6i4 



NATURE 



\Oct. lo, 1878 



not as an outsider, Avho might be accused of ignorance 

 and of interested motives. The subject which he has 

 thus brought prominently into notice concerns the highest 

 welfare of this country and the place which she holds 

 among the cultured nations of the world. 



MILLER'S CHEMISTRY 

 Elements of Chemistry, Theoretical and Practical. By 

 William Allen Miller, M.D., LL.D. Revised by 

 Charles E. Groves, Part II. Inorganic Chemistry. 

 (London : Longmans and Co., 1878.) 



THE number of editions through which this part of 

 the late Dr. Miller's work has passed and the high 

 position it has attained as a Text- book of Inorganic 

 Chemistry render the work of the reviewer almost super- 

 fluous, and we have now only to notice what improve- 

 ments or additions may have been made in the present 

 edition. 



The revision of the volume just published has been 

 entrusted to Mr. C. E. Groves, whose position as sub- 

 editor of the Chemical Society's Journal renders him 

 particularly fitted for this work, by reason of his being 

 constantly brought into contact with communications upon 

 the more recent discoveries in the science. 



The order in which the various elements and their 

 compounds are discussed, as we are told in the preface, 

 remains the same as in the last edition, this order com- 

 mencing with the least complex compounds and finishing 

 with those of a more complicated nature. Hydrogen is 

 first studied as the standard of atomic weights, densities 

 of gases, &c., and as affording a good example of an 

 electro-positive element ; it is followed by the monatomic 

 but electro-negative element chlorine, subsequently by 

 oxygen as illustrating the diatomic condition, boron illus- 

 trating the triatomic, carbon the tetratomic, nitrogen the 

 pentatomic, and sulphur the hexatomic. We have thus 

 presented to us in the first chapters of the work the con- 

 sideration of seven typical elements and their compounds, 

 which tends to give the reader in a simple manner a 

 general idea of the scientific arrangement of the other 

 elements which follow them in their respective groups. 



We rather regret that Mr. Groves has thought it neces- 

 sary to retain boron in its position as the typical element of 

 the triatomic group to the exclusion of nitrogen, taking 

 that latter substance as the illustration of the pentatomic 

 group. Our reasons for saying so are, that boron is 

 not so well known to the student as nitrogen, nor does 

 it possess a hydrogen compound like ammonia ; its atom- 

 icity, therefore, must be shown by its chlorine compound, 

 t^us destroying the similarity with the other types, which 

 in the first four groups are illustrated by their compounds 

 with hydrogen. Had nitrogen been taken as the type of 

 triatomic bodies, phosphorus would then of course have 

 replaced it as the example of a pentatomic element. 

 Farther, by taking nitrogen as the type of pentads, as is 

 done in Chapter x., a little confusion, we" think, is liable 

 to be produced in the mind of the beginner ; as imme- 

 diately after the consideration of that body as a pentad, 

 he proceeds to consider ammonia where nitrogen is not 

 pentatomic but triatomic. 



Many of the more recently-discovered non-metallic 

 compounds have been added to the work, and to some 



parts a considerable amount of new matter has been 

 contributed by Mr. Groves in the description of recent 

 experiments, as in Dr. Frankland's work on the lumi- 

 nosity of flames, &c. The metallurgy of iron, also, 

 which is very fully described, occupies a considerable 

 portion of the part devoted to the consideration of the 

 metals, but not, however, to the exclusion of other 

 important matters connected with these bodies. Mention 

 is also made of the two recently-discovered metals gal- 

 lium and davium. 



Competing as this work must necessarily do with other 

 large and recently written text books, we should have 

 liked to see a little freshening-up given to some of the 

 diagrams, the apparatus in some of the illustrations 

 appearing of rather an antiquated form. As an illustra- 

 tion of this point we might give the diagram illustrating 

 the manufacture of sulphuric acid on the small scale, as 

 shown in Fig. 322. A considerable improvement in the 

 letter-press has, however, been introduced by printing the 

 headings of the paragraphs in larger type than has hitherto 

 been used ; this, combined with the references to the 

 original papers from which the information contained in 

 the work has been taken, will, we think, prove of great 

 value to the more advanced student. 



The work throughout bears evidence of thorough as 

 well as careful selection in regard to the new material 

 introduced, and we think the publishers are to be con- 

 gratulated on obtaining the services' of such a con- 

 scientious worker as Mr. Groves for the revision of this 

 standard text-book. 



OUR BOOK SHELF 



A Glossary of Biological, Anatomical, and Physiological 

 Forms. By Thomas Dunman. (London : Griffith and 

 Farran, 1878.) 



Mr. Dunman' s glossary is the result of an attempt " to 

 place before the student the pronunciation, derivation, 

 and definition " of the terms " usually employed in that 

 department of biological science which treats of animal 

 life, as set forth in standard text-books of Huxley, 

 Carpenter, Foster, Flower, and others," and will be a 

 useful book, no doubt — the more so as there is no other 

 work covering exactly the same ground. At the same 

 time the derivations and definitions appended to the 

 terms are not always quite correctly given, particularly as 

 regards the zoological terms. The order of birds called 

 " Dromaeognathae " was so named by Prof. Huxley 

 because the Tinamous which compose it have the palate 

 formed like that of the ostriches {Dromcens, an Emeu)— 

 not from the Greek "dromaios" directly. ''Holothu- 

 ridea " is from Holothourion — a good Greek Aristotelian 

 word — and has certainly nothing to do with "thuris," a 

 little door, as Mr. Dunman would have us believe. A 

 more probable derivation is 6ovpios,furiosus, because the 

 Holothuria burst in pieces when touched. There are no 

 such Greek verbs as "Trveva-u), I breathe" (given under 

 Pharyngnopneusta), or " jttoco, I fall" (given under 

 ptosis). The correct Greek derivations in these cases are 

 TTvea and ninrco. "Egesta" is not formed from "egestio 

 — getting-rid-of," but is simply the participle of egero, 

 meaning such things as are got rid of. Nor are Mr. 

 Dunman' s explanations of the purely anatomical terms 

 always faultless, although there is less occasion for 

 criticism here. The " ligamentum niichce" is formed of 

 elastic not of "connective" tissue. The "sectorial" 

 tooth of the dog is certainly not definable as the fourth 

 premolar, for the dog has no fourth premolar. The " tri- 



