2l8 



NA7URE 



[Jujie 27, 1878 



Fucaceae, Ph^eosporeae, Confervoideas, and Diatomaceae - 

 an arrangement which will scarcely bear the light of 

 modern science. The beginner will be likely to be set 

 wrong by finding the term "reproductive organs " some- 

 times used for the organs between which a sexual process 

 takes place, sometimes for the result of such process ; 

 and by reading that Alga; are reproduced by spores 

 which are the result of the action of the antherozoids, 

 while under the head of Fucacece the spores are the 

 unfertilised germ-cells, and elsewhere the term appears 

 to be confined to non-sexual reproductive cells which 

 directly reproduce a plant resembling the parent. But 

 these defects do not seriously detract from the value of 

 the work. 



Altogether those who want a thorough grounding in 

 the elements of botany, as well as to be taken a little 

 beyond the threshold in the various avenues which open 

 out to the view of the student, will find a very useful and 

 trustworthy guide in the last edition of this old standard. 



Alfred W. Benneti' 



PA YEN'S INDUSTRIAL CHEMISTRY 



Industrial Chemistry ; a Manual for Use in Technical 

 Colleges and Schools and for Matiufacttires. Edited by 

 B. H. Paul, Ph.D. (London : Longmans, 1878.) 



DR. PAUL has unquestionably rendered some service 

 to the cause of chemical technology in this country 

 by his translation ofPayen's well-known work ; neverthe- 

 less we think the service would have been still greater 

 had he essayed to present us with an entirely original 

 production. The fact is the translation has been made 

 from a translation ; it comes to us from the German 

 through Stohmann and Engler's edition. As a conse- 

 quence we miss much of what is good in Payen, whilst 

 some things that are bad — notably faults in arrangement 

 and inaccuracies of statement— remain. One is reminded 

 of Macaulay's assertion concerning Johnson's Dictionary, 

 which has been so altered by editors that its author would 

 hardly recognise it. Whenever Dr. Paul is on his own 

 ground he is excellent ; the supplementary chapters on 

 the chemistry of the metals, for example, are all that 

 could be desired in such a work. The metallurgical 

 portions, more particularly of the more important metals, 

 are especially well done ; we question if our language can 

 Show anything better on the subjects as regards clearness 

 and conciseness and accuracy than the accounts of the 

 operations involved in the extraction of lead, silver, and 

 iron. But when the editor has to trust to French and 

 German descriptions of technical processes errors crop 

 up. For example, by far the greater portion of the phos- 

 phorus which the world requires is made near Birming- 

 ham and in Lyons, but neither of the two establishments 

 which thus practically enjoy the monopoly of the manu- 

 facture carries out Nicolas and Pelletier's process as 

 described in this work. Britain also furnishes practically 

 all the bichrome of commerce, but the method described 

 on p. 523 is not an accurate description of the present 

 mode of production. The time-honoured cut on p. 181 

 no longer represents the method by which iodine is 

 manufactured ; nor is sulphur obtained by distilla- 

 tion from the traditional pots sacred to the memory 

 of Morgiana and the Forty Thieves, which almost every 



compiler of an English text-book has sedulously copied. 

 Saxony produces more than 90 per cent, of the bismuth 

 which is found in commerce, but the liquation process 

 described on p. 505 is no longer in use there. The 

 article on "Friction Matches" is, also, scarcely up to 

 date ; the old operation of sulphuration is described in 

 detail as if it were an essential feature in the manu- 

 facture ; the reader is, indeed, told that the splints are 

 now often dipped in stearin or paraffin, but he would 

 certainly infer from the description that sulphur is gene- 

 rally employed ; whereas it is only to meet the demands 

 of lamplighters and sailors who specially need a match 

 less easily extinguished by the wind than the ordinary 

 varieties that a very few establishments continue to use 

 sulphur. The composition of the inflammable paste used 

 in France and Germany may, possibly, be represented by 

 some or all of the eight formulae given on p. 159, but the 

 " compo " of the English manufacturer is altogether 

 different from these. It is certainly remarkable con- 

 sidering the widespread use of lucifer matches, that so 

 little should be known of their mode of manufacture ; it 

 takes quite as many persons to make a match as a pin, 

 and the details of the making are equally interesting. 



In the portions treating of pure chemistry inaccuracies 

 are unfortunately scarcely less frequent. We willingly 

 pardon the statement that "hydrogen is an elementary 

 substance known in the free state only as a gas which 

 has not yet been condensed by the greatest cold and 

 pressure combined," even when the book makes its 

 appearance several months after the great triumphs of 

 our continental brethren ; but the results of Pebal's work 

 on chlorine peroxide ought certainly by this time to be 

 part of the general stock of chemical knowledge. The 

 statement that bromine solidifies at — 7*3 is probably 

 based on Pierre's inaccurate observation made more than 

 thirty years since : Baumhauer has shown that the true 

 freezing-point of this liquid is about — 24°*5. The com- 

 mendatory statement that " the bromine obtained from 

 Stassfurt has the advantage over all other kinds of com- 

 mercial bromine, that it is entirely free from iodine" 

 (p. 179), is scarcely just to our own product : the bromine 

 turned out by the Scotch makers actually merits this 

 reputation, whereas there is evidence that the German 

 product, to say the least, has not always deserved it. A 

 distinguished German chemist, in studying the action of 

 bromine on ethylbenzene, was, in fact, led astray by the 

 use of the Stassfurt product, which he assumed to be 

 pure : it was subsequently shown that the bromine used 

 by him contained iodine, and the interesting fact was 

 elicited that the action of this iodised bromine on the 

 hydrocarbon is entirely different from that of the pure 

 substance. The statement of WoUaston that our atmo- 

 sphere does not extend beyond a height of forty-five 

 miles above the sea-level (p. 54) is scarcely in conformity 

 with current opinion : the observations of Herschel and 

 of Secchi have certainly disproved the assertion as 

 regards this particular limit, whilst the reasoning of 

 Clausius has rendered it highly probable that in reality 

 no limit exists. 



A few more errors of commission and omission might 

 be cited, but as it is very far from our desire to disparage 

 a work which, by judicious revision, might fairly claim a 

 very high place in our chemical literature, it is hardly 



