530 



NATURE 



[April 7, 1892 



forms a particularly instructive example of the case in 

 question. If this salt be taken in an ignited state (!) (de- 

 prived of its water of crystallization), then its solubility," 

 &c. 



What, too, is the meaning of the statement on p. 83 ? 



" Under ordinary circumstances the quantity of aqueous 

 vapour [in the air] is much greater [than what ?], but it 

 varies with the moisture of the atmosphere." 



Presumably, for " moisture " we are to read " tempera- 

 ture." On p. 164, in the description of the experiment of 

 burning phosphorus in oxygen, it is recommended that 

 "the cork closing the vessel should not fit tightly, 

 otherwise it may fly off with the spoon." That the cork 

 should fly off with the spoon is contrary to well-established 

 precedent : if anything is to fly away with the spoon, it 

 should, of course, be the dish on which the bell-jar is 

 represented as resting. To say (p. 417) that common 

 salt containing magnesium chloride " partially effloresces 

 in a damp atmosphere" is opposed to fact, and was surely 

 never so stated by Mendel^eff. Van der Waals's equation 

 is written : 



(^ + ^)(^-^) ^'^^^ - «^)' 



instead of 



(^-5) 



{v - b) = R(i + 0.1). 



And on the same page we find pr = c{\ -f- at), instead of 

 pv = c{i -f at). 



Proper names are frequently wrong. Thus we have 

 " Van der Waal " for van der Waals, " Becker " for 

 Becher, " Brown " for Braun, " De Haen " for De Heen, 

 " Frauenhofer " for Fraunhofer, " Personne " for Person, 

 " Prout " for Proust, " Ray " for Key, " Kriitznach " for 

 Kreutznach, " Wergtesgaden at Salzkammerhutte" for 

 Berchtesgaden (which is not in the Salzkammergut). 



We have taken the pains to compare the English version 

 with the German translation of Jawein and Thillot in a 

 number of instances where the meaning is obscure, or 

 where statements are made which appear to be erroneous, 

 and in no single instance is the fault to be traced to the 

 author. We think, too, that the limitation imposed on 

 the translator and editor by themselves has operated in- 

 juriously in another way : in cases where subsequent 

 research should modify or supplement particular state- 

 ments in the original, it was surely open to them, in the 

 interests of knowledge, to substitute truth for error. 

 Thus we know from the work of Winkler and Hempel 

 the conditions under which exact determinations of 

 oxygen by means of alkaline pyrogallol can be made ; 

 we know, too, that atmospheric ammonia and nitric acid 

 are not by any means the main sources of the supply of 

 nitrogen to plants ; ammonium chloride is not now 

 usually prepared by sublimation. The statement of the 

 principle of Kjeldahl's method, given on p. 246, is in- 

 accurate : the radicle ammonium has not been obtained, 

 nor is the old view of the nature o'f the so-called " am- 

 monium amalgam " any longer tenable, nor is there 

 any direct proof of the existence of ammonium hydrate. 

 Flagstone, at least in this country, is not a form of car- 

 bonate of lime : it is usually a fine-grained micaceous 

 sandstone. The apparatus employed by Cavendish in 

 his memorable synthesis of water in no wise resembled 

 NO 1 171, VOL. 45] 



that described and figured on p. 167 ; thanks to the 

 symbol adopted by the publishing Society which 

 bore his name, it seems now well-nigh impossible 

 to get rid of the belief that the pear-shaped stop- 

 pered eudiometer was devised and used by him in 

 the course of his investigation : as a matter of fact, 

 the explosions were made in a simple Volta tube. With 

 respect to the illustrations in general, we think that the 

 majority of them could well have been spared ; all of 

 them have done duty in other works, and many of them 

 are calculated to give an erroneous impression of the 

 thing sought to be represented. Thus the coke-tower 

 figured on p. 443 resembles nothing actually used ; Fig. 

 60, which is stated to be a Davy lamp, is either a Mueseler 

 or a Clanny lamp ; Fig. 47 does not illustrate the method 

 of preparing nitric acid employed in this country, nor 

 does Fig. 93 represent a modern blast-furnace. The only 

 figure of a zinc-furnace given is that of the practically 

 obsolete per descensuin method. 



We have been constrained to point out these blemishes 

 not in any hypercritical spirit, but solely because of our 

 wish that Mendeleeff's great work should have been 

 given to English and American readers in as perfect a 

 form as possible. The blemishes, after all, are only as 

 the spots on the sun. It is a great boon to get the book 

 even as it is, for no thoughtful reader can fail to be 

 quickened and animated by its fruitful and suggestive 

 pages. 



T. E. T. 



THE LIGATION OF THE GREAT ARTERIES. 



A Treatise on the Ligation of the Great Arteries in con- 

 tinuity, with Observations on the Nature, Progress, 

 and Treatment of Aneurism. By Charles A. Ballance, 

 M.B., M.S. Lond., F.R.C.S., and Walter Edmunds, 

 M.A., M.C. Cantab., F.R.C.S. (London : Macmillan 

 and Co., 1891.) 



THIS work is the result of investigations carried out by 

 the authors during the last seven years, and contains 

 the results of long and careful study. The authors were 

 evidently desirous of getting to the bottom of their sub- 

 ject, and in their endeavours to do so, have used every 

 method of research at their disposal. 



The first chapter is devoted to a short account of 

 haemorrhage in man, and contains valuable statistics as 

 to the results of the ligature of the main arteries. This 

 part will, of course, prove of the greatest interest to the 

 pure surgeon. The second chapter contains a paragraph 

 on the necessity of experiments on animals for the pur- 

 pose of studying the mechanism of haemorrhage ; this 

 paragraph might well have been omitted in a book written 

 for the professional and scientific public, who are already 

 convinced of the necessity of pathological experiments if 

 pathology is to make any advance at all. The greater 

 part of this chapter, however, is full of valuable facts 

 concerning the occurrence of the disease of arteries in 

 animals ; whilst in the third chapter the structure of 

 arteries is described, and, in this connection, the experi- 

 ments made by the authors on the longitudinal tension of 

 arteries require special mention. 



Physiological occlusion and pathological obliteration of 



