A, 



AT LIRE 



381 



THURSDAY\jAttl'AUY n,, ,919. 



CHEMJSTRl /•('A' STl DEh IS. 



11) A Manual of Chemistry, Theoretical and 

 Practical, Inorganic tind Organic. Adapted to 

 the Requirements <>f Students of Medicine. By 

 Or. A. P. Lull and H. C. H. Candy. Sixth 

 edition, enlarged. Pp. \i\ 745. (London: 

 Cassell and Co., Ltd., 1918.) Price 12s. net. 

 (2) Practical Chemistry for Intermediate Classes. 

 By Prof. II. I!. Dunnicliff. Pp. xii + j^. 

 don: Maomillan and Co., I. id., 1917.) 

 Price 55. 



Ontario High School Laboratory Manual 

 in Chemistry. By George A. Cornish, assisted 

 by Arthur Smith. Pp. vii • 135. (Toronto: The 

 Macmillan Co. of Canada, Ltd., 1917. ) Price 

 cnts. 

 (I The Ontario High School Chemistry. By 

 George A. Cornish, assisted by Arihur Smith. 

 Pp. vii + 297. (Toronto: The Marmillan Co. of 

 iada, Ltd., 191S.) Price 50 cents. 

 (5) New Reduction Methods in Volumetric 

 Analysis. .1 Monograph. By Prof. Edmund 

 Knecht and Eva Hibbert. Reissue with addi- 

 tions. Pp. x f 135. (London : Longmans, 

 Green, and Co., (918.) Price 55., net. 



TVyTAXl'ALS of chemistry that deal with the 

 *■**■ subject generally or in a specially practical 

 manner are now so numerous, and perhaps we 

 may add so similar, that it is not easy to discover 

 the special advantages of each. Those before 

 us are evidently all written by competent teachers 

 who know their subject. As years go by there is 



ency, which is doubtless a very wholesome 

 progress of development, to include more physical 

 chemistry and more generalities, and we suppose 

 thai the time will come when general manuals 

 will consist almost entirely of the exposition of 

 such fundamental matters, leaving the detailed 

 description of properties and specific changes to 

 special sectional manuals and the larger works 

 that aim at completeness. 



(1) The volume by Dr. Luff and Mr. Candy, 

 being a sixth edition, is well established and well 

 known. Although specially designed for medical 

 students, it will be found to be an excellent hand- 



or students of chemistrv whatever their ulti- 

 mate aim. In this edition more organic chemistry 

 led, and the practical section has been ex- 

 tended to meet the present requirements of students 

 of medicine. The first hundred pages are devoted 



' ralities and laws, and these are set forth 

 in a plain and straightforward, although concise, 

 manner. The organic section fills rather more 

 than two hundred pages. The practical section, 

 occupying about sixty pages, includes such sub- 

 jects as the preparation of salts and esters, quali- 

 tative analysis, including the identification of manv 

 organic substances, volumetric analysis, and the 

 estimation of nitrogen, fat, urea, etc. This section 



NO. 2568, VOL. I02] 



is kept small by constant reference to the 0th( r 

 part of the manual. The statement that aldehyde 

 "characteristic fruity odour," although re- 

 peated, musl have gained admittance by 

 inadverti nee. 



(2) Prof. Dunnicliff's volume consists of direc- 



for sixty-one "demonstrations," each of 

 which has been found to occupy the student from 

 1.', to 1 | hours. The instructions are very clear 

 and excellently illustrated. The subjects are well 

 chosen, and include the preparation of common 

 gases, acids, salts, etc., qualitative analysis, and 

 volumetric analysis. Of course, there are experi- 

 ments in which are measured the volumes of gases 

 evolyed in certain reactions, but we are glad to see 

 that nothing is said as to the results confirming 

 1 ertain laws, because such results as students 

 arc able to get generally oblige them to choose 

 between the truth of the law and the accuracy of 

 the experiment, and it is often the law that suffers 

 discredit. 



(3) and (4) The two volumes from Toronto are 

 very suitable for the purposes for which they are 

 designed. The manual is unusually interesting, as 

 'Historical details are given much more copiously 

 than is often the case. Portraits of Cavendish, 

 Priestley, Lavoisier, Dalton, Ramsay, Scheele, 

 Faraday, and Davy are included, with a few lines 

 of biographical details appended to each. Interest 

 is well maintained by a facsimile of a page of Dal- 

 ton 's notebook, the figures of old apparatus, and 

 of such modern matters as the cyanamide factory 

 at Niagara Falls (which is stated to be the largest 

 chemical industry in Canada), a liquid-air machine, 

 a sectional view of a salt well and the brine-concen- 

 trating apparatus, Moissan's electric furnace, etc., 

 all of which are shown so that their nature can 

 be readily understood. The laboratory manual 

 consists of seventy-five exercises, some of which 

 are of more general interest than are often pre- 

 scribed. But we hope that it is not usual in 

 Canada to use alum as the acidifying agent in 

 baking-powder, as one might be led to believe by 

 its being given as an alternative to cream of tartar. 



(5) The remaining volume, by Prof. Knecht and 

 Eva Hibbert, is of quite a different character from 

 the preceding. It is a monograph on the use of 

 titanous chloride as a quantitative reducing agent. 

 AH hough this salt is fairly easy to employ as 

 a volumetric reagent, its great reducing power 

 brings within its range of action a large number 

 of substances of verv various kinds. Its applica- 

 tion is described to numerous metals, non-metallic 

 elements and their compounds (per salts, chlorates, 

 nitrates, hydroxylamine, and so on), and organic 

 compounds such as nitro-compounds, nitroso- 

 rompounds, azo- and other dyes, and sugars. The 

 estimation of certain dyes on dyed cotton fabrics 

 is possible, and the degree of mercerisation in 

 cotton varns can be estimated by determining the 

 proportion of Benzopurpurin 4B taken up by the 

 ordinary and by the mercerised cotton. It is a 

 volume that should be at hand in all analytical 

 laboratories. C. J. 



X 



