SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



275 



has furnished material on the subjects 

 of the Kjeldahl process, proteids of 

 wheat flour, vinegar, brewing sugars, 

 malt substitutes, hop substitutes, and 

 secondary constituents in spirits. In- 

 formation has been added by the Ameri- 

 can reviser, partly from suggestions by 

 Mr. Allen on the subjects of specific 

 gravity, formaldehyde, vinegar, methyl, 

 alcohol, acetone, fusel oil, argol, starch, 

 glucose, invert sugar, lactose, and wine, 

 and brief notes on other topics. Pro- 

 cesses of the American Association of 

 Official Agricultural Chemists have been 

 reprinted. The revision of Vol. II is 

 well in hand, and will be much more 

 extensive than that of Vol I. 



On the other hand, the revision of 

 the second edition has extended over 

 fourteen years, and is only just com- 

 pleted with the fourth volume, which 

 appears a few weeks later than the vol- 

 ume noticed above. The earlier volumes 

 have been long out of print, and are des- 

 tined, of course, to be supplanted by 

 those of the new revision. The present 

 fourth volume, being newer and of the 

 present date, will serve as the latest till 

 the last volume of the new revision is 

 reached; and, besides, the author hopes 

 to publish an appendix to each volume, 

 containing the more important of the 

 later results. The meaning of the term 

 Commercial Analysis has been some- 

 what extended, and matter has been in- 

 ciude.d that in closest strictness does not 

 belong under it, it being thought better, 

 the author says, to include all facts pos- 

 sessing an analytical or practical inter- 

 est to him, in the belief that what he 

 finds useful himself will be of value to 

 others. 



In The Porto Rico of To-day * a trav- 

 eler's view of that interesting island and 

 its people is presented by Mr. A. G. Rob- 

 inson, who went there and remained 

 during August, September, and October, 

 1898, as correspondent of the New York 

 Evening Post. While the book can not 

 be regarded, as it does not profess and 

 is not intended to be, as a source of 

 geographical or statistical information, 

 it admirably fulfills the design of the au- 

 thor to present a picture of the people 



* The Porto Rico of To-day. Pen Pictures of 

 the People and the Country. By Albert Gardner 

 Robinson. New York: Charles'Scribner's Sons. 

 Pp. 240, with maps. Price, $1.50. 



and of the country as he saw them ; and 

 it is a very living picture too. He looked 

 with a sharp eye, and has recorded what 

 he saw in graphic style. In the author's 

 story of his early days of the island we 

 are made acquainted with the various 

 names it has had, of which Porto Rico, 

 or Puerto Rico, is only the latest. The 

 oldest of the European names appears to 

 have been Buriquien, in some one of the 

 dozen or more spellings it has had, one 

 of them being Bo. It has also been 

 called La Isla de Carib, San Juan Bau- 

 tista, etc. After the account of the au- 

 thor's first general impressions and ex- 

 periences he describes the city of Ponce, 

 his visit to a coffee district, a number 

 of typical towns and villages, the jour- 

 ney from Ponce to San Juan, the high- 

 ways, railways of which there are one 

 hundred and forty-three miles in opera- 

 tion and one hundred and seventy-five 

 miles under construction and a fairly 

 effective telegraph system, views of the 

 industrial possibilities and commerce of 

 the island, with some experiences of mil- 

 itary campaigning. 



The publication of the revision which 

 Mr. Herbert Spencer is making of his 

 Synthetic Philosophy in order to incor- 

 porate in it as far as may be the re- 

 sults of more recent advances begins 

 with the first volume of The Principles 

 of Biology* The advance during the 

 last generation, Mr. Spencer thinks, 

 has been more rapid in the direction 

 of this science than any other, and 

 though the hope of bringing a work on 

 biology at large up to date could not be 

 rationally entertained at the author's 

 age and under the existing conditions of 

 his physical strength, a similar service 

 to a work on the principles of the science 

 did not seem impossible. Numerous ad- 

 ditions have been needful. What was 

 originally said about vital changes of 

 matter is supplemented by a chapter on 

 Metabolism. A chapter is added on The 

 Dynamic Element in Life. The insertion 

 of some pages on Structure fills a gap 

 in preceding editions. The revelations 

 of the microscope on cell life and mul- 

 tiplication are set forth. A supplemen- 

 tary chapter on Genesis, Heredity, and 



* The Principles of Biology. By Herbert Spen- 

 cer. In Two Volumes. Vol. I. Revised and en- 

 larged edition. New York: D. Appleton and Com- 

 pany. Pp. 706. Price, $3. 



