NATURE 



[October 24, 1912 



and (4) drj'ing:, and, moreover, that the shrinkage 

 in width may amount to 30 to 40 per cent., this 

 accomphshment is Httle short of marvellous. It 

 is accomplished by a single machine, but this has 

 a length of 50 to 60 metres. The material can be 

 coloured and embossed in a very effective way, as 

 is shown by a series of seven samples enclosed 

 with the volume. Experiments are also described 

 on cellulose acetate, which serves, amongst other 

 purposes, as an excellent material for insulating 

 the wire of galvanometers and other instruments 

 in which its extreme thinness gives it a marked 

 advantage. 



(3) Mr. Pope's book on modern research in 

 organic chemistry is one of those useful sum- 

 maries of research work that have formed a con- 

 spicuous feature of recent publications. The sub- 

 jects selected are the polymethylenes, terpenes and 

 camphors, the uric acid group, the alkaloids, 

 colour and constitution, salt-formation, pseudo- 

 acids and bases, the pyrones, ketenes, ozonides and 

 triphenylmethyl and the Grignard reaction. The 

 work has been well and thoroughly done, and full 

 Isibliographies are given. The book will therefore 

 be of considerable service both to honours students 

 and to teachers who are not able to acquire com- 

 plete series of the journals in which original papers 

 are published, but will be glad to place this book 

 upon their shelves. 



(4) The " -Second "^'ear Course of Organic 

 Chemistry " deals with the carbocyclic compounds, 

 and does not differ very widely in its treatment 

 from other books of a similar type. Some of its 

 most valuable features are found in the appen- 

 dices, which contain a scheme for qualitative 

 organic analysis and tables of physical constants, 

 suitable for use in identifying organic compounds. 



(5) This little book covers a course of elemen- 

 tary chemistry which should be completed in two 

 years by a class working two hours a week. It 

 is based upon the report presented at the New- 

 castle-upon-Tyne meeting of the British Associa- 

 tion by the committee formed to investigate the 

 methods of teaching chemistry. The author claims 

 to have been one of the first to put the suggestions 

 of that committee to a complete practical test in 

 the • laboratory. He has found it advantageous 

 to short-circuit the heuristic method in its strictly 

 historical form, and thus finds a proof of the 

 presence of oxygen in lime by direct combustion 

 of metallic calcium. In one respect he has broken 

 away from a hoary tradition, and in reconstructing 

 Lavoisier's decomposition of the oxide of mercury 

 has provided a spirit-lamp as a source of heat in 

 place of the Bunsen burner usually introduced into 

 the picture. It is unfortunate that he should have 

 introduced the terms monoxide and dioxide before 



NO. 2243, VOL. 90] 



the significance of these terms can be explained ; 

 as a matter of historical treatment the anachronism 

 may be pardoned in a book that does not profess 

 to teach history, but there would be a great logical 

 advantage in using in place of "carbon dioxide'' 

 one of the earlier names, "fixed air," "carbonic 

 acid gas," or "carbonic anhydride." 



(6) The " First Year's Course of Chemistry " is 

 arranged in such a way that the experimental work 

 of each lesson occupies the earlier part of each 

 chapter, and is followed by a discussion of the 

 results of the experiments. This system, which 

 has been adopted in at least one other class-book 

 of chemistry, possesses obvious advantages in 

 actual practice, as it agrees with the system fol- 

 lowed in the laboratory. The course is intended 

 to occupy a single session, with an allowance of 

 three or four hours per week on the time-table, 

 and covers much the same ground as the volume 

 noted in the preceding paragraph, the direct com- 

 bustion of calcium being used here also to prove 

 the nature of lime. 



(7) The Tutorial " Elementary Quantitative 

 Analysis " describes the simplest forms of gravi- 

 metric and volumetric analysis. A conspicuous 

 feature of the book is the introduction of a large 

 number of problems as variants on the usual direct 

 analyses. These resemble closely the problems set 

 in recent examinations, and will doubtless serve to 

 brace the student to face the ordeal of a practical 

 test in quantitative analysis. 



(8) The text-book on chemical theory and cal- 

 culations is primarily intended to provide a series 

 of numerical examples of the different types of 

 calculations that are likely to occur in a course of 

 chemistry. The text is confined almost entirely 

 to stating the theories and describing the ap- 

 paratus involved in the problems, but some half- 

 dozen chapters have been included which deal with 

 subjects, such as the periodic classification of the 

 elements, which do not lend themselves to 

 numerical exercises. T. M. L. 



OUR BOOKSHELF. 



Handbook of the Technique of the Teat and Capil- 

 lary Glass Tube, and its Applications in Medi- 

 cine and Bacteriology. By Sir A. E. Wright, 

 F.R.S. Pp. xvi + 202. (London: Constable 

 and Co., Ltd., 1912.) Price los. 6d. net. 

 In this book Sir Almroth Wright gives a full 

 account of the ingenious apparatus and methods 

 which he and his co-workers have evolved for 

 making quantitative estimations, principally in 

 connection with the blood and other body fluids. 

 It is generally not possible in this kind of work 

 to deal with quantities greater than a small frac- 

 tion of a cubic centimetre, and therefore ordinary 

 graduated pipettes and measures are not applic- 

 able. It is true that graduated pipettes to deal 



