May 31, 1894] 



NA TURE 



99 



has been read, the student is not left fact-stuffed to suffer 

 from mental indigestion, but is incited to intellectual 

 activity and imaginative action. Many works on 

 chemistry convey stale truisms to the student ; some 

 preach the kind of truth that makes a man drunk when 

 it is " stagnant inside him." This book suggests more 

 than it asserts, and leaves the reader eager and hopeful. 

 Take, for instance, the treatment of the well-worn sub- 

 ject of mixtures and compounds in chapter iii. : the many 

 forms in which the differences between these classes of 

 substances are stated, oblige the reader to think as he 

 reads; and the admirable way in which illustrations of 

 the differences are drawn from the processes of applied 

 chemistry, give an air of reality to the matter, and with- 

 draw it entirely from the sphere of mere academic dis- 

 cussion. The free use which is made of processes 

 employed in manufactures to illustrate the laws and 

 principles of the science, is much to be commended. 

 The book deals for the most part with those portions of 

 chemistry which require to be treated at once soberly and 

 suggestively ; and, on the whole, the author has succeeded 

 in combining breadth of view with accuracy of detail. 

 The chapter on " molecular architecture" well exemplifies 

 the combination of these two qualities. But it seems to 

 me that too much space is devoted in this chapter to 

 Guye's views regarding optical activity. The reader is 

 thrown somewhat off the main track, and he does not 

 readily recover the path. The chapter on the classifica- 

 tion of compounds is not, in my opinion, so happy as 

 many of the others. The author seems to be too eagerly 

 pursuing definitions, which Hunter said are the most 

 accursed of all things on the face of the earth. | 

 Would chemistry be much better off were perfect 

 definitions of acid, base, and salt to be found ? I 

 very much doubt it. Indeed, I think one of the [ 

 great advantages of chemistry is its freedom from 

 definitions. The last chapter, on chemical equilibrium, 

 enables the careful student to grasp the bearings of the 

 recent work in this department that has already pro- 

 foundly changed the scope and aim of the science. It is 

 just such an introduction to the study of chemical 

 equilibrium as was wanted. 



It would be easy to find fault ; it is always easy to find 

 fault. I have preferred to point out some of the excel- 

 lencies of this work. It is exactly what the title-pagi; 

 describes it — a companion-book for students of chemistry. 

 The want of an index, however, is a serious blemish in 

 the book. M. M. Pattison Muir. 



CLIMATE AND LUNG DISEASE. 

 Aero- Therapeutics ; or, the Treatment of Lung Diseases 

 by Climate. By Charles Theodore Williams, M.-A., M.D. 

 Oxon., F.R.C.P. pp. 186. (London : Macmillan and 

 Co., 1894.) 



THIS work affords valuable information, not otherwise 

 easily attainable, concerning distant health resorts. 

 Modern facilities of locomotion have brought the Andes 

 and the Karoo within easieraccess than Montpelier or Pen- 

 zance at the beginning of the Victorian era. The world 

 is now at the feet of the health-seeker, and our ocean 

 steamers and trans-continental railways are day by day 

 carrying an ever-increasing number of convalescents. It 



NO. 128.^. VOL. 50J 



is not necessary to have a yacht of our own if we would 

 take a trip to the Fiords of Norway, the Grecian Archi- 

 pelago, the West Indian Islands, or even to Japan ; per- 

 fectly appointed steamers, with the comforts of a good 

 hotel and the reliableness of an express train, are ever 

 ready to convey us wherever we may desire. 



Dr. Williams, who, as President of the Royal Meteo- 

 rological Society, might be expected to fill his pages with 

 statistics and tabular statements, gives also his own 

 experiences of travel, together with a sketchy outline of 

 cases of disease distributed amongst the varied and world- 

 separated havens of health. It cannot be doubted that, in 

 chronic disease, the wise selection of health stations is 

 often of vastly greater import than physic or even diet, and 

 in these lectures we find a comprehensive epitome of the 

 claims of the most valuable resorts within our reach. 



The description of the Riviera, given as it is by one 

 with ample personal and acquired experience, is a valu- 

 able part of the work, and is summarised thus : — "The 

 winter climate of the Riviera is clear and bright, with a 

 good deal of wind but devoid of fog or mist ; with a mean 

 temperature of 8° to 10' higher than that of England, 

 with half the number of rainy days and four or five times 

 the number of bright ones.'' 



Should the Riviera prove too stimulating, AJaccio and 

 Corsica are recommended. 



Algiers is too rainy in November, December, and 

 January, though the neighbouring desert converts what 

 would be a moist into a dry climate. 



Tangiers combines the warmth of the Mediterranean 

 with the equability of the Atlantic, and is regarded as of 

 value in some forms of phthisis. 



Among the many attractions of South California 

 (visited by the author in 1S92) are the fruits of South 

 Europe and of the tropics, as well as the apples, pears, 

 I and apricots of old England, and strawberries all the year 

 round. In the large towns, however, the noise of the 

 cable and electric cars detracts from the comfort and 

 repose so desirable for the invalid. 



The Australian health resorts are hot and dry ; in inland 

 regions are suited for young men with agricultural tastes, 

 i and threatened consumption. 



The value of sea voyages is clearly shown, but the 



! author rightly places in a clear light the cruelty of allow- 



I ing unsuitable cases to start off alone on a long voyage. 



1 The statistics of sea voyages come out well. It must 



be borne in mind, however, that patients sent to sea by 



a discriminating physician, and deemed fit to bear the 



vicissitudes and uncertainties of the voyage, are, on an 



average, of a more sturdy and hopeful type than those 



sent to Madeira, Egypt, or the Riviera. 



The voyage to the Cape is described as sedative, that 

 from the Cape to Australia as bracing. The voyage 

 through the tropics to the Cape, followed by residence in 

 the South African highlands, is unquestionably great. 



It does infinite credit to Dr. C. T. Williams to have 

 kept notes of his cases so systematically as to be able to 

 arrange them as he has done. Among the interesting 

 conclusions at which he arrives is this : that, in cases 

 of cavity in the lung, the saline atmosphere of the ocean 

 promotes antiseptic changes, and so encourages the 

 arrest of disease. 



In chapter iii., " On Barometric Pressure in Relation 



