5o8 



NATURE 



{April 27, 1876 



the author contents himself with a few geneial remarks, 

 leaving it to the student to apply the methods acquired 

 in working through the foregoing portions of the book, 

 instead of guiding him, or, we should rather say, binding 

 him down to the usual " tables." 



It would be invidious on our part to institute compari- 

 sons between the present and any existing work on the 

 same subject ; but, considering the volume as the expres- 

 sion of the method taught by Prof. Dittmar, we are of 

 opinion that it stands on a decidedly higher level than 

 the generality of such works. 



Although the author's accuracy is throughout unim- 

 peachable, there are some few questionable, or at least 

 debateable points, which demand a passing notice. 



In the first place, we regret to see the occasional ap- 

 pearance of what we must consider badly-constructed 

 phrases such as the following (p. 44) : — " To students 

 who have not yet got far enough advanced to invent their 

 own methods." Then, again, we haidly know whether to 

 admire or to condemn the frequent inconsistencies of 

 formulation. To give a few examples : — Phosphoric acid 

 is written in different parts of the book in no less than 

 four different ways: thus, at p. 11, HHHPO4; p. 253, 

 PO(OH;3; p. 244, PgOj . 3H2O = 2PH3O4 ; at pp. 244- 

 245, the metallic phosphates are written PO^HR'g, 

 PO4H2R', and P04R'3, and on the same page metaphos- 

 phoric acid is written HPO3. Then on the same page 

 (41) we find two nitrates thus formulated : HgONgOj 

 and Bi(N03)3. Now, although we admire the spirit 

 •which leads a writer to adopt these different modes of 

 formulation as being a spirit of independence, which in 

 the original worker shows that he is not the slave of 

 any hypothesis, we think that the case is, entirely altered 

 when we have to deal with students of the science, 

 nothing shaking the faith of a learner so much as an 

 apparent want of consistency. 



We cannot conceive why the author has gone back to 

 the old nomenclature — " nitrate of potash," "bisulphate of 

 potash," " phosphate of soda," &c. Although consistency 

 is displayed throughout the book in this matter we cannot 

 sanction the use of a system of nomenclature which, if 

 not entirely obsolete, is rapidly becoming so among the 

 scientific chemists in this country. Be it understood that 

 our protest is here again entered solely from a student's 

 point of view. It must perplex the learner to find out 

 that the substances he has been employing in Prof. 

 Dittmar's laboratory under the names of " bisulphate of 

 potash," " phosphate of soda," &c., are known elsewhere 

 as "potassic disulphate," "hydric potassic sulphate," or 

 ** hydrogen potassium sulphate," " hydric disodic phos- 

 phate," or " hydrogen disodium phosphate," &c. 



With these remarks we may conclude our notice of 

 what we venture to look upon as a v?iluable addition to 

 our literature of the important subject of chemical 

 analysis. We are confident that Prof. Dittmar's work 

 will stand, by virtue of its own merits, as a scheme for 

 instructing in this branch of the science. 



We have in these columns (vol. xi. p. 107) formerly ex- 

 pressed the opinion that the systems of analysis in general 

 use in our schools of chemistry need reforming in certain 

 particulars. Thus in the article referred to we found 

 occasion to complain of the want of chemical science dis- 

 played by the majority of students practising analysis 



according to certain cut and dried systems of " tables." 

 It must be conceded that the student who is thoroughly 

 well grounded in the scientific principles involved in 

 chemical analysis must take a higher position than he 

 who works blindly from a given set of rules. That 

 some such idea is entertained by the author of the 

 present work is shown by the fact that the three first 

 divisions of the book are considered enough to furnish a 

 sufficient groundwork^ of scientific principles to enable 

 the use of tables to be dispensed with altogether when 

 the analysis of gomplex mixtures presents itself so that 

 both teachers and students may now congratulate them- 

 selves on possessing a work in which a step has been 

 taken in the right direction — a system which brings into 

 exercise the thought, knowledge, and judgment of the 

 analyst, instead of leaving him a mere helpless machine 

 forced to proceed in the fixed direction laid. down in this 

 or that set of " tables." R. M. 



RICHARDSON'S « DISEASES OF MODERN 



LIFE " 



Induced Diseasts of Modern Life. By B. W. Richardson, 



M.D., M.A., F.R.S. 8vo. Pp.520. (London : Mac- 



millan and Co., 1876.) 

 T T EALTH is proverbially one of the greatest blessings 

 i J- man can enjoy, and yet in this hardworking, hurry- 

 ing, struggling age, many a one deliberately sacrifices it in 

 the endeavour to succeed in his pursuits, commercial, lite- 

 rary, or scientific. Success is the object of their desires, and 

 they are quite willing to pay for it the price of broken health 

 and shortened life. This is even more the case with 

 literary and scientific than with commercial men, for the 

 latter generally look forward to several years of retirement 

 and ease as a reward for their labours, while the former 

 are rather anxious that their work itself shall be such as 

 to secure them a certain place among the world's great 

 ones, than concerned whether their fame be posthumous 

 or not. In struggling to accomplish it they too often for- 

 get that " the race is not to the swift," but rather to the 

 long enduring, and that if Cuvier or Darwin had died 

 before reaching middle age, not only would their names 

 have remained comparatively unknown, but science would 

 have sustained an irreparable loss. Sometimes the worn- 

 out body reminds them only too forcibly of the depend- 

 ence of the mind upon it, work becomes impossible, every 

 occupation must be renounced for a time, and the vantage 

 ground which has been gained by unremitting toil is 

 entirely lost. Nay more, the exhausted energies require 

 a long time to recover ; when work is resumed it can 

 rarely be carried on with the same vigour as before, and 

 meanwhile some slower but steadier competitor steps 

 in front and wins the longed-for prize, or makes the 

 eagerly-desired discovery. Several years ago we began 

 to ascend the long flights of steps which lead to the 

 higher part of the island of Capri, at the same time with 

 another party. They ran briskly up while we went slowly 

 on, and they reached the top of the first flight whUe we 

 were only half way up. But here they were out of breath 

 and stopped to rest. We, on the contrary, never stopped ; 

 if breath began to fail we went more slowly, but we 

 never stood still. The consequence was that we passed 

 the other party about the middle of the second flight, and 



