204 



NATURE 



[February i6, 1922 



but his knowledge of things " Chaldean " may be 

 gauged by a footnote on p. 4, part of which is 

 repeated in a footnote on p. 48. We quote the fuller 

 note : " The 365-day year appeared at Babylon from 

 Egypt after the overthrow of the Assyrian Empire 

 by Nabonassar ; but Chaldea subsequently developed 

 a luni-solar, Egypt a solar, calendar." Comment 

 is superfluous. 



Bartholomew' s General Map of Europe, showing 

 Boundaries of States according to Treaties, 1921. 

 Size 35 in. x 23 in. (Edinburgh : J. Bartholomew 

 and Son, Ltd., 192 1.) 15. net. 



This map of Europe, on a scale of i to 5,500,000, 

 is designed to show the political boundaries and 

 the chief lines of communication by land and sea. 

 It makes no attempt to show the surface features 

 of the land, and in that respect is open to criticism, 

 although the adequate depiction of relief would 

 certainly necessitate a reduction in the number of 

 names. As regards boundaries, railway lines, and 

 place-names, the map is full and accurate. We 

 note, however, that the small States San Marino and 

 Liechtenstein are shown by distinct colours, but are 

 not named, while the principality of Monaco is 

 named, but not indicated as an independent State. 

 The map extends no farther north than about lat. 

 60° N. , with the result that the new Finno-Russian 

 boundary with the Finnish outlet to the Barents 

 Sea cannot be shown. On the east its limits ex- 

 clude the greater part of the Caucasus and the new 

 States in that region. There is a small inset map 

 showing the boundaries in 1914. The excellence 

 of the colour printing and the legibility of the 

 names make this a useful map for general reference 

 purposes. 



Oil Firing for Kitchen Ranges and Steam Boilers. 

 By E. C. Bowden-Smith. Pp. ix-fi02. 

 (London: Constable and Co., Ltd., 1920.) 

 9^. net. 



The bulk of this book is taken up with descriptions 

 of the Scarab burner and its application during the 

 war to kitchen ranges in Egypt. The relative prices 

 of coal And oil fuel in Egypt make it a big advan- 

 tage to employ the latter, and the Scarab burner 

 appears to have been of great service on account of 

 its simplicity of construction. In the hands of quite 

 unskilled persons kitchen ranges fitted with this 

 burner have given very little trouble, and show a 

 large saving in the cost of fuel. Thus the Turf 

 CJub at Cairo spent ;^Ei3-75 per week on coal and 

 wood, and after conversion to oil fuel the weekly 

 expenditure amounts to ;^E5-92. The drawing and 

 descriptions of the burner and of the methods of 

 fitting it to ranges will be readily followed even 

 by non-technical readers. Some chapters are in- 

 cluded on oil-firing steam boilers. It may be well 

 to mention that a supply of compressed air is re- 

 quired ; this presented no difficulty in Cairo, since 

 there is a public service of compressed air in con- 

 nection with the main drainage system, and air was 

 taken from the mains. 



NO. 2729, VOL. 109] 



The Chemistry of Colloids and Some Tethnical 

 Applications. By Dr. W. W. Taylor. Second 

 edition. Pp. viii-t-332. (London: Edward 

 Arnold and Co., 1921.) \os. 6d. net. 

 The second edition of this work, like the first, is 

 well adapted to introduce the general student to the 

 subject, the theoretical portions and the accounts 

 of experimental procedure being well balanced. 

 The amount of revision, however, appears, on exam- 

 ination, to be rather less than the author's remarks 

 in the preface lead one to expect. Thus the 

 " Valency Rule " still appears in its old and, as 

 recent shattering criticism has shown, very spurious 

 simplicity. Although earlier "complex" theories 

 are given, Pauli's later and more thorough work is 

 not mentioned. Recent results on protection and 

 anomalous adsorption might also have found a 

 place. With a subject in constant flux it is of 

 course difficult to draw the line, but the author 

 appears to have done so distinctly on the side of 

 caution. In spite of these defects the book is still 

 one of the most useful general text-books of colloid 

 chemistry available in English. 



The Fireman's Handbook and Guide to Fuel 

 Economy. By C. F. Wade. Pp. viii + 84. 

 (London : Longmans, Green, and Co., 1920.) 

 2S. 6d. net. 



A GOOD deal of information which will be of service 

 to firemen in helping them to understand what goes 

 on in furnaces and boilers will be found in this 

 little book. The author, however, is not quite happy 

 in some of his fundamental explanations. Thus on 

 p. 3 we read that " heat is a form of energy that 

 can be measured as to quantity by means .of a 

 thermometer." Again, on p. 7 appear the follow- 

 ing curious statements : " The only heat of the 

 steam that does useful work is the amount added 

 to the water to bring it just to boiling point." " It 

 is much more economical to work at the highest 

 possible pressure so that the latent heat may be low 

 and the useful heat as high as possible." The 

 sketches given in the book are clear, and will be 

 understood readily by stokers. 



A First German Course for Science Students. 

 Second edition, revised. By Prof. H. G. Fiedler 

 and Prof. F. E. Sandbach. Pp. x-f 99. (Lon- 

 don : Humphrey Milford : Oxford University 

 Press, 1920.) 45. 6d. net. 



To many students of science an introductory course 

 in German constructed to meet their special needs 

 will be very welcome. The first portion of the work 

 under notice consists of a number of passages de- 

 scriptive of chemical and physical phenomena and 

 experiments by means of which German technical 

 phrases and words are introduced to the reader. 

 Each passage is based on numbered paragraphs 

 appearing in the outline of German grammar which 

 constitutes the latter portion of the book. Here the 

 examples given are, so far as possible, of a scientific 

 nature. A useful vocabulary completes the book. 



