96 



NATURE 



[July 22, igog 



(3) In the editor's preface to Dent's Scientific 

 Primers, in which the one under review is included, 

 we are told that the great advances in knowledge 

 during: the last thirty years necessitate a re-statement 

 of the theories of the different sciences. 



This may be true of chemistry if it were a question 

 of publishing a new treatise or even a students' text- 

 book ; but when we consider that this miniature 

 volume of a hundred pages is intended for a student 

 possessing no previous acquaintance with the subject 

 and without the leisure to study it systematically, we 

 cannot be surprised that the advances in knowledge 

 are not very apparent. We might even go further 

 and state that, except for a passing reference to 

 radium and the noble gases, and the use of the words 

 "stereochemistry" and "polypeptides," the book 

 might just as well have appeared thirty years ago. 



With the very limited space at his disposal. Prof. 

 Tilden has made good use of his materials, and has 

 compressed into a small compass a very readable and 

 suggestive account of the elementary facts and theories 

 of chemistry. j. g. C. 



OVR BOOK SHELF. 

 Histoire dn Developpement de la Chimie depiiis 

 Lavoisier jusqu'a nos Jours. By Prof. A. Laden- 

 burg. Traduit sur la 46 Edition allemande. By 

 Prof. A. Corvisy. Pp. v + 388. (Paris : A. Hermann 

 et Fils, 1909.) Price 15 francs. 

 Forty years ago, the first German edition of Laden- 

 burg's " Lectures on the Historv of the Development 

 of Chemistry during the past 100 Years " was pub- 

 lished. This was a relatively small book of 320 

 pages, which presented, in the course of fourteen 

 lectures, a carefully drawn and evenly balanced sketch 

 of the progress of chemistry subsequent to the time 

 of Lavoisier. At the date of its publication it was 

 unique in dealing, in a logical and consistent manner, 

 \yuh the progress of the atomic theory in its applica- 

 tion both to inorganic and to organic chemistry, and 

 in serving at least as an introduction to the particularly 

 difficult and complicated period in the history of organic 

 chemistry which began in the 'thirties and extended to 

 the late_ 'fifties or early 'sixties of last century. It was 

 not until about four years later that this period was 

 dealt with, a good deal more elaboratelv, bv Kopp in 

 his " Development of Chemistrv in Recent Times " 

 (1873). A specially valuable feature of Ladenburg's 

 lectures was the abundance of references to the litera- 

 ture, which tended to encourage the reader to extend 

 his knowledge of particular branches of the subject by 

 consulting the original papers of the various authors. 

 A second German edition was called for in 1887, when 

 the original book was revised, and was extended by 

 the addition of a fifteenth lecture. 



In 1900 an English version of Ladenburg's "Historv" 

 was published, which was translated from the second 

 German edition, but included various corrections and 

 minor additions by the author, and also a sixteenth 

 lecture, specially written for this translation. A re- 

 vised English edition appeared in 190s. The third 

 German edition (1902) was merelv a reprint of the 

 second edition with the sixteenth lecture added to it 

 but in 1907 a thoroughly revised and verv considerably 

 enlarged German edition appeared, which extended 

 to more than 400 pages, and contained seventeen lec- 

 tures, the subject-matter being brought up to date as 

 tully as possible, and including accounts of the progress 

 of discovery in connection with such recent subjects 

 ot extended investigation as radium, asymmetric 

 NO. 2073, VOL. 81] 



nitrogen, the proteins, and the colloid substances. It 

 is from this fourth German edition that the French 

 translation which is before us was prepared, and 

 the fact that a French version is now published may 

 be taken as in itseli a tolerably satisfactory indica- 

 tion, not only that Ladenburg's book has established 

 itself as a work of permanent value in the estimation 

 of chemists irrespective of nationality, but also that it 

 is free from national bias, such as is frequently met 

 with in historical works. The translation bears every 

 evidence of having had much careful attention 

 bestowed upon it, and it gives a faithful representa- 

 tion of the original. The book is produced in a credit- 

 able style typographically. 



(i) Biologisches Praktikiim fiir hohere Schulen. By 

 Dr. Bastian Schmid. Pp. yi + 71. (Leipzig and 

 Berlin : B. G. Teubner, 1909.) Price 2 marks. 

 (2) Biologische Experimente nehst cinem Anhang 

 mikroskopische Teclniik. By Walther Schurig. 

 Pp. xi+i8o. (Leipzig: Quelle und Meyer, 1909.) 

 Price 2.40 marks. 

 (i) This is an attempt to compress into seventy-one 

 octavo pages a practical introduction to the study of 

 the comparative anatomy of plants and animals, to- 

 gether with a certain amount of experimental physio- 

 logy. There are seventy-five text-figures and nine 

 plates. A considerable number of types, ranging from 

 bacteria to mammals, are dealt with in a very scrappy 

 and superficial manner in the text. A large propor- 

 tion of the illustrations are borrowed from the works 

 of well-known authors. They are well reproduced, but 

 the text and explanations of the figures are very in- 

 adequate. A plate containing figures of the skeletons 

 of a frog, a dog, and part of the skeleton of a bird 

 (apparently there was no room for the skull, which 

 is omitted), without a single bone labelled, is not 

 likely to be of very much service even to the most 

 elementary scholar. Doubtless, however, there are 

 people who are gratified by observing a resemblance 

 between an actual specimen and a book illustration, 

 and they may even think that they have learnt some- 

 thing by comparing the two. It is only fair to the 

 author to mention that the book is intended to be 

 used in conjunction with the instruction of a teacher, 

 who, no doubt, would be able to supply many of the 

 deficiencies. 



(2) This little book is addressed to school teachers and 

 students of nature, and is intended to serve as a guide 

 to a large number of simple experiments in animal 

 and vegetable biology. It is very suggestive, but the 

 style is rather too much that of a cookery book, and 

 the work suffers greatly from over-condensation. A 

 good practical course on general physiology, in itself 

 a very desirable thing, might be founded upon it by 

 an experienced and well-read teacher of biology, but 

 it would take a very long time to carry out all the 

 experiments in a satisfactory manner. 



Inborn Errors of Metabolism. The Croonian Lectures 

 delivered before the Royal College of Physicians of 

 London in June, 1908. By Dr. A. E. Garrod. Pp. 

 vi+i68. (London : Henry Frowde, and Hodder and 

 Stoughton, 1909.) Price 3^. 6d. net. 

 Dr. Garrod delivered before the Roval College of 

 Physicians in June, 1908, his Croonian lectures under 

 the above title, and the present little book is a welcome 

 re-publication of these lectures in a rather more 

 extended form than those actually delivered. The 

 author is well known for his researches on nutrition, 

 metabolism, and the urine, and has always had a 

 special bent in the unravelling of those rarer anomalies 

 which in so many cases are transmitted from genera- 

 tion to generation. It would lead one too far into 

 strictly medical matters to attempt anything in the 



