424 



NA TUBE 



[June 9, 1910 



AN ALTERNATIVE TO QUALITATIVE 

 ANALYSIS." 

 Introduction to Experimental Inorganic Chemistry. 

 By H. Biltz. Translated by William T. Hall and 

 J. W. Phelan. Pp. vi+185. (New York: John 

 Wiley and Sons; London : Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 

 1909.) 



'"PHIS book is intended to supply the lack of know- 

 -*- ledge of descriptive chemistry which has resulted 

 from the omission of " test-tube work " from the 

 curricula of the schools or its restriction to small 

 classes of advanced scholars. As compared with the 

 "qualitative analysis" which it is intended to precede 

 or to replace, as the case may be, the course now sug- 

 gested has certain obvious advantages, arising more 

 especially from the fact that the experiments are 

 designed directly for the purpose of supplying a know- 

 ledge of the elements and their compounds, instead 

 of serving this purpose only indirectly through the 

 medium of a scheme of work designed originally for 

 an entirely different purpose. 



The abuse of the older method, by which a student 

 could be trained to " get out " his salts and pass his 

 examinations without acquiring any adequate know- 

 ledge of the processes used in doing this, is we'll 

 known, but the alternative scheme now suggested is 

 by no means free from faults. One of the most 

 serious accusations that may be levelled against it 

 arises from its monotony. Thus, in dealing with the 

 metals, the student is expected to examine one metal 

 after another, to heat it, dissolve it in acids, and then 

 try the effect of a series of different agents on its solu- 

 tions. After this has been done for a dozen different 

 metals the student would certainly complain of weari- 

 ness, and it is doubtful whether his mental faculties 

 would be kept sufficiently on the alert to produce any 

 permanent impression at the end of his course. The 

 loss of the interest which is supplied in qualitative 

 analysis by the incessant stimulus of a problem to be 

 solved is a very serious drawback, and the course 

 which the authors present would need very careful 

 handling to prevent the class from going to sleep over 

 its work or gliding through it without effort and, 

 therefore, without profit. 



The best use to which the book could be put would 

 be as a duplicate text-book for a student engaged on 

 qualitative analysis, so that when presented with a new 

 element he might, whilst learning how to detect it, 

 acquire at the same time some sj^stematic experi- 

 mental knowledge of its properties. If blended in this 

 way with a series of problems, the experiments now 

 described would undoubtedly be of considerable value. 

 The most noticeable fault in the arrangement of 

 the book is due to an uncertainty on the part of the 

 authors as to whether they are giving instructions for, 

 or supplying a descriptive account of, the experiments. 

 This confusion has resulted in a compromise whereby 

 one experiment is described in the imperative tense 

 and the next as a narrative in the present tense. It 

 is also a characteristic weakness of the scheme that 

 formulae and equations are given without any hint as 

 to the quantitative experiments on which they must 

 necessarily be based. This lack might doubtless be 

 NO. 2Iiq, VOL. 83] 



corrected by a teacher who was aware of the danger 

 that the class might look upon a formula or an equa- 

 tion as an inspired product, to be accepted as a revela- 

 tion sent down to mankind through the prophetic 

 agency of the writers of text-books; but a course of 

 chemistry which leads off with the words, "Hydro- 

 chloric acid, HCl, is a colourless gas. . . ." would 

 (if left to develop its natural effects) be admirably 

 calculated to propagate this all too prevalent heresy. 



T. M. L. 



THE WELFARE OF WOMEN. 

 The Health of the Nations. Compiled from Special 

 Reports of the National Councils of Women. Pp. 

 191. (London : Constable and Co., Ltd., 19 10.) 

 Price IS. net. 



THE International Council of Women, of which the 

 Countess of Aberdeen is president, was formed 

 in 1SS8 by "a company of earnest American women" 

 (p. 7), The result of their efforts was a federation 

 of national councils, or unions, or associations, of 

 women working for the common welfare. Mrs. 

 Ogilvie Gordon sketches in this small volume the 

 history of the council, noting the resolutions of its 

 quinquennial meetings in the various countries, and 

 summarising, for the year 1909, certain "special re- 

 ports " prepared by representative women in Europe, 

 America, and other continents. The movement is 

 ambitious, and it is almost needless to say that the 

 " special reports " here collated are of the most 

 generalised kind. In a brief 200 pages of well-leaded 

 print, it is not possible to give a passable summar}- of 

 the "health " even of one nation, not to speak of the 

 twenty-one "nations," or countries, here dealt with. 

 But it is gratifying to find some twenty-two national 

 councils of women (p. 12) sufficiently interested in 

 general hygiene to produce even these somewhat 

 sketchy "reports." 



The main point is that the nations are thus show- 

 ing an increasing concern for one another, and the 

 International Council of Women, in focussing atten- ? 

 tion on the leading features of public-health progress, 

 is doing, pro tanto, a real international service. Such 

 reports are intended to excite interest rather than to 

 provide materials for scientific conclusions, and, from 

 this point of view, there is much to be said for them. 

 It is, however, to be regretted that there is so little 

 reference in detail to extant official or other trust- 

 worthy documents. Had the papers each been suppU 

 mented by a short list of definite references, tl 

 usefulness of the little volume would have bee 

 immeasurably increased. As it is, one has difficult 

 in taking the statements on trust. For instance, 

 a "report on public health" for the "countries" 

 " Great Britain and Ireland," one finds it said — an^^ 

 the date of the "preface" is 1909 — that "there is n( 

 compulsory notification of tuberculosis in Grea 

 Britain, but voluntary notification, instituted by locaj 

 authorities, obtains in many places" (p. 65). Yet a{ 

 that date. May, 1909, nearh' 25 per cent, of the popuj 

 lation of Scotland was under "compulsory notificai 

 tion," a fact that could have been obtained withou^ 

 difficult}', either from published blue-books or froi 



cuiq 



