iV hed EE: to ‘‘ Nature,” 
great medical centre—Du Bois-Reymond, Briicke, 
Haeckel, Helmholtz, Henle, Remak, Schwann, and 
Virchow. WVirchow himself would be the first, in his 
maturer years, to acknowledge the debt he and all 
Germany owes to Miller. JeXs dS 
INORGANIC 
Introduction to 
CHEMISTRY. 
General Inorganic 
Prof. Alexander Smith. Pp. xviii+780o. 
York: The Century Co., 1906.) 
Systematic Inorganic Chemistry from the Standpoint 
of the Periodic Law. By Dr. R. M. Caven and Dr. 
Chemistry. By 
(New 
G. D. Lander. Pp. xix+374. (London: Blackie 
and Son, Ltd., 1go6.) Price 6s. net. 
MONG recently published chemical books, of 
medium weight, as the clothiers say, these two 
are worthy of particular attention, for they embody 
careful attempts to present chemistry in a somewhat 
new way, and they have, each of them, a distinct 
individuality. 
Prof. Alexander Smith, of Chicago, has already 
expressed his views on the whole subject of chemical 
teaching in a work reviewed in these columns a few 
years since, and he has published a ‘‘ Laboratory Out- 
line of General Chemistry ’’ which has many merits, 
and has received the compliment of translation into 
German. We turned, therefore, to his present ex- 
position of general inorganic chemistry with special 
interest and with considerable expectations. This new 
book embodies an attempt to interweave as much of 
the theory and detail of inorganic chemistry as will 
provide a reasonable course for a student entering 
upon the study of chemistry at a university. Prof. 
Smith adopts the plan of developing the theory piece- 
meal so that 
“no conception is defined, and no generalisation or 
law is developed, until such a point has been reached 
that applications of the conception and experimental 
illustrations, later to be related in the law, have 
already been encountered, and there is about to be 
occasion for further applications and illustrations of 
the same things in the chapters denameioncly suc- 
ceeding.”’ 
This is a difficult plan to carry out thoroughly 
in a science where there is really no one 
clearly definable sequence of topics that is the 
most natural or logical, and where indeed the most 
elementary facts and most familiar phenomena will, 
if we like, provoke the most far-reaching questions 
of theory. But Prof. Smith has met the difficulties 
of his task with great skill, and has given us a very 
judicious and well-balanced selection of the facts of 
inorganic chemistry with a body of theoretical 
information little less than is to be found in a fairly 
advanced work on physical chemistry. In this last 
direction the author has gone much further than most 
writers of modern text-books, and his exposition of 
principles is in many respects original in form, and 
for that reason all the more interesting. The divorce 
between inorganic and physical chemistry is admittedly 
artificial, and no one can question that great gain 
to the study of inorganic facts is derived from the 
NO. 1950, VOL. 75] 
March 14, 1907 
application of chemical dynamics and the doctrine of 
equilibrium. The infusion of electrochemistry, ac- 
companied by the doctrine of ionic dissociation, will 
not be so universally acceptable, but probably most 
chemists will consider the introduction of the 
new 
dualism entirely justified by the present state of 
knowledge. 
Whilst Prof. Smith has skilfully handled the 
theoretical matters which he has introduced, we can- 
not help thinking that he has attempted rather too 
much, and that in some cases the compression of the 
treatment imposed by the limits of the book will leave 
the student in the possession of thin knowledge and 
vague ideas. The part of Prof. Smith’s book that 
seems to the present writer to be the least satisfactory 
is the introduction (chapters i. to iv.), and this is 
the more to be regretted as it may prejudice the 
reader at the outset and deter him from proceeding 
to the vastly better material beyond. The fault that is 
to be found is one not uncommon in American books, 
though it is of Teutonic origin; it is the attempt to 
read into chemistry a kind of philosophical complete- 
ness and logical exactitude which it does not really 
yet possess. The delimitations of an ‘‘ abstract con- 
crete science,’’ the meaning of ‘‘ explanation,’’ the 
explanation that ‘‘a cause is a condition or occurrence: 
which always precedes another condition or occur- 
rence,’’ *‘ stochastic and formulative hypotheses,”’? the 
review of iron and sulphur with a view to the dis- 
tinction between chemistry and physics; these seem 
hardly fruitful topics. 
Nor do we think that Prof. Smith is happy in his 
treatment of them. On p. 5 it is stated in leaded type 
that 
“the most obvious characteristic of a chemical 
phenomenon is that all the physical properties 
of the substance alter, that this alteration is 
abrupt, that, in fact, the products are different sub- 
stances, that the recognition and study of such a 
phenomenon is accomplished entirely by observations. 
of a physical nature.” 
Now is this true of so simple an occurrence as the 
heating of a piece of chalk? Where is the obvious 
and abrupt alteration of all physical properties ? 
Again, on p. 32, the leaded statements distinguish- 
ing between an element and a simple substance are 
almost cryptic in their subtlety, besides being mere 
dogmas as applied to members of the argon family. 
These examples might be multiplied, but enough 
has been said to indicate an objection that will be 
felt, we venture to think, by most readers, in relation 
to this exceptionally valuable and interesting book. 
It might be worth considering whether, if they are 
to be retained at all, these philosophic excursions 
should not be confined to an appendix. 
Drs. Caven and Lander have written a compact 
work on inorganic chemistry from the standpoint of 
the periodic law, intended for students who have 
reached the last stage of their degree course. It is 
entirely different in scope and style from the work 
just noticed, and it has its own very distinct merits. 
It will probably satisfy admirably the requirements of 
students who desire to knit up the ‘‘ ravelled sleeve ” 
