502 



NA TURE 



\ April 2, 1885 



great value as a practical guide. As such, it takes what 

 is, in some respects, a new departure : it rejects the 

 familiar notion that as storms are mere derangements of 

 the system of winds, they deserve, in a systematic study, 

 nothing more than an incidental notice ; and it puts 

 prominently forward the idea that, on the contrary, they 

 ought to be studied in very full detail ; because, as it 

 argues, the derangements are rather exaggerations than 

 alterations of the system, and are thus capable of serving 

 as a microscope for the student's clearer instruction. It 

 is an idea which has been well and fully worked out ; 

 and with a care and industry which supply the reader 

 with an exhaustless mine of illustration and example. 



J. K. L. 



MUIR'S "PRINCIPLES OF CHEMISTRY" 

 Principles of Chemistry. By M. M. Pattison Muir, 



(Cambridge University Press, 18S4.) 

 TOURING the last two decades chemistry has made, 

 ■L^ possibly, its greatest strides, and has unquestionably 

 drawn to itself a greater following of students in this 

 country than in any previous period. One result of that 

 has been a multiplication of text-books such as perhaps 

 no other science can show. This is only as it should be 

 in the case of a living and progressing science like 

 chemistry. But if one musters the style of text-book 

 produced during this period it becomes painfully doubtful 

 whether they as a whole have kept abreast of the mental 

 capacity which should have been, and undoubtedly has, 

 developed during this period. 



Chemistry is certainly a practical science, and that in a 

 very full acceptation of the term ; but at the same time it 

 has a history as a practical and especially as a theoretical 

 or mental study second to none, and the unsatisfactory 

 part of the majority of the text-books of modern date is 

 that this growth and development, and the invaluable 

 effect of this as a mental training, have been almost com- 

 pletely ignored. 



As mathematical men have been heard to say when 

 going through a course of chemical drudgery, " there 

 seems to be nothing but a lot of isolated facts to learn 

 up." And one cannot be surprised at the remark. The 

 text-books may be roughly divided into two sorts — those 

 of a dictionary character and those intended as an intro- 

 ductory or elementary teacher ; the former fulfil their 

 intention, which can scarcely be said of the latter, in 

 which the points of principal theoretical interest are 

 '' atomicity " and "atomic and molecular combination," 

 and various ways of writing "formulae." 



It is much to be feared that the teaching of the past few 

 years in this country in chemistry has assumed such an 

 intensely " practical" form that philosophical chemistry 

 has been left very much out in the cold. The numerous 

 examinations in which practical work is required has 

 i up, unfortunately, an army of " test tubers " and 

 crammers whose theoretical knowledge is of the slend- 

 erest. Without in the least wishing to underrate the 

 value of practical work, it does certainly appear, looking 

 inly at the chemical literature of the past few years, that 

 theoretical chemistry has to a great extent receded from 

 view in favour of practical, and that of a not verv thorough 

 kind. 



In the present book Mr. Muir has made up for the 

 lacking in our text-books, and has certainly rendered a 

 real service to the English student who aspires to be 

 something more than a mere test-tuber and writer of 

 graphic formulae. 



As the author informs us, the book is intended for 

 students who already have some elementary acquaintance 

 with the science, and is meant to give " a fairly complete 

 account of the present state of knowledge regarding the 

 principles and general laws of chemistry." And in this 

 the author has certainly succeeded ; for it may with 

 certainty be said that we have not a more comprehensive 

 work of the kind in the language. For although it does 

 not pretend to the rank of a Kopp, still it quite fills the 

 place in English chemical literature that Lothar Meyer's 

 " Modernen Chemie " does in the German, which latter 

 work, the author tells us, he has made "free use of." 



The subject-matter of the book is necessarily extensive, 

 and has beendivided into two main parts — Chemical Statics 

 and Chemical Kinetics. The historical method of treat- 

 ment adopted cannot fail to be appreciated by the real 

 student who aspires to be something more than a mere 

 recipient of dry facts. 



The chapter on Atomic and Molecular Systems and 

 on the Application of Physical Methods to Questions of 

 Chemical Statics, as well as that on Affinity, are con- 

 densations from all the most recent works on the subjects, 

 and are, as a rule, clear and concise. The references to 

 originals, &c, &c, are numerous, and the mechanical 

 errors throughout the work are surprisingly few. 



The book should be very useful to students training for 

 teachers, and who may not have the advantage of refer- 

 ence to original literature on the numerous subjects 

 treated of. 



OUR BOOK SHELF 



Einc Weltreise. Plaudereien cuts einer Zweijahrigen 



Erdituisceeluiie :■■>/! Dr. Hans Meyer. (Leipzig: 

 Verlag des Bibliographischen Instituts, 1S85.) 



This handsome volume is something more than the work 

 of a "globe-trotter," even of a very amusing " globe- 

 trotter." Dr. Meyer sailed down the Danube to Constan- 

 tinople, thence to Athens, Syria (where he visited Smyrna, 

 Beyrout, Damascus, and Jerusalem), Egypt, and by the 

 Red Sea to Bombay. He then travelled through Northern 

 India to Calcutta, and from Madras through Southern 

 India to Ceylon. The journey in the Far East included 

 Singapore, a considerable portion of Java, the Philip- 

 pines, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Japan. Thence he 

 reached the United States, through a "large part of which 

 he travelled, Mexico, Cuba, and so back to Europe. The 

 journey was more extensive than the usual modern 

 journey around the globe ; Java appears to have been 

 thoroughly visited, but the only place in which the work 

 displays any mark of originality is in the Philippines. 

 The scenes and experiences by the way are described 

 with much liveliness, but soon after his arrival in Manila 

 he made a journey into the northern mountainous regions 

 of Luzon, for the purpose of studying the Igorrotos and 

 other tribes having their habitat there. The story of the 

 journey, which occupied about three months, is full of 

 interest, and the ethnology of these tribes is discussed in 

 a special appendix. Prof. Blumentritt, the Austrian 

 scholar, who has devoted many years to the study 

 of the archipelago, especially to the vast Spanish litera- 

 ture of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries re- 

 lating to it, comes to the following conclusions on its 



