June 6, 1907J 



NA TURE 



12- 



?H\S10L0CACAL CHEMISTRY. 

 Practical Physiological Chemistry; Junior Course: 

 Senior Course. By R. H. Aders Plimmtr. Pp. 55 

 and S3. Privately printed, n.d. 

 " 'T^HIS book lias been compiled as a handbook for 

 -L practical work in Physiological Chemistry at 

 Univcrsitv College. Much use has been made of the 

 books by Milrov, Cole, Halliburton, Hofmeister and 

 others, from which some pages have been adapted 

 almost in their entirety." 



The foregoing quotation from the preface shows 

 that the work makes no attempt at originality. It 

 is mainly a compilation from various sources of what 

 a teacher considers most suitable in his own classes. 

 Every teacher has his own ideas as to what a student 

 in physiological chemistry should perform for him- 

 self ; if any other teacher were to adopt Dr. Aders 

 Plimmer's book as a guide in his practical classes, 

 one anticipates that he would modify the arrange- 

 ment, adding here, omitting there, and in still other 

 places transposing parts from the junior to the 

 senior course, and vice versd. The line between a 

 junior and senior class is always difficult to draw, 

 and every teacher has his own ideas as to what 

 should be placed on either side of the line. 



The book, from another point of view, is, how- 

 ever, different from all others hitherto published, for 

 it includes the pure organic chemistry necessary for 

 the understanding of the chemical problems of the 

 physiologist and medical man. One of the difficul- 

 ties of medical education to-day is the ever-increasing 

 scope of the preliminarv sciences, and the deciding 

 as to how much of each is to be crowded within the 

 few years of the curriculum. Science grows, but the 

 years devoted to its study still have only 365 days 

 each. The question is becoming an acute one as to 

 which parts of each science the pruning knife must 

 be applied. In the University of London, chemistry 

 always has been, and still is, specially insistent on its 

 claims ; it has, moreover, been successful in obtain- 

 ing an additional six months in the time devoted to 

 it over and above the year that physics and biology 

 are satisfied with. It is for this reason that so many 

 teachers are anxious to see chemistry as a preliminary 

 science cut down to the single year's work which 

 suffices for the other subjects. Unfortunately, in 

 many instances lecturers on chemistry, not having 

 themselves had a medical training, know but little 

 of what the students of medicine really need, and 

 teach the subject as though their pupils hoped to be 

 expert chemists. Such teachers point out the import- 

 ance of chemistry as a groundwork of much that 

 follows later in the course, but lose sight of the fact 

 that a student has not done with chemistry when he 

 passes his preliminary examination in science ; he 

 has later on in his studies to consider chemistry in 

 its applications to both physiology and pathology. 



In these circumstances it is not to be wondered at 

 that the teachers of other subjects which have a more 

 direct bearing on the study of medicine are urging 

 that if the work of the pure chemist is limited to 

 the one year, which they regard as ample for the 

 NO. 1962, VOL. 76] 



learning of the groundwork, the superstructure will 

 later on have to include more physiological chemistry 

 diluted to a suitable degree with those parts- of 

 organic chemistry which are absolutely necessary for 

 its comprehension. As an earnest of what can be 

 done with this object in view. Dr. Plimmer's book 

 should meet with a hearty welcome. 



VV. D. H. 



CEMENT AND CONCRETE. 



(i) Portland Cement: its Composition, Raw Materials, 

 Manufacture, Testing, and Analysis. By Richard 

 K. Meade. Pp. viii + 385. (Easton, Pa. : The 

 Chemical Publishing Co., 1906.) Price 14s. 6d. 

 net. 

 (2) Reinforced Concrete. By C. F. Marsh and W. 

 Dunn. Third edition, revised and enlarged. Pp. 

 vii-l-654. (London : Archibald Constable and Co.,. 

 Ltd., 1906.) Price 315. 6d. net. 

 (i) 'T^HE author is chemist to the Dexter Portland 

 -I- Cement Co., and the analytical methods de- 

 scribed have all been used to some extent in his labor- 

 atory. The treatise is a second edition of a small 

 manual, published some four years ago, on the 

 chemical and physical examination of Portland 

 cement. In preparing this new edition, a considera- 

 able amount of fresh matter dealing with the manu- 

 facture of Portland cement has been added. The first 

 two chapters, which form an introduction to the book, 

 are devoted to the history of the development of the 

 Portland cement industry in America; the growth in 

 the total consumption, and the growth in the con- 

 sumption per head of population, have both increased 

 in a remarkable degree during the last sixteen years — 

 in 1890 the total production in the United States was 

 335,000 barrels, and by 1904 this had increased to 

 more than 26J million barrels ; but even in that year 

 the consumption was in excess of the domestic pro- 

 duction, and more than two million barrels had to be 

 imported. 



In the next section of the book, chapters iii. to 

 viii., a comprehensive and complete account is given 

 of the processes of manufacture; the raw materials 

 are described in detail, and much information is given 

 as to the localities in the States in which they are 

 found, and one of the chapters is devoted entirely to 

 the subject of quarrying and excavating the raw 

 materials. In dealing with kilns and the burning of 

 the raw materials, modern rotary kilns are described ; 

 this chapter will be found a very valuable one for 

 reference purposes ; the thermochemistry of the 

 calcining is discussed in a very exhaustive manner. 

 In connection with the description of the process of 

 grinding, Mr. Meade not only explains the construc- 

 tion and working of the various ball and tube mills, 

 which are now generally employed, but he gives plans 

 and sections of the complete equipment of a modern 

 Portland cement plant on the wet process plan and 

 also on the dry process plan, with notes as to the 

 cost of plant and manufacture. 

 The next section treats of the analytical methods 



