lOO 



NA TURE 



[June 4, [896 



largest number of miners. At the same time it must be 

 remembered that, as the miners are not spread uniformly 

 over any of the counties, the actual density of the mining 

 population can never be accurately shown on such a map. 

 The total value of the minerals raised in each county is 

 approximately indicated on another coloured map ; and 

 there are also maps showing the output, according to 

 counties, of coal, iron-ores, lead-ores, and zinc-ores. The 

 statistical maps and diagrams, which add greatly to the 

 value of the Report, have been prepared mainly, we 

 believe, by Mr. J. H. Jordan, whose experience in dealing 

 with mineral statistics has extended over nearly forty 

 years. 



.Among the diagrams is one showmg graphically the 

 annual output of coal and the quantity exported from 

 i86d to 1894, whilst a similar diagram shows the iron ore 

 raised and the quantity imported for the same period. 

 The annual production of the ores of copper, lead, tin and 

 zmc, during a like period of thirty-four years, is also 

 illustrated by special diagrams. Perhaps the most in- 

 tere ting of all the diagrammatic schemes are those deal- 

 ing with accidents in mines. These tabular returns, 

 extending from 1S51 to J 894, suggest very melancholy 

 reflections, but still it is matter of satisfaction to note that, 

 on the whole, the miner's lot has been ameliorated. Prof. 

 Foster, referring to a table of death-rates, points out that 

 " mining has immensely improved in safety during the 

 last forty-four years. The mortality from accidents has 

 dropped and goes on dropping. From time to time 

 disastrous explosions have caused a temporary rise, but 

 on the whole there is firm and steady progress in the 

 right direction " (p. 36). 



Some two or three years ago a great improvement 

 was effected in the " Mineral Statistics " by the introduc- 

 tion of brief descriptive notices respecting the mode of 

 occurrence of the several minerals referred to in the 

 returns. It is understood that these remarks were from 

 the pen of Prof Foster, and he has very properly re- 

 produced them in this Report. So far as they go. they 

 are models of concise description ; but it is to be hoped 

 that opportunity may be found, in some future work, for 

 their amplification, for at present they rather whet the 

 appetite than afford it full satisfaction. 



.•\ comparison of the mineral industries of this country 

 with those of other lands, forming Part vi. of the General 

 Report, must have involved an immense amount of labour, 

 inasmuch as it necessitated the collecting and collating 

 of the mineral statistics of the world. The statistical 

 returns are accompanied by valuable descriptive remarks 

 on the resources of each country ; and with such thorough- 

 ness has this part of the work been done, that Prof 

 Foster adds notes in connection with countries, like 

 Arabia, Egypt and Turkey, whence little or no statistical 

 information can be procured. There are necessarily 

 many gaps in the foreign statistics ; but steps have been 

 taken to secure fuller returns in future, and the sub- 

 sequent reports will probably be less imperfect. Prof 

 Foster has prepared a form, in English and French, 

 asking for specific data, and copies of this form have 

 been issued, through the Colonial and Foreign Offices, 

 to Her Majesty's representatives abroad. 



Notwithstanding the care bestowed upon the prepara- 

 tion of the Report, and the evident desire to bring its 



MO. 1,^88. VOL. 54] 



information up to date, it still necessarily falls short, in 

 some respects, of an ideal report on our mineral in- 

 dustries. The information, for instance, respecting stone 

 obtained from quarries is only meagre ; but the Quarries 

 .Act of 1894 will enable us in future to have statutory 

 returns from all open workings, more than twenty feet 

 deep. If the aid of a staff of specialists could be secured, 

 the descriptive part of the Report might be advantageously 

 expanded, and a volume produced something like that 

 on the Mineral Resources of the United States, issued 

 annually by the Geological Sur\ey, or like the admirable 

 work started a few years ago in New York b>- Mr. 

 Rothwell. Even, however, in its present form. Prof. 

 Foster's Report presents us with a record of the mineral 

 industries of our country, far more comprehensive, in- 

 structive and accurate than anything which the British 

 miner has hitherto possessed. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 

 Lcoiwek der Oroaiiische Chcmic. By Ur. A. F. Hollcman. 

 (Groningen : J. B. Wolters, 1896.) 



Thk author in his preface says that text-books of organic 

 chemistry, used in Holland by students of medicine and 

 pharmacy and by candidates in the faculty of science, 

 contain too much and too little — too many facts and too 

 little theory. 



There is no doubt that this criticism of our larger 

 organic text-books is a fair one. Volumes like those of 

 Richter and Bernthsen are distended with an unneces- 

 sary number of compounds, whilst they conceal within an 

 occasional paragraph of small print important questions 

 of theory ; they are books for reference rather than for 

 study. In the present case the author wisely attempts 

 to minimise the number of compounds, and boldly dis- 

 cusses in full-sized type points of theoretical interest as 

 they present themselves. The influence of the Amsterdam 

 school of chemistry is very apparent in this. 



We find accounts of geometrical isomerism, including 

 Hantzsch and Bamberger's latest views on the constitu- 

 tion of diazo-compounds, of the relation between osmotic 

 pressure and the freezing and boiling point of solutions, 

 of Arrhenius' electrolytic dissociation theory and its 

 application to the determination of the strength of acids, 

 of the thermodynamic law, which underlies the conversion 

 of racemates into tartrates, &c., all clearly and concisely 

 given. 



There can be little objection to physical-chemical 

 theories entering into the composition of an organic text- 

 book ; they are interesting and suggestive. But the 

 author has unfortunately fallen into the error of neglect- 

 ing the practical side of the subject, of too frequently 

 ignoring the laboratory and the works, of omitting experi- 

 mental details of important preparations, and of present- 

 ing to the student chemical reactions as a series of 

 ingeniously contrived equations. 



We do not know, of course, for what type of student 

 the book is iniended ; but it would be out of the question 

 to put it into the hands of a beginner, or of one who had 

 had no previous training in practical organic chemistry. 



J. B. COHKN. 



Phvsics for Stiidfiits of Medicine. By Alfred Daniell, 

 M.A., LL.B., D.Sc, F.R.S.E. Pp. 469. (London: 

 Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1896.) 

 Dr. D.\NIELI,'s " Principles of Physics" is known to be 

 an excellent systematic treatise on physical science, 

 setting forth fundamental principles in a sound and 

 scientific way. In the volume now under notice the 

 same orderly arrangement is followed as in its larger 



