A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



' ' To the solid ground 

 Of Nature trusts the mind which huihis for aye." — Wordsworth. 



THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1898. 



ANAL YTICAL CHEMISTR Y. 

 A Manual of Chemical Analysis, Qualitative and 



Quantitative. By G. S. Newth. Pp. 462. (London : 

 I Longmans, Green, and Co., 189S.) 

 \A Laboratory Guide in Qualitative Chemical Analysis. 

 ( By H. L. Wells, M.A. Pp. 180. (New York : Wiley 



and Sons. London : Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1898 ) 

 fi. Short Course in Inorganic Qualitative Analysis. By 

 I J. S. C. Wells, Ph.D. (New York : Wiley and Sons. 

 ' London : Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 189S.) 



IT is now becoming generally recognised that chemical 

 analysis is a subject that may be looked at, taught, 

 and practised in two ways — as an art, or as a science. 

 iNo doubt it should be both, and always has been both 

 'with chemists properly so-called ; but it is sad to think 

 ^f the time, trouble and money that have been expended 

 durin;j- the last thirty years in disseminating a smattering 

 pf the analytical art on the supposition that education and 

 jeven British industry would be thereby furthered. 

 ( The demand for a practical chemistry that could be 

 easily scheduled, that should not be too elaborate, and 

 that could be examined and controlled by sending out 

 packets of powders and getting back packets of papers, 

 pas contributed, doubtless, more than anything else to 

 the degradation of chemical analysis. At the same time 

 It must be admitted that chemical analysis as a science 

 'suffered seriously by the abolition of the ideas and nota- 

 tion of the dualistic theory. Before then the current 

 names and formulae were at leasti- consistent, and the 

 writing of equations could be conducted on compara- 

 tively simple general principles. Even now there are 

 ^probably few chemists who would calculate the oxidising 

 value of potassium permanganate in reference to ferrous 

 sulphate, otherwise than by dualistic conceptions and 

 formulae. The hopeless confusion arising over the old 

 terms acid, base and salt, and especially basic salt, in 

 their modern use, must be known to every teacher. 



To those who in recent years have protested against 

 chemical analysis as an introduction to practical science 

 I NO. '15 1 4, VOL. 59] 



it has been objected that analysis, when properly taught, 

 is a highly educative subject. But this has never been 

 disputed ; the point is that analysis is far too high a 

 science and too difficult an art for young boys, and that 

 a little proficiency in the art of "taking a solution 

 through the chart " has, practically speaking, been the 

 only attainable outcome of a positive kind, whilst the 

 habits of mind and manipulation usually engendered 

 have been lamentable. 



The tide is happily with the reformers, and the im- 

 provement that has taken place within the last ten years 

 in school science is one of the most remarkable and 

 gratifying of the numerous signs now evident that a 

 more rational and humane spirit is pervading British 

 education. 



For those who wish to make a serious study of 

 chemistry, chemical analysis has still to be taught, and 

 how to teach it best, is a question which may perplex the 

 most thoughtful teacher. The fundamental difficulty is 

 that there appears to be no thin end to the wedge. If 

 the subject is to be taught scientifically — that is to say, 

 if the reactions on which analysis is based are to be 

 elucidated as they arise — the student is at once thrust 

 into a thicket of ramifying facts in which he will find 

 his way with difficulty. Suppose he begin with the re- 

 actions of the silver group, he is at once among the 

 mercuramines ; should he begin at the other end, there 

 are the platinichlorides and acid tartrates. The student, 

 in fact, who is to learn analysis scientifically at the 

 first attempt, requires a fair knowledge of chemistry to 

 begin with. The choice lies between devising some 

 extended practical work, beyond the mere preparation of 

 gases, as a preliminary to analysis, or making the student, 

 as he might put it, " do analysis " more than once. In 

 the last case, the analytical operations are not com- 

 prehended to their inmost parts in first traversing the 

 course, but a preliminary survey is obtained, and the 

 student learns something, at least, about a great many 

 substances and reactions. It is, after all, something to 

 know the mere outside of things in chemistry. The 

 difficulty, however, is to secure the da capo or cud- 

 chewing process which is essential to the success of this 

 scheme. It is not easy to convince the half-informed of 



