April 



1909] 



NA TURE 



215 



day, and which are due, in the first place, to the 

 enormous extent and variety of the animal kingdom, 

 and in the second place to the many different points 

 of view from which the subject may be approached. 

 No elementary book can deal adequately with the 

 entire field. In the present work, for example, the 

 problem of heredity, which is of vital importance to 

 medical students, is dealt with in a single page, while 

 five pages are devoted to a general account of the 

 Coleoptera. We should have thought that the medical 

 student would have found the former altogether in- 

 suflficient and the latter superfluous, and that a 

 forestry student would require to know far more about 

 beetles than can be compressed into five pages. Prob- 

 ably the latter studies entomology later on as a special 

 subject, but if so it seems hardly necessary to attempt 

 to deal with it systematically in his preliminary 

 course. 



We have already realised in our own country that 

 systematic zoology, as such, is of very little use to 

 medical students, and there can be no doubt that the 

 insistence, in former years, upon an unnecessary 

 degree of intimacy with the animal kingdom has 

 done much to discredit the subject in the eyes of the 

 medical profession, and has brought about a reaction 

 which threatens to remove both zoology and botany 

 from the medical curriculum. This, of course, would 

 be a disastrous error. Medical studies must have a 

 scientific foundation. The human body cannot be 

 rationally interpreted e.xcept as the last link in a long 

 chain of animal forms stretching back to the Pro- 

 tozoa. If the study of anatomy and embryology is 

 to be inspiring it must be comparative. Scientific 

 physiology must be founded on some knowledge of 

 the lower animals, and the problems of heredity 

 cannot be solved from the merely medical point of 

 view. The zoology which is offered to medical 

 students needs to be rigidly selected with such ends 

 in view, and in this way only can the matter to be 

 studied be kept within reasonable limits. In the book 

 before us we cannot help feeling that the distinguished 

 author has been unable to do justice either to himself 

 or to his subject, but at the same time it is evident 

 that his work has met with much appreciation in 

 Germany. The numerous and excellent illustrations 

 form a striking feature of the book. A. D. 



SOME NEW CHEMICAL BOOKS. 

 (i) An Organic Chemistry for Schools and Technical 

 Institutes. By A. E. Dunstan. Pp. viii+i6o. 

 (London : Methuen and Co., n.d.) Price 2s. 6d. 



(2) An Intermediate Course of Laboratory Work in 

 Chemistry. By E. K. Hanson and J. W. Dodgson. 

 Pp. viii-l-124. (London : Longmans, Green and 

 Co., igoS.) Price 3s. 6d. 



(3) Laboratory Notes on Industrial Water Analysis. 

 A Survey Course for Engineers. By Ellen H. 

 Richards. Pp. iii + 49. (New York: John Wiley 

 and Sons; London : Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1908.) 

 Price 2s. net. 



(i) A/T R- DUNSTAN'S organic chemistry is intended 

 i'^-l for the use of the higher forms of schools and 

 as a first-year course in technical institutions. 

 NO. 2()6o, VOL. 80] 



.Although the author disclaims writing to a syllabus, 

 he thinks his book may be useful as a preparation 

 for certain examinations, and especially for evening 

 students connected with chemical industry. There are 

 so many elementary text-books of organic chemistry 

 at present available that one naturally looks for some 

 special feature which may distinguish one from 

 another. In the present case the fusion of the aliphatic 

 and aromatic series is a somewhat new departure. 

 .\s systems of classification of organic compounds are 

 mainly matters of convenience, it is questionable 

 whether any real advantage is offered by the new 

 arrangement. The parent hydrocarbons of the two 

 series, as well as the majority of their derivatives, 

 present such marked differences in properties that 

 their separation seems to us almost a natural one. 

 The new system has, however, no serious significance, 

 and does not detract from the sound merits of the 

 book, which is clearly written, and illustrated by 

 numerous experiments and plain outline drawings of 

 apparatus. 



We would direct the author's attention to a few 

 inaccuracies. The definition of organic chemistry as 

 " the chemistry of compound radicals " (p. 17) belongs 

 rather to the past than to the present ; it is not quite 

 correct to sav that Russian petroleum contains no 

 parafiins (p. 79) ; the explanation of specific rotation 

 is misleading (p. 98) ; the formula for copper acetylide 

 is incorrect (p. 109), and there is something wrong 

 about the two formulae for sodium ethyl malonate 

 numbered (i) and (2) on p. 117, which seem to be iden- 

 tical. The two space formulae for d- and /-tartaric 

 acids are not enantiomorphous but identical, and repre- 

 sent the vieso-form, whilst the one on the following 

 page, which is intended for the nieso-acid, is in reality 

 one of the active forms (p. 124). The differences are 

 most easily recognised by means of models. Acetoxime 

 is twice spelt wrongly on p. 148. 



(2) Messrs. Hanson and Dodgson's intermediate 

 course is intended for students preparing for the inter- 

 mediate science examination of the London Univer- 

 sity. It consists of series of simple preparations of 

 inorganic and organic compounds, which are followed 

 bv exercises in volumetric and gravimetric analysis and 

 qualitative analysis. There is little that calls for criti- 

 cism. The preparations are well selected, and cover 

 a variety of operations and reactions, and the analytical 

 exercises are thoroughly representative and instructive. 



If it were not " assumed throughout that the student 

 is not working by himself, but can obtain the advice 

 and assistance of a teacher at all times," one might 

 feel disposed to suggest the addition of equations to 

 explain the different preparations, and of some refer- 

 ence to the use of the balance and the graduation of 

 the volumetric apparatus. 



We would also suggest that the yield in each pre- 

 paration should be roughly estimated. 



It is scarcely correct to describe acetone as a pale 

 yellow liquid (p. 29), or the acid from olive oil as a 

 solid (p. 30). 



Photography applied to glass apparatus is rarely 

 satisfactory. Simple outline or shaded drawings are 

 much more convincing, and the '.eacher, it is to be 



