May 11, 1899] 
NATURE 
27 
‘cheques signed by such members of the Executive 
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do so. 
Legal Proceedings. 
Any legal proceedings with regard to the affairs of the 
Institution, which it may become necessary to institute 
or defend, shall be instituted or defended by the Solicitors 
of the Royal Society, in the name and on behalf of the 
Royal Society upon the instructions of the Executive 
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or defended without the order of the President and 
‘Council of the Royal Society. 
The Kew Observatory Committee of the Royal Society. 
“The Kew Observatory Committee of the Royal 
Society,” incorporated under the Companies Act, 1867, 
shall be wound up; and the property thereof shall be 
held by the Royal Society for the purposes of the 
Institution. 
CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY. 
Outlines of Industrial Chemistry. A Text-book for 
Students. By Frank Hall Thorp, Ph.D., Instructor 
in Industrial Chemistry in the Massachusetts Institute 
of Technology. Pp. xx +541. (New York: The 
Macmillan Co. London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 
1898.) 
N writing a book such as the present, the author’s 
main difficulty must be in deciding what to omit. 
The number of industries in which chemistry plays a 
more or less important part is so large, and their nature 
so varied, that it would appear to be almost impossible 
to give even a moderately satisfactory account of them 
within the limits of one volume. By omitting metallurgy 
altogether, and condensing the preparation of the arti- 
ficial organic dye-stuffs into a little over eight pages, the 
author succeeds in finding space for the essentials of the 
majority of the remaining chemical industries. The 
omission of metallurgy is justified by the facts that this 
subject is usually taught independently, and that several 
good short text-books dealing with it already exist. The 
hemistry of the artificial organic colouring matters is 
generally included in courses of lectures on organic 
chemistry, and, presumably for similar reasons, no men- 
tion is made of the majority of the pharmaceutical and 
photographic chemicals. 
An introductory section contains a general account of 
the apparatus employed in performing such common 
Operations as evaporation, filtration, distillation, cal- 
cining, and so on, on the large scale. The diagram- 
matic sketches employed in this section, and throughout 
the book, are very clear and are calculated to be of 
much more service to a student than elaborate illustra- 
tions of the outside of the apparatus or even complicated 
working drawings would be. The two cuts on pp. 12 and 
13, representing filter-presses, might with advantage have 
been replaced by diagrams. 
After a brief account of the main facts about fuels and 
water, the different chemical industries are considered, 
about equal space being devoted to those dealing with 
norganic and those dealing with organic substances. 
The accounts of the origin and properties of the raw 
materials, and of the different operations and transform- 
ations through which they pass on their way to the 
finished products, are clear and concise ; in most cases 
the author has succeeded admirably in subordinating 
NO. 1541, VOL. 60] 
mere detail whilst bringing out clearly the essential factors 
on which the success of the process depends. 
The treatment of some of the more recent develop- 
ments of technical chemistry is not quite so satisfactory 
as that accorded to the older industries ; the account of 
the electrolytic processes for the preparation of alkalis 
and chlorine being perhaps the least satisfactory chapter 
in the book. The author of a work on industrial 
chemistry is, of course, hampered to some extent by the 
natural and inevitable reticence of the inventors of new 
processes ; but, even allowing for this, the chapter might 
have been improved by a wider acquaintance with the 
recent literature of the subject. This, in passing, is true, 
though to a less extent, of the chapter dealing with the 
cyanide industry in which so much progress has been 
made of late years. 
In speaking of the Deacon chlorine process, on p. 99, 
the author remarks that since the reaction between hydro- 
chloric acid and oxygen evolves heat, the temperature 
of the tower in which the reaction occurs should 
“theoretically” be maintained without further heating, 
but that this is not the case. In reality, of course, the 
whole thing depends on the relation between the amount 
of heat evolved by the chemical change and that lost by 
radiation, convection, and conduction. He goes on to 
say :— 
“Theoretically, too, all the chlorine of the hydro- 
chloric acid should be recovered, but practically the 
reaction is far from complete.” 
Since it is well known that the reaction 
2HCl + O = H,O + 2Cl 
is reversible, an equilibrium must tend to be estab- 
lished ; this equilibrium will not be displaced by the 
presence of a catalytic agent (which merely accelerates 
the velocity with which the equilibrium is approached), 
so that the practical result is only in disaccord with the 
incorrect theory. 
These are, however, but minor blemishes in a book 
which attains a very high average of excellence. We 
are not acquainted with any other book in English which 
covers the same ground, and there is no doubt that it 
will prove to be of great service to all persons interested 
in technical chemistry, and more especially to the students 
and teachers to whom it most directly appeals. T. E. 
VOLCANOES. 
Volcanoes: thety Structure and Significance. By T. G. 
Bonney, D.Sc., LL.D., F.R.S., Professor of Geology at 
University College, London. Pp. 337. With 12 Plates, 
a Map, and 21 Illustrations in the Text. “ The Progres- 
sive Science Series.” (London: John Murray. New 
York : G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1899.) 
N this work the author has succeeded in giving, 
within convenient limits, a clear and very readable 
account of the present state of vulcanological science. 
The work is not burdened with scientific details nor 
made unattractive by a too technical terminology ; but it 
nevertheless contains a trustworthy discussion of the 
most recent researches of geologists, and their latest 
views upon questions connected with these very interest- 
ing natural phenomena. 
The first chapter, entitled ‘The life-history of vol- 
