NARGRE 
475 

THURSDAY, JULY 1, 1015. 

PHYSICAL, CHEMICAL, AND 
ENGINEERING CONSTANTS. 
Tables Annuelles de Constantes et Données 
Numeriques de Chimie, de Physique et de 
Technologie. Volume ii., Année 1911. Pp. 
xl+759. Price 28s. 6d. net. Volume iii., 
Année 1912. Pp. lii+595. (Paris: Gauthier- 
Villars et Cie.; London: J. and A. Churchill, 
1914:) Price 28s. 6d. met. 
HESE volumes are a continuation of the 
new annual tables of physical, chemical, 
and engineering constants, the publication of 
which was commenced by an influential Inter- 
national Committee 1910; they contain the 
data for the years 1911 and 1912 abstracted from 
a very large number of scientific periodicals. One 
of their most commendable features that 
memoirs are not passed over even when their titles 
do not indicate them as sources of new constants. 
The abstractors have indeed no light task in 
the collection of the large amount of information 
constituting in a single volume the results of a 
year’s research by the laboratories of the entire 
world. While the basal language of the book is 
French, the preface, headings to the pages, and 
the excellent indexes are also printed in English, 
German, and Italian. 
When the first volume of these ‘Tables 
Annuelles” was published one was inclined to 
look forward with dismay to the prospect of 
being obliged when requiring a physical constant 
to search for it not only in some general book of 
tables, but in a series of volumes, increasing in 
number each year. But during the short time 
which has elapsed since their publication, they 
have become indispensable to every well-equipped 
science library, it being understood that their use 
is supplementary to that of one or more of the 
standard works of reference. It may be of 
interest to point out that since the issue of vol. 1. 
there have been published of works on physical 
constants the large work of the late Mr. Castell- 
Evans, the useful small book of Kaye and Laby, 
and the fine issued by the Société 
Francaise de Physique, edited by Profs. Abraham 
and Sacerdote; also a new edition of ‘ Landolt 
and Bornstein,” more bulky than ever, and two 
new editions of the well-known 
Tables, in the last of which the rather numerous 
printer’s errors occurring in its predecessor have 
been corrected. 
The two volumes under review bear signs that 
the experience gained by the compilers has enabled 
them to introduce a number of improvements, and 
NO. 2383, VOL. 95] 
in 
is 
volume 
Smithsonian 


a careful examination of the books has revealed 
only comparatively few errors. 
One of the latter is that experience with an 
electrically heated salt-bath, employing a mixture 
of KCl ‘and NaCl, indicated that Mr. Dutoit’s 
figures on page 518 of vol. ii. for the conduc- 
tivity of these mixtures at the higher ranges are 
given a hundredfold too great; Kx 10% at the 
head of the column should apparently. be K x 10°. 
The staggering statement on page 408 of the 
same volume that Cambridge tap water contains 
135 x 102 grams of radium per litre would, if true, 
delight the heart of many others besides Sir 
J. J. Thomson and Mr. Satterly. Obviously 10® 
should be 10-?. 
A list of a few other inaccuracies has been sent 
tothe compilers. In spite of these almost inevitable 
slips we have little fault to find with the volumes, 
the general usefulness of which is undoubted. 
In vol. ii. the division relating to spectroscopy, 
consisting of more than 150 pages, is unusually 
complete. No fewer than 30 pages are devoted 
to the Zeeman effect alone, while the results of the 
work of King, of Duffield, and of Rossi on the 
effect of pressure are tabulated in detail. 
In vol. iii. the ground covered seems to have 
been still further extended, large physiological 
and biochemical sections being added. It would 
not, however, be safe to presume that though one 
finds on page 488 ‘Lait—Densité 1:0270- 
110326” the heading a few pages later, ‘** Pro- 
priétés des Laitiers” (page 530), implies that 
the milkman also has been included. 
The volumes indicate how great is the progress 
now being made by research, and render much 
otherwise difficultly accessible material very gener- 
ally available. 
The compilers kindly offer in the preface to 
vol. iii. to place their services at the disposal of 
readers requiring further information as to data 
in periodicals to which they have not access. 
In view of the necessarily bulky character of 
these volumes an excellent innovation is the 
issuing of a number of the more important 
sections of vol. iii. in separate parts. A reader 
ean thus acquire the advantages of possessing 
the data on the portions in which he is specially 
interested, without being obliged to buy the 
whole work. 
In conclusion, we venture to hope that the idea 
of the committee of issuing every five years or 
so a critical suramary volume, in which an attempt 
will be made to sift out the wheat from the chaff 
and assess the relative value of the various 
discordant determinations, will not be lost sight 
The need for it becomes continually more 
J. A. Harker. 
T 
of. 
apparent. 
