268 



NA TURE 



[January 22, 1903 



-or translations of foreign works upon the subject. And 

 again we may ask, Why is it that so many of the transla- 

 tions hail, not from this side of the water, but from 

 America ? The only possible reply seems to be that the 

 scientific Englishman is not fond of writing. 



The book under review, which has been translated by 

 Dr. F. J. Pond, assistant professor in the State College 

 of Pennsylvania, is dedicated by its author to Prof. 

 Wallach. We are not surprised at this, because, owing 

 to the careful and splendid experimental work of Prof. 

 Wallach, the chemistry of the terpenes has become 

 systematised and simplified (i.e. relatively simplified) in a 

 manner which at one time seemed almost out of the 

 question. 



The book commences with an introduction of twelve 

 pages. Naturally, the study of the camphors or oxidised 

 compounds of the terpenes could not be left out of any 

 work which dealt with the terpenes. Dr. Heusler 

 explains that 



"Japan camphor, while closely allied to the terpenes, 

 has such an extremely large number of derivatives that 

 an exhaustive description of them would demand as 

 large a space as the derivatives of all the remaining 

 members of the terpene group taken together." 



Therefore Dr. Heusler only mentions those which are 

 most closely related to the members of the terpene group. 

 But at the same time, it would have been both interesting 

 and instructive if he had seen his way-perhaps in the 

 form of an appendix — to give a summarised discussion of 

 some of the controversial points under consideration in 

 the camphor problem. As it is, he only gives Bredt's 

 formula for camphor and passes over the others, as he 

 considers that the present state of our knowledge is 

 scarcely sufficient to allow of criticism. If we take down 

 the British Association notes for 1900 and study Dr. 

 Lapworth's very able report upon the camphor question, 

 we see that it is possible to summarise shortly the 

 camphor literature in a lucid and satisfactory manner. 



Under the heading " Hemiterpenes," there is a short 

 description of isoprene and some of its derivatives. The 

 connection of such vegetable products as guttapercha 

 and the terpenes is noteworthy, isoprene being of 

 special interest, since when acted upon by concentrated 

 hydrochloric acid it polymerises into a rubber-like sub- 

 stance. On the other hand, isoprene, along with other 

 substances, is produced when the vapour of turpentine is 

 passed through a red-hot tube. 



We then come to the study of the terpenes proper ; 

 this portion of the book occupies nearly one hundred 

 pages. Naturally, pinene, the chief ingredient of 

 turpentine oil and the most widely distributed of the 

 terpenes, is first studied. Under each terpene, the pre- 

 paration and properties are first given, and then their 

 behaviour towards oxidising agents and various 

 reagents. 



Following the terpenes, we come, on p. 133, to the study 

 of the oxidised compounds ; this is divided into two parts 

 — (1) Substances which cannot be regarded as derivatives 

 of the hydrocymenes, analogues of pinene, camphene 

 and fenchene ; (2) substances which may be regarded 

 as derivatives of the hydrocymenes. Camphor, which 

 falls under the first category, is first discussed, and here 

 again Bredt's formulae for camphor, camphoric and 



NO. 1734, VOL. 67] 



camphoronic acid are given. The study of the olefinic 

 members of the terpene series follows on p. 377 ; the first 

 portion is devoted to the study of the hydrocarbons and 

 the second part to the oxygenated compounds, such as 

 linalool, geraniol, the pleasant-smelling constituent of 

 Turkish and German oil of rose and citronellol. The 

 last twenty pages are devoted to the study of the sesqui- 

 and poly-terpenes. 



Taking the book as a whole, it will be found to be a 

 very interesting review of some of the most important 

 work which has been carried out in connection with the 

 chemistry of this very abstruse but exceedingly interesting 

 branch of chemical science. At times there is a tendency 

 to lapse into a " dictionary " style of writing, but it should 

 be borne in mind that descriptive writing is of all writing 

 the most difficult. The book should be of great value to 

 all those who are engaged upon the study of the terpenes 

 or of camphor, but when this work of 450 pages has been 

 carefully studied, it will still be found necessary to consult 

 the original literature. Fortunately, Dr. Heusler has 

 given fairly full references, and for this he cannot be too 

 highly commended. 



The book can hardly be recommended to the general 

 student, because he would be apt to lose himself in a 

 maze of compounds a previous knowledge of which is 

 taken for granted. 



Dr. F. J. Pond has evidently taken great pains in 

 translating the book, and he certainly deserves a word of 

 thanks for his trouble. F. Mollwo Perkin. 



EXPERIMENTAL PHONETICS. 

 The Elements of Experimental Phonetics. By Edward 

 Wheeler Scripture. Pp. xvi + 627 ; 26 plates and 

 348 illustrations. (New York : C. Scribner's Sons ; 

 London : Edward Arnold, 1902.) 



THIS handsome volume is one of a series of books 

 issued by a number of the professors and instruc- 

 tors of Yale University in connection with the bicen- 

 tennial anniversary of that institution. It is an effort to 

 collect and arrange the data at present available concern- 

 ing the voice in song and speech, and it is enriched by 

 an account of much valuable work done in the field of 

 experimental phonetics by the author himself. 



During the last decade, the science of phonetics has 

 made rapid progress, more especially in France, Germany, 

 America and Scandinavia ; it has now a nomenclature 

 and methods of its own, and it is cultivated with much 

 earnestness and ability by many workers, some of whom 

 are a singular combination of physicist physiologist 

 and philologist. The scope of the science is a study of 

 the physical, physiological and psychical phenomena 

 connected with language. It deals with the physical 

 basis of the sounds of language, with the physiological 

 mechanisms by which these sounds are produced, with 

 the cerebral phenomena connected with the psychical 

 processes that lie at the root of the nervous mechanisms 

 by which ideas find expression in articulate sounds, and 

 with the laws of emphasis and of rhythm. 



In this work, Dr. Scripture surveys the whole field. He 

 first of all deals with the physical aspect of the subject 

 in a series of sections on the curves of speech— that is 



