52 



NATURE 



{May 16, 1889 



The present work is stated to be a " complete account 

 of all the best known methods for the analysis of iron, 

 steel, pig-iron, iron-ore, limestone, slag, clay, sand, coal, 

 coke, and furnace and producer gases," and we may say 

 at once that the book realizes its title in a very admirable 

 way. 



The author brings high credentials to his task, having 

 — as chief chemist to the United States Board, appointed 

 to test iron, steel, and other metals in 1875, and as chief 

 chemist to the United States Geological Survey and 

 tenth census 1880 — devoted many years to the subject. 

 He records, he says, the results of his own experience, and 

 there is a personal flavour about the work such as is too 

 seldom found in modern hand-books. One feels in read- 

 ing the descriptions of apparatus, processes, and pre- 

 cautions, that they are not merely what the author has 

 collated, but what he has seen and done and learned. 

 There are many novel arrangements of apparatus de- 

 scribed, many improvements of detail in various ana- 

 lytical processes, and altogether the subject is handled 

 in a thoroughly authoritative and practical manner. 



The most striking thing, however, is the elaborateness 

 and refinement insisted upon in the performance of the 

 more important operations. There is no attempt to com- 

 promise unwisely between accuracy and rapidity — these 

 two desiderata are treated separately. Thus there is a 

 method described for determining silicon with elaborate 

 precautions by volatilization in a current of chlorine, and 

 another in which the amount of silicon in a pig-iron can 

 be determined in twelve minutes from the time the ladle 

 is put into the molten iron. 



The book begins with a description of apparatus and 

 manipulation required for sampling, and subsequent 

 analytical operations. This portion of the work will no 

 doubt be found useful — but we regard it as sufficient 

 rather than exhaustive. We can scarcely say as much of 

 the following 20 pages, devoted to reagents. There seems 

 to be some uncertainty as to the chemical knowledge 

 expected from the operator. The information about 

 chlorine that it is a yellowish gas, about two and a half 

 times heavier than air, sparingly soluble in water, and the 

 somewhat obvious truth which completes this description, 

 that " when required it must be made," will probably 

 fall flat upon a person who a few lines further on is 

 expected to know that chromic acid should not be dried 

 by filter-paper. And again, if one is to be told the 

 equations which represent the preparation of ammonium 

 sulphide, why should not one be told why it " becomes 

 yellow by age, or on exposure to air " ? We think this 

 portion needs revision ; superfluous information should 

 be removed, and the descriptions should be made more 

 complete. We think also that it would be much to 

 the benefit of the very large number of half-informed 

 persons engaged in the routine analysis of iron, if the 

 theory of the analytical process were described always at 

 the beginning of a chapter instead of being interspersed 

 (and then often imperfectly) with the details of opera- 

 tions. In these respects Mr. Blair's work might be 

 improved, but in the main features there is no fault 

 either of omission or commission. The book is beauti- 

 fully printed, is supplied with full marginal notes and 

 luxurious woodcuts, and is altogether a much more 

 presentable volume than the British analyst is accustomed 



to have about him. We have no doubt it will be very 

 cordially welcomed in the numerous iron and steel works 

 laboratories of this country. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



Ai^riciilttiral Canada : a Record of Progress. By W. 

 'Fream, B.Sc, LL.D., &c. (1889.) 



Last year. Dr. Fream, as Commissioner of the Canadian 

 Government, visited Canada, for the purpose of reporting 

 upon the position and prospects of agriculture in the 

 Dominion, and his Report has now been published under 

 the direction of the Government of Canada. The author, 

 who was well fitted for the task by his previous know- 

 ledge of Canada, appears to have visited every province 

 in the Dominion, from Nova Scotia on the Atlantic sea- 

 board to British Columbia on the Pacific. Numerous 

 details concerning the climate, and the geological, bota- 

 nical, and other natural features of the northern half of 

 the North American continent, are interwoven with the 

 more prosaic facts bearing upon the agricultural deve- 

 lopment of an area as large as that of Europe. Some 

 parts of the Dominion, little known even in Canada, are 

 dealt with in special detail. The fine rolling prairie 

 occupying North-Western Manitoba, and stretching away 

 through Assiniboia to the banks of the North Saskat- 

 chewan River, is selected for favourable notice, but this 

 region has at present to be explored on horseback or on 

 a " buckboard." Far away to the west, in Alberta, there 

 appears to be another fertile and beautiful region await- 

 ing development, in the Rosebud country, which includes 

 the Red Deer Valley. The attempt to unravel the com- 

 plicated surface features between the Rocky Mountains 

 and the Pacific deserves notice, and some reference is 

 made to the little-known Kootenay district. The Com- 

 missioner extended his travels across an arm of the 

 Pacific to Vancouver Island, the southern point of which 

 is capable of considerable agricultural development. To 

 the production of cattle, horses, grain, cheese, and fruit, 

 the agricultural energies of the Dominion are chiefly 

 directed, and the Report strongly urges the Government 

 not to moderate one iota the stringency of the quarantine 

 regulations, whereby alone Canadian cattle are kept free 

 from contagious disease. The Report, as a whole, might 

 advantageously take the place of nine-tenths of the school- 

 books which profess to deal with Canada. 



Longmans" School Arithmetic. By F. E. Marshall, M.A., 

 and J. W. Welsford, M.A. (London : Longmans, 

 1889.) 



This work owes much of its value to its being drawn up 

 on the lines laid down by De Morgan. This is shown 

 by the importance attached by the authors to computation 

 in the early part of the work, and by the copious use of 

 diagrams in the chapters devoted to vulgar fractions. A 

 moving cause to such a casting of the book is the import- 

 ance which has been attached to De Morgan's methods in 

 the recently issued report of the Arithmetic Committee of 

 the Association for the Improvement of Geometrical 

 Teaching. With such an admirer of the Professor as the 

 late President of the Association is, on the said Committee, 

 we should expect such a result. Much space is devoted 

 to oral exercises ; this being so will account, in a measure, 

 for the written explanations not being quite so full as we 

 have seen them in other text-books. The treatment of 

 recurring decimal fractions is thorough, the unitary method 

 is employed in the solution of examples, and considerable 

 care has been expended upon the commercial arithmetic. A 

 large body of exercises is furnished in the text for solution, 

 and very many specimens of examination papers as well as 

 papers of miscellaneous exercises come at the end. There 

 are a/ew small matters, in an appendix and elsewhere, . 



