DISCOVERY 



55 



The book is suitably illustrated, and has an appendix 

 of photographs of the chemical apparatus of Dr. Daubeney, 

 who became professor of chemistry in 1822. 



(6) At the recent meeting of the British Association, 

 Dr. M. O. Forster put forward a strong plea for more 

 recognition of the fundamental importance of organic 

 chemistry, and for the teaching of the subject at an earlier 

 stage than is usually the case at present. For some reason 

 organic chemistry seems to be regarded as an almost sacro- 

 sanct subject unfitted for the eyes and ears of youth, and 

 not lightly to be entered upon until the pupil has already 

 mastered the chief points of descriptive inorganic chemis- 

 try and the elements of physical chemistry. 



Thus it conies about that organic chemistry — the most 

 humane part of the science in that all vital processes and 

 life itself are its special province — is left out of account 

 in the early instruction of the budding chemist ; and 

 later, when he is at last introduced to it, he is likely either 

 to be tired of chemistry, or so filled with facts and figures 

 relating to the inorganic and physical branches that he 

 has little interest for the organic branch. 



Fortunately, i\Ir. Hammick has had much opportimity 

 of stud>-ing the problem at first hand at Holt School and 

 at Winchester, and, as he is at pains to point out, the 

 book is written not with a view to covering any special 

 syllabus, but in order to introduce to the beginner the 

 idea of structure and to familiarise him with the elementary 

 notation and technique of organic chemistry. 



The author assumes, of course, that the reader has an 

 acquaintance with elementary chemistr\- and with general 

 laboratory operations. After introducing the subject 

 and discussing the question of valency, structural formula, 

 and methods of analysis, the book deals with the produc- 

 tion and isolation of ethyl alcohol, thence it passes to 

 other alcohols, and so to the discussion of homology, 

 the essential facts of which are very clearlv shown in the 

 table on p. 26. 



Interspersed in the text are suitable simple experiments 

 which can be readily carried out in the laboratorj-. 



Thence by easy stages the beginner is introduced to the 

 subjects of esters and isomerism. Chapter IV is devoted 

 to the action of sulphuric acid upon alcohol, leading to the 

 formation of ether and ethylene, thus affording an oppor- 

 tunity for discussing saturation and unsaturation. After 

 this the usual derivatives are dealt with, such as aldehydes, 

 fatty acids, ketones, paraffins, amides, etc. ; the latter half 

 of the book deals with the aromatic compounds. 



The book is essentially readable throughout, and it 

 would be difficult for anyone who has worked carefully 

 through the text and the experiments not to have had his 

 interest and even his enthusiasm aroused for the wonders 

 of organic chemistry. This may serve to carry him 

 forward through the more tedious parts of the subject 

 occasionally met with in the larger textbooks. 



(c) Dr. Davidson has given Professor Humboldt 

 Sexton's well-known work a thorough revision, and brought 

 it, as far as possible, up-to-date. The earlier editions 

 were found suitable for use as a textbook bv students of 



technical chemistry, and by engineers with a limited 

 training in general chemistry who required a book 

 dealing with the chemistry, and particularly the physical 

 chemistry, of the various kinds of fuels. To these and 

 to students of inorganic chemistry generally this new 

 edition should be of use and value. A. S. R. 



AFRICAN EXPLORATION 



(a) 



By G. D. H.\LE 

 etc. Illustrated. 



ib) 



A Naturalist on Lake Victoria. 

 Carpenter, M.B.E., D.M., B.Ch 

 (T. Fisher Unwin, Ltd., 285.) 

 Exploration of Air. Out of the World Xorth of Nigeria. 

 By Angus Buchan.\n, M.C. Illustrated. (John 

 Murray, 165.) 



[a) Since 1849, the year in which Livingstone discovered 

 Lake Ngami, the vast continent of Africa has tempted 

 many white men to explore and, in some cases, even to 

 settle down in its inner sanctuaries. To those of us who 

 watch from afar, the exploits and work of these pioneers 

 possess a romantic interest quite apart from their results. 

 The heart of Africa has been slowh- revealed during the 

 last seventy years. The history of the manner in which 

 its mysteries have been wrested from it is to us as absorb- 

 ingly interesting as the mysteries themselves, for it shows 

 us the man of civilisation pitting his character against 

 primitive races, against almost insuperable natural 

 obstacles, against terrible climatic conditions and, despite 

 many individual failures, registering a general, though 

 gradual, success. A particularly romantic type in this 

 connection is the one-man pioneer, the man who goes out 

 into the "blue" without a companion except amongst 

 natives, whom he has to dominate or keep friendly by 

 exercising the full powers of his personality. In such 

 characteristics both these books have a common interest, 

 despite the different nature of their subjects. 



Even in those regions that have come under the white 

 man's civilisation, much remains to be solved. In this 

 direction Dr. Hale Carpenter has performed splendid 

 service of great benefit to humanity by his lonely and 

 detailed study of the Tse-tse fly and the Trypanosoma 

 that minute unicellular organism which the fly injects by 

 its bite into the blood, thereby causing sleeping sickness. 

 Most of his investigations, extending over a period of 

 three years, just previous to the war, were undertaken on 

 the uninhabited groups of islands in the north-west corner 

 of Lake Victoria, for the Tropical Diseases Committee of 

 the Royal Society. 



There are many forms of Trypanosome, and several 

 spades of Tse-tse fly. Dr. Hale Carpenter gives an 

 exhaustive, yet easily intelligible and fascinating, account 

 of their activities. But his book provides a wealth of 

 information on the Natural Historjr of the region. Par- 

 ticularly interesting to us was the chapter on Mammals 

 and on the small monkeys of the Cercopithecus species, 

 which were of use in his investigations of sleeping 

 sickness, as the malignant Tr3'panosomes produce the 

 disease in this monkey. Their various gradations of 

 shrieks compose quite a small language, which Dr. Hale 

 Carpenter interprets. He found them the " most charm- 



