October 15, 19 14] 



NATURE 



167 



there, the theory of sets of points comes into the 

 argument. Abundant references are given to 

 original sources, and in every respect this course 

 seems to be an admirable guide for ihose who 

 feel inclined to explore this very important, 

 though thorny and still undeveloped, field. 



G. B. M. 



CHEMISTRY : PURE AND APPLIED. 

 (i) Geschichte der Chemie von den altesien 



Zeiten bis zur Gegenivart zugleich Einfuhrung 



in das Studium der Chemie. ]'ierte Auflage. 



By Prof, Ernst von Meyer. Pp. xiv + 616. 



(Leipzig: Veit and Co., 1914.) Price 13 marks. 

 (2) Chemistry and its Borderland. By Dr. A. W. 



Stewart. Pp. xii + 314+ii plates. (London: 



Longmans, Green and Co., 1914.J Price 55. 



net. 

 1(3) Industrial Chemistry for Engineering Students. 



By Prof. H. K. Benson. Pp. xiv 4-431. (New 



York : Macmillan Co. ; London : Macmillan and 



Co., Ltd., 191 3.) Price 85. net. 

 iU) O INCE the date of the first edition in 1888, 

 kJ Prof. v. Meyer's History of Chemistry 

 'has been the fullest account of the progress of 

 the science, and most of the present-day chemists 

 owe much of their knowledge of the work of their 

 predecessors to its perusal. In the eai Her editions 

 the work of individual chemists was given under 

 their respective names, and it was difficult for 

 the reader to get a clear idea of the development 

 of chemical theory as a whole. In this respect it 

 was inferior to the shorter histories of Wurtz and 

 Tilden, in which the individual workers are men- 

 tioned indeed, but their work forms a continuous 

 narrative. In the later parts of this new edition 

 this defect has been largely removed, but without 

 re-writing the whole book it could never be made 

 into a history from which a student could obtain 

 a clear idea of the way in which our present idea 

 of chemical theory had been arrived at. His- 

 torians will undoubtedly differ in their estimate 

 of the importance of the several branches of their 

 subject, and probably no two chemists would 

 agree as to the proportion of attention which 

 should be given to any one branch. For instance, 

 'it would seem unnatural to many that only three 

 pages out of six hundred should be devoted to 

 Mendeleeff's periodic classification of the elements, 

 the only great generalisation which binds together 

 the otherwise disconnected facts of inorganic 

 chemistry, and that the important additions which 

 Sir J. J. Thomson (spelt Thomsen) has made to 

 chemical science should be dismissed in two lines. 



(2) It is difficult to imagine for what class of 

 readers this book is intended. An attempt to 

 NO. 2346, VOL. 94] 



teach the final conclusions of a complicated and 

 difficult science in a book of 300 pages, starting 

 ab initio, is foredoomed to failure. To the country 

 clergyman who wishes to keep "abreast with the 

 times " it may do no great harm, but it is to be 

 hoped that it will never be given as a prize to a 

 promising schoolboy. A statement like " In- 

 organic chemistry now includes the chemistry of 

 all the compounds which do not contain any 

 carbon," may be a slip, but the description of the 

 discover}- of argon is an untrue representation of 

 the facts. There is a whole chapter on the trans- 

 mutation of the elements in which the case for 

 transmutation is stated at great length, while the 

 barest mention is made of experiments on the 

 other side. Collie and Patterson have maintained 

 a most praiseworthy reserve as to the conclusions 

 to be drawn from their experiments, and the 

 author would have done well to imitate their 

 reticence. 



(3) Of the importance of a knowledge of 

 chemistry to engineering students no one now 

 has any doubt. All the most eminent engineers 

 when consulted as to the curriculum of an engi- 

 neering school, have emphasised the absolute 

 necessity of the inclusion of an adequate chemical 

 training. In spite of this at least two universities 

 in this country ignore the subject for their 

 engineering students, partly because the authori- 

 ties consider that the course is already too ex- 

 tended, and partly because it is sometimes difficult 

 to persuade the students of the importance of 

 knowing the character and properties of the 

 materials with which they will have to work. In 

 the best engineering schools, however, the 

 students have a preliminary course of pure 

 chemistry during their first year, followed in the 

 next year by a course of more technical chemistry 

 as applied to engineering. This consists of three 

 principal divisions : (i) Fuels of all descriptions 

 and their modes of application ; (2) metallurgy, in- 

 cluding the composition and properties of alloys; 

 (3) water in relation to boiler practice, cements 

 and protective materials and coatings. 



Prof. Benson has expanded his lectures to 

 engineering students in the University of Wash- 

 ington into the book under review, and judging 

 from it the young American engineer has a 

 chemical training similar to that given to our own 

 students. It is always a matter of difficulty to 

 make a book from lecture notes, and it must be 

 admitted that this one is not free from the defects 

 which are seen in most other books produced in 

 similar circumstances. Most of the descriptions 

 of plant and apparatus are too brief to indicate 

 the way in which the apparatus works, and in 

 many cases a diagrammatic representation would 



