54 



NATURE 



[March i6, 191 6 



of hydrologfical medicine, these natural remedial 

 agents can now be prescribed with authority 

 and precision, and presently it will be as foolish 

 to go to the wrong spa as to choose an in- 

 appropriate drug or an improper operation 

 in surgery. 



For the necessary growth of this knowledge 

 research and instruction must go hand in hand. 

 At the present time, as Dr. Sunderland points out, 

 the value of waters and baths scientifically applied 

 is being abundantly proved in the case of sick 

 and wounded soldiers. The results obtained at 

 the British spas show how great and unexpected 

 are the resources of our own country in this 

 respect. 



That which is wanting in British hydrology is 

 system — both in scientific teaching and in co- 

 ordinating the unrivalled assets belonging to the 

 health resorts of the Empire. It remains for 

 London to meet this need by providing the means 

 of special instruction and research. Here as else- 

 where in medicine the tradition and empiricism of 

 the past must in due course give place to ordered 

 knowledge and instructed art. 



Dr. Sunderland's book is profusely illustrated 

 and withal entertaining, and may be recommended 

 to all who are interested in the social as well as 

 the medical history of London. 



ORGANIC CHEMISTRY. 

 Organic Chemistry, or Chemistry of the Carbon- 

 Compounds. By Victor von Richter. Volume i. 

 Chemistry of the Aliphatic Series. Newly 

 translated and revised from the German edition 

 by Dr. P. E. Spielmann. Pp. xvi + yig. 

 (London: Kegan Paul and Co., Ltd., 191 5.) 

 Price 215. net. 



NO more striking illustration of the develop- 

 ment of organic chemistry could be found 

 than that presented by the growth of this popular 

 German treatise. Appearing about 1880, as com- 

 panion volume to a modest octavo text-book on 

 inorganic chemistry, it rapidly acquired popu- 

 larity and passed through numerous editions. As 

 the contents swelled with each succeeding edition, 

 it became necessary first to divide the book into 

 two parts and finally to modify the format. Like 

 many German scientific books it soon found an 

 American translator and publisher, and has 

 reached its third American edition. The present 

 volume, it should be noted, is the first English 

 edition, a term which we presume refers to the 

 nationality of the publisher rather than to the 

 greater purity of the vernacular of the last trans- 

 lator. Be that as it may, Richter's organic 

 NO. 2420, VOL. 97] 



chemistry has passed out of the region of text- 

 books. 



The theoretical part is condensed into a com- 

 paratively few pages at the beginning of the 

 volume, and is of so sketchy and superficial a 

 character as to possess little value for the student. 

 Yet the subject, especially on the physical side in 

 connection with structural problems, is one of 

 growing interest and importance. This is a car- 

 dinal defect. On the other hand, the book is so 

 crowded with facts as to form a kind of abridged 

 "Beilstein." It is divided into chapters contain- 

 ing the names of a large number of related com- 

 pounds, an outline of the mode of their prepara- 

 tion, and an account of their more important 

 physical and chemical properties. Occasionally 

 there is a proper name attached to a compound 

 or process, and sometimes a reference. It is 

 rarely that one finds an English name, or, indeed, 

 that of any other nationality than German. There 

 is no reference to the modern method for pre- 

 paring silicon alkyl compounds or to its author; 

 no reference to the discoverer of oxalyl chloride, 

 ketene, and the numerous azoimides, or to the 

 mechanism of the formation of formic acid from 

 glycerol and oxalic acid, though the process is 

 given, or to the abnormal addition of bromine 

 to maleic acid, which is wrongly described. 



English names, it appears from the preface, are 

 purposely omitted for the remarkable reason thai 

 "references to German literature have been 

 retained with the object of preserving to the 

 student the advantages of the origin of the book; 

 the English references will be otherwise readilj 

 obtainable by him." If the references are not 

 given, nor even the names of authors of these 

 fundamental discoveries, it is difficult to see how 

 they will be "readily obtainable." No doubt there 

 are advantages in having the origin of the book 

 steadily thrust upon one as a stimulus to the 

 British chemist ; but it is to be hoped that there 

 may be forthcoming a text-book — a real students' 

 text-book — of organic chemistry which shall give 

 him a clear, critical, and suggestive review ol 

 the big problems of organic chemistry with whicf 

 the names of many distinguished English chemist; 

 are linked. That the English organic chemis 

 has pursued the exp>erimental part of the subjec 

 with the object of elucidating theoretical rathe 

 than practical problems is readily explained b; 

 the fact that his activities on the industrial sid' 

 have been necessarily restricted, and he has ha< 

 little incentive up to the present to busy himsel 

 with the discovery of new classes of comirerciall ' 

 useful products. 



J. B. C. 



