r.6 



NA TURE 



\Aiigitst 12, 1880 



OUR BOOK SHELF 



Alpliahetlcal Manual of Blowpipe Analysis. By Lieut.- 



Col. W. A. Ross. (London : Triibner and Co., 18S0.) 

 Of late years the blowpipe has been very little used in 

 practical chemistry. It has been felt that efficiency in 

 qualitative analysis is not the final aim of the chemist ; 

 and this branch of chemical art has been more and more 

 relegated to the position of an instrument for examination 

 purposes. 



There is however little doubt that a thorough training 

 in qualitative analysis — such a course, for instance, as is 

 furnished by Mr. Dittmar's manual — is of much service 

 to the learner of chemistry ; but even here the methods 

 uhich are of most general application are founded on 

 reactions "in the wet way." 



The blowpipe, however, is beginning to reassert its 

 claims to the favourable recognition of the chemical 

 mineralogist. The little book in which Col. Ross con- 

 denses the results of his own and others' work is well 

 calculated to advance these claims. 



No regular course of analysis is given in this book 

 beyond an outline of a method for classifying minerals 

 for blowpipe examination, and an account of the Freiberg 

 scheme of qualitative analysis of minerals. But under 

 such headings as "Alloys," "Minerals," "Phosphoric 

 Acid Reagent," &c., most useful information is presented 

 to the worker in tabulated form. The table of " Reactions 

 of ordinary Oxides at one View" is also useful. 



Any mineralogist who has acquired some command of the 

 blowpipe and has a fair elementary knowledge of chemistrj' 

 must find this work of service to him ; it contains in a small 

 ■compass almost all that is required to be known in order 

 to study the composition of minerals by " pyrological '' 

 reactions. Very many of the reactions described by Col. 

 Ross are not to be found in other books. Not a few of 

 his statements are opposed to generally-accepted facts. 

 He gives a flat contradiction to the statement made in the 

 text-books, that most metallic oxides are soluble in boric 

 acid, or boron trioxide, at a red heat, whilst of course 

 admitting their solubility in fusing borax ; indeed he bases 

 his system of blowpipe examination, or pyrology, to a 

 large extent, on the non-solubility of metallic oxides in 

 this reagent. 



As is often the case with one who has undoubtedly ad- 

 vanced any branch of scientific work. Col. Ross is too 

 ready to value his favourite method more highly than it 

 deserves. Thus he is inclined to regard the blowpipe as 

 "a more delicate analytical weapon than the spectro- 

 scope," and thinks that by its use he has proved that 

 the production of D-lines is not always due to sodium ! 



U.S. Coast and Geodetic Siir-iiey. Pacific Coast Pilot. 

 Coasts and Islands of Alaska. Appendix 1. Meteoro- 

 logy and Bibliography. By W. H. Dall. (Washington, 

 1879.) 

 The complicated title of this large quarto volume gives 

 very little idea of the nature and value of its contents. In 

 the first sentence ofthcLetter of Transmission we meet with 

 a new and amusing use of an old enough English phrase, 

 when Mr. Dall coolly informs the superintendent of the 

 Survey that he has " the honour to tu) n in the results of 

 an inquiry into the meteorology of Alaska and the 

 adjacent regions." The results of which Mr. Dall speaks 

 in this irreverent manner must have cost him stupendous 

 labour ; indeed they might very well have taken years of 

 research by a small international staff of inquirers. The 

 publication comprises an abstract or summary of all 

 accessible meteorological material relating to the district 

 in question ; both of that which has been published and 

 is widely scattered through numerous proceedings, annuals, 

 and transactions of learned societies, buried in periodicals 

 in the Russian and other languages, and otherwise diffi- 

 cult of access ; and also of a very large amount of 



unpublished material from the archives of the U.S. Coast 

 Survey, the ^Medical Department of the U.S. Army, the 

 U.S. Signal Service, and numerous contributions from 

 private sources. With the abstracts are included the 

 fullest references to the sources from which the materials 

 are derived, and all the data which could be obtained as 

 to the conditions of observation. The list of charts, 

 maps, and publications relating to Alaska and the neigh- 

 bouring regions, and occupying something like 200 quarto 

 pages, is a wonderful piece of well-arranged work, and 

 must prove valuable for many purposes besides that for 

 which it has been immediately compiled. The volume 

 also contains charts representing the monthly and annual 

 means of temperature and pressure, graphic figures of 

 the direction of the winds at each locality, and of the 

 annual curves of pressure, precipitation, and temperature. 

 Mr. Dall probably knows more about the region to which 

 this volume refers than any other man living, and is able 

 from his own observations and experience to contribute 

 greatly to the value of his report. Altogether this is one 

 of the most creditable of the many creditable scientific 

 publications of the United States, and Mr. Dall is evi- 

 dently one of the most valuable scientific servants of that 

 Government. We hope, both for the good of the States 

 and the interests of science, that he will be aftbrded 

 every facility for utilising his exceptional ability as a 

 scientific observer. 



The Tree Planter. By Samuel Wood, Author of " Good 



Gardening." 

 Tlie Tree Primer. By the same Author. (London : 



Crosby Lockwood and Co., 1880.) 

 These two books form Nos. 209 and 210 of Weale's 

 Rudimentary Series. Considering the numerous books 

 Mr. Wood has written, the titles of which are set forth 

 on the first pages of the little volumes before us, it is 

 clear the author is suffering from a continued attack of 

 Cacoethes scribcndi. Agreeing with the author, for the 

 sake of argument, that there was a real necessity for 

 the information he desires to impart, we cannot see 

 why the matter contained in the two books should not 

 have been combined in one, for the subjects of pro- 

 pagation and pruning are so closely associated that 

 they would have gone better together rather than being 

 separated ; besides which a good deal of useless repetition 

 would have been saved. Writing in the first book of 

 what the author calls plants of the " Hibiscus Class — the 

 Altheea frutex" he says they are " deciduous shrubs of 

 great beauty, comparable to carnations on trees." In the 

 second book, under the head of "The Hibiscus," it is 

 said — " These plants are among our most beautiful 

 flowering shrubs ; many of them will compare with the 

 carnation." As an illustration of the author's method of 

 imparting botanical knowledge, we will quote only two 

 paragraphs from the article on the holly. He says — 

 " There are a great many varieties of the holly, and 

 nearly all of them are natives of Great Britain. There is 

 also one commonly called knee holly, which is not a holly 

 at all. The holly belongs to the natural order Aqiii- 

 foliacecr, while the knee holly, or Ruscus aculcaius, 

 belongs to the natural order Liliacea, i.e., flowers 

 resembling a diminutive lily, while the flowers of the 

 former belong to a class quite different, Linn, class 4, 

 and order 3, the latter having 6 stamens and i style. 



" Aquifoliacere conveys no idea of the class, but simply 

 refers to the plant belonging to those with prickly leaves. 

 This being the case, I am disposed to look upon the term 

 ' Aquifoliacea: ' as misleading, because there are some 

 other genera possessing prickly leaves, and some hollies 

 that have leaves with no prickles, and in the case of the 

 Ruscus, which has prickly leaves, it may be and is called 

 a holly, while it is of another genus." It is impossible to 

 comment on this. The author may be practical, but he is 

 not scientific. 



