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Feb. 17, 1870| 
NATURE 
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/ 
and so clear in character that I can think and work for 
them.” 
“T do think that the study of natural science is so 
glorious a school for the mind, that with the laws im-_ 
pressed on all created things by the Creator and the 
wonderful unity and stability of matter and the forces of 
matter, there cannot be a better school for the education | 
of the mind.” 
his imagination,—as a man, truthfulness, kindness, and 
energy. He speaks also of the great influence of 
religion on his character. 
To form a complete conception of Faraday we must 
picture him calmly, patiently, and honestly asking questions 
of nature in his laboratory, and following up the intui- 
tions of his genius; now chatting with his friends in a 
| strain of kindly sympathy or genial playfulness, then 
BOOKSELLER'S SHOP IN BLANDFORD STREET WHERE FARADAY WAS APPRENTICED 
For giving us this correspondence we owe no small 
debt of gratitude to Dr. Bence Jones, who has also enriched | 
the biography by letters which Faraday received on | 
various occasions from many eminent men. In conclu- 
sion he enumerates what he conceives to be the chief 
characteristics of the subject of his memoir: as a philo- | 
sopher, the trust which he put in facts, and the power of 
giving forth the results of his own or others’ discoveries 
to large and rivetted audiences with perfect simplicity of 
thought and language ; experimenting before them with 
marvellous dexterity ; writing learned papers and invent- 
ing useful applications; but ever enriching mankind both 
by the wealth of his discoveries and the beauty of his 
example, J. H. GLADSTONE 
OUR BOOK SHELF 
Sorghum and its Products.—Ax Account of recent Inves- 
tigations concerning the Value of Sorghum in Sugar | 
Production, &c. &¢. By F. L. Stewart. (Lippencott : 
Philadelphia. 8vo. 1869. London: Triibner.) 
in 1854 into the United States from France, whither it 
had been carried from China. 
large scale and quite successfully, in North America. 
The little treatise now before us is intended as a manual 
for the manufacture of syrup and sugar from this plant: 
the author has divided his work into thirty chapters, | 
treating consecutively of the history and cultivation of the | 
sorghum, the extraction of sugar from it and the mode 
of utilising the various waste products obtained. 
Mr. Stewart’s manual may be read with interest, not 
only by manufacturers—who will find it most practically 
written—but by all who feel a pleasure in the success of 
economic chemistry. The author does not, however, 
carry his description so far as the final stage of a finished 
process. He seems to have contented himself with writing | 
merely for farmers of about 75 acres, and instructing them | 
how to prepare on their own land “a golden syrup, unex- 
celled either in colour or flavour by the best products of 
the refineries” (p. 153), or “a fair yellow sugar.” This is 
not the proper condition of a great national industry. The 
successful manufacture of sugar, indeed, can hardly be 
It is now grown on a | 
attained without the concentrated effort of a large capital, 
aided, even then, by considerable special knowledge. The 
class of cultivators described by the author would consult 
their own advantage by contenting themselves with the 
| humbler office of contributing the raw material. 
Mr. STEWART informs us that sorghum was introduced | 
Vegetable Essences.—Die Pflanzenstoffe in chemischer 
physiologischer, pharmakologischer, and _toxicolo- 
gischer Hinsicht. Bearbeitet von Dr. Aug. Husemann 
und Dr, Theod. Husemann. Erste Lieferung ; Bogen 
I—16. (Berlin; Springer, 1870, London: Williams 
and Norgate.) 
THE first section of an important work on those products 
of the vegetable kingdom which are of importance to the 
chemist, the physiologist, and the physician. These 
substances the MM. Husemann classify as follows :—A, 
Simple combinations ; (1) Bases or alkaloids ; (z) Acids, 
both those of general distribution and those of special 
development; (3) Neutral substances, with the same 
distinction. B, Compound substances ; (1) Volatile oils ; 
(2) Resins; (3) Fats. In each section the substances are 
arranged under the natural orders to which the plants 
belong ; and we have an account of their discovery, mode 
of preparation, properties, composition, products of 
decomposition, behaviour with various reagents, and 
physiological and toxological effects. The present part 
does not exhaust the alkaloids. A. W. B. 
