and noticed that in every gas, when 
pure, a particular system of lines was obtained. The minute portion 
of a gas, whether simple or compound, that could be analysed in this 
way induced the author to style the method microchemistry. It was 
really spectrum-analysis. M. Morren followed up the researches of 
Plucker, and now publishes at Marseilles a tract,t the object of which, 
he says, is to point out how this mode of analysis may help to solve 
* De Spectraal-Analyse &c.’-—On Spectrum Analysis, &e. By H. C. Dibbits. 
Rotterdam: E. H. Tassemeijer. 1863. 
+ ‘Des Phénométnes Lumineux que présentent quelques Flammes, et en par- 
ticulier celle du Cyanogéne, et de Acetylene, &c.’ Par M. Morren. Marseilles ; 
Arnaud & Co., 1863. 
