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Sept. 3, 1885 | 
NATURE 
41I 
quently leads them to devise or modify processes without 
any record appearing outside their own laboratories. 
Almost every analyst has his own manuscript “ process- 
book,” according to which he expects his assistants or 
pupils to work, and so it becomes a matter of extreme 
difficulty for an author to produce a work that shall be 
generally acceptable as a laboratory guide. The too 
frequently occurring discrepancies in commercial analyses 
may in a measure be attributed to the same cause, and 
there can be no doubt that a unification in the methods 
of conducting and recording analyses is greatly to be 
desired. This end will doubtless be greatly furthered by 
the production of standard books such as the present one. 
A first edition of the work before us appeared in 1879. 
It has undoubtedly taken already a very high position, 
and has been welcomed as filling a conspicuous gap in 
the literature of analytical chemistry. The value of a 
division between organic and inorganic analysis to the 
ordinary analyst may not be great, but it is useful to the 
author in enabling him to keep his work within bounds. 
The first edition of the b&k appeared in two volumes ; 
in the new edition a rearrangement and extension is 
being made, and it will now occupy three volumes. The 
first volume deals with organic bodies of the fatty series 
and of vegetable origin, and includes chapters on the 
alcohols, ethers, and other neutral derivatives of the 
alcohols, sugars, starch and its isomers, and vegetable 
acids. The second volume, which is to appear shortly, 
will be devoted chiefly to coal-tar products and bodies of 
the aromatic series, to hydrocarbons generally, fixed oils 
and the products of their saponification, and the tannins. 
Nitrogenised organic substances, including cyanogen 
compounds, alkaloids, organic bases, and albumenoids 
will be treated of in the third and concluding volume. 
This arrangement of the subject is, we think, a great im- 
provement on the previous one, and makes the book 
much more convenient for reference. 
Mr. Allen treats his subject in as scientific a manner as 
possible, and this gives quite a peculiar character to his 
work. It is not, like so many books on analysis, merely 
a series of receipts or processes of chemical handicraft ; 
but a work assuming the possession of some really scien- 
tific knowledge on the part of those using it. It would be 
easy to go too far in attempting to generalise in such a 
subject as commercial analysis and in introducing theo- 
retical details ; but although the author goes so tur, for 
instance, as to introduce structural formulze for many of the 
substances dealt with, it cannot be said that he demands 
more knowledge than should be forthcoming from those 
engaging in this difficult and often obscure branch of 
analysis. 
The introduction, extending over thirty-five pages, 
embraces a description of some general methods, such as 
the determination of specific gravity, of melting- and 
boiling-points, optical properties, &c. The rest of the 
volume is devoted to a consecutive account of substances 
comprised under the several headings. After the author 
has described briefly but sufficiently what the substance 
is or ought to be, he gives the methods for its detection, 
estimation, or analysis, and intersperses the account 
with such general information as is likely to be of value 
to the analyst. We cannot attempt to enumerate tbe 
somewhat remarkable collection of products dealt with in 
the course of the work. Wines, beers, cordials, tinctures, 
chloroform, sugars, confectionery, starch, vinegar, the 
commercial acetates, tartrates, and citrates—are examples 
taken at random, which will serve to give some idea of 
the variety. They are, however, treated in a connected 
manner, in illustration of which we may refer with special 
approval to the division on sugars, and starch and its 
isomers. 
With regard to the methods recorded by Mr. Allen we 
may say that on the whole they are such as have borne 
the test of experience, whilst new processes or modifica- 
tions of old ones are duly referred to and discussed. The 
author acknowledges assistance from many men of expe- 
rience, and has, we think, used it to the best purpose. 
His descriptions are clear and concise, and the book is 
remarkably free from errors of any kind. We think it 
really an excellent enterprise, excellently carried out, and 
congratulate Mr. Allen on having produced a scientific 
and thoroughly practical book which, we are confident, 
will find a place in the library of every practical chemist. 
RECENT TEXT-BOOKS OF DETERMINANTS 
Lecciones de Coordinatoria con las Determinantes y sus 
principales aplicaciones. Por D. Antonio Suarez y D. 
Luis G. Gasc6é. (Valencia, 1882.) 
Traité Elémentaire des Déterminants. Par L. Leboulleux. 
(Genéve, 1884.) 
Die Determinanten, fiir den ersten 
Algebra bearbettet. 
1884.) 
Lessons Introductory to the Modern Higher Algebra. 
By George Salmon, D.D. Fourth Edition. (Dublin, 
1885.) 
HE first of these works is outwardly a very handsome 
volume, and on examination we find that the 
authors have also done their part in the most painstaking 
and methodical way. The main part of the title, “ Coor- 
dinatoria,” is apt at first to mislead, and indeed after a 
cursory glance at the contents a cosmopolitan reader 
might be, pardoned for thinking that “ Coordinatoria ” 
was a misprint for “ Combinatoria,” for what our grand- 
fathers spoke of as the Avs Coméinatoria is the subject 
of the opening chapters. “ Coordinatoria” it is, however, 
and in the preface it is placed as a science side by side 
but in contrast with the science of Quantity. 
There are in all twenty chapters in the book. The first 
seven (146 pp.) deal with permutations, combinations 
derangements or inversions of order, substitutions, and 
difference-products : they form a lengthy and most care- 
fully prepared introduction to the theory which follows. 
The next ten chapters (242 pp.) deal with determinants, 
and expound all the more important properties in the 
most methodical, simple, lucid and ungrudging manner. 
The learner, for example, is prepared for the evaluation 
of a determinant whose elements are expressed in figures 
By — 
Onterricht in der 
Von Dr. H. Kaiser. (Wiesbaden 
. Simplification by addition. 
. Simplification by subtraction. 
29. Simplification by addition and subtraction. 
§ 330. Simplification by multiplication. 
And so on, up to— 
a 
) 327 
aes 
32 
Petr 
