124 



NATURE 



[June 8, 1905 



Hoff proved how far he was prepared to go in accept- 

 ing organic changes as the result of changes of the 

 earth's surface. Side by side with a progressive de- 

 velopment of the surface-features, he saw the necessity 

 for a transformation in the nature of the organic 

 world. The quotation given on p. 134 may not imply 

 so much as Dr. Reich reads into it ; but we are 

 grateful to him for setting before us the absolute 

 mental pre-eminence of von Hoff in the world of 

 Continental geologists of his day, and the fact that, 

 from one cause or another, no conception of his great- 

 ness and originality can be gained from the historical 

 risume of Lyell, with which all English readers are 

 familiar. G. A. J. C. 



MINE AIR. 

 The Investigation of Mine Air. By Sir C. Le Neve 

 Foster, F.R.S., and Dr. J. S. Haldane, F.R.S. 

 Pp. xii+191; illustrated. (London: Charles Griffin 

 and Co., Ltd., 1905.) Price 6s. net. 



SINCE the Hon. Robert Boyle published in 1671 

 his essays on " The Temperature of the Subter- 

 ranean Regions " and on " The Strange Subtilty of 

 Effluviums," and Athanasius Kirscher devoted a chap- 

 ter of his " Mundus Subterraneus " (1678) to the occur- 

 rence of inflammable gas in the Herrengrund copper 

 mines, there has been a constant succession of memoirs 

 dealing with the gases met with in mines. The latest 

 addition to the series, by making accessible the results 

 of German, French, and British investigations, should 

 do much to add to the knowledge of the composition 

 of mine gases and of their influence on human life. A 

 large portion of the work was left in manuscript by Sir 

 Clement Le Neve Foster at the time of his death, and 

 such revision as was necessary has been undertaken by 

 Dr. J. S. Haldane, who has added a section of great 

 value, embodying a description of rapid methods of 

 analysis that he himself has devised and an essay on 

 the interpretation of mine-air analyses in the light of 

 recent investigations. 



The book is of a composite nature. The first section 

 is a translation of the introductory treatise on mine-air 

 analysis by Prof. O. Brunck, of the Freiberg School of 

 Mines. The second section is a translation of a paper 

 by Mr. Lton Poussigue on the measurement of air 

 currents and fire damp at the fiery Ronchamp collieries, 

 the deepest mines in France. The third and longest 

 part contains a summary of Dr. Haldane 's work on the 

 examination of mine air. As an appendix is added a 

 detailed account, from Sir Clement Le Neve Foster's 

 reports to the Home Secretary, of the effects of 

 carbonic o.xide in connection with the Snaefell mine 

 disaster in the Isle of Man in 1S97. Sir Clement's 

 exposure to carbonic oxide during the recovery of the 

 bodies of the miners killed was the starting-point of 

 the illness that ultimately proved fatal. 



The methods of analysis for mine gases described by 

 Prof. Brunck are simple, and in no respect less accu- 

 rate than the most delicate methods of exact gas 

 analysis. The fulness of the instructions and the sim- 

 plicity of the methods should induce mining engineers 

 to practise gas analysis and to regard it as an impor- 

 NO. 1858, VOL. 72] 



tant guide to the safet\' of the workings placed under 

 their charge. 



Since November, 1891, a special department has been 

 organised at the Ronchamp collieries for the purpose of 

 determining the proportion of fire-damp in the work- 

 ings. The Le Chatelier combustion apparatus is em- 

 ployed, and an assistant makes two hundred deter- 

 minations a day. 



In the third section the methods of determining 

 oxygen, carbonic anhydride, nitrogen, and fire damp 

 described by Dr. Haldane well fulfil the practical re- 

 quirements of being very accurate and rapid. His 

 method of obtaining and transporting samples of mine 

 air in two-ounce stoppered bottles is trustworthy and 

 much more convenient than Poussigue's method of 

 using a i^-litre bottle, or Winkler's method of using 

 a lo-litre sheet-zinc vessel recommended by Brunck. 

 One cannot help thinking that in the latter case pro- 

 longed storage in a zinc vessel would have an effect 

 on the composition of the gas. In Dr. Haldane's dry 

 bottles no sensible alteration of the contained sample 

 occurs within a fortnight or more. His method of 

 gas analysis is similar to that originally described by 

 him in the Journal of Physiology in 1898 ; and he now 

 describes for the first time a portable apparatus, en- 

 closed in a wooden case measuring 7 by 12 by 2 J inches 

 and weighing 551b., by means of which accurate de- 

 terminations may be made, on the spot underground, of 

 various impurities in the air. He also describes a con- 

 venient method of determining the quantity of stone- 

 dust in the air of working places in metalliferous 

 mines. The disastrous effects produced by the habitual 

 inhalation of air containing stone-dust are now gener- 

 ally recognised. The air of an " end " or " rise " just 

 after blasting contains large quantities of dust, and the 

 men ought not to return until there is less than i milli- 

 gram in 10 litres of air. The average air of a 

 " stope " where men are working should not yield any 

 weighable dust in that quantity of air. 



Obviously a complete analysis of mine air is useless 

 unless the significance of the results is understood. 

 The chapter on the interpretation of mine-air analyses 

 is consequently of far-reaching importance. Dr. Hal- 

 dane advocates the use of the convenient term " black 

 damp " for the nitrogen and carbonic anhydride. It 

 is the gaseous residue resulting from the slow oxidising 

 action of air on oxidisable substances in a mine. It is 

 very commonly confused with carbonic anhydride, but 

 it really consists chiefly of nitrogen. Black-damp, 

 which was nothing but pure nitrogen, was described by 

 Mr. H. A. Lee (Proc. Colorado Scientific Society, vol. 

 vii., p. 163, 1904) as occurring in a metalliferous mine 

 in Colorado. A useful section on the effects of air im- 

 purities on men concludes part iii. Much of the infor- 

 mation in this part has already been published by Dr. 

 Haldane in Home Office reports and in papers read 

 before the Institution of Mining Engineers ; but an 

 authoritative summary of the results arrived at is a 

 welcome addition to technical literature. 



The book, which was originally intended for Le Neve 

 Foster's students at the Royal School of Mines, should 

 prove invaluable, not only to mining engineers at col- 

 lieries, but also to those engaged in metalliferous mines. 



B. H. B. 



