September 12, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



253 



Hansen method of isolation, produce on potato 

 agar and on sterile straw, pycnidia and pycno- 

 spores like those found growing with the 

 perithecia on the wheat plant. 



L. W. DUERELIi 



lowA Agkicultukal Experiment Station, 

 Ames, Iowa 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



A BRIEF SURVEY OF SOME RECENT 

 CHEMICAL LITERATURE 



Notwithstanding the extraordinary demands 

 which have been made upon the chemists of 

 this and other countries during the recent 

 years, there has been a considerable nmnber of 

 contributions to chemical literature. It has, 

 however, also been a period in which reviewers 

 were difficult to secure and the editor's table 

 has accordingly been filled with an accumula- 

 tion of material which the writer has been 

 asked to pass in brief review. He has regret- 

 fully to confess to responsibility for a further 

 considerable delay in the accomplishment of 

 the undertaking. As a result, a number of 

 the titles mentioned below will be recognized 

 as already familiar; but it may, nevertheless, 

 be useful to recall them. 



In the field of inorganic chemistry Alex- 

 ander Smith's "Inorganic Chemistry" (The 

 Century Co.) has appeared in its third edition, 

 in which the well-known character of that 

 work is strictly maintained, the changes being 

 chiefly those of amplification. Other standard 

 texts which have recently appeared in revised 

 form are : Holleman-Cooper's " Text-book of 

 Inorganic Chemistry " (5th edition, John 

 Wiley & Sons) ; M'ewell's " Inorganic Chem- 

 istry for Colleges" (D. C. Heath & Co., 2d 

 edition), and Cady's "Inorganic Chemistry," 

 which has appeared in a simplified form, 

 under the title " General Chemistry " (Mc- 

 Graw-Hill Book Co.). In none of these has 

 there been any marked change in the manner 

 in which the subject is treated. Professor 

 H. G. Byers, of the University of Washington, 

 has contributed an interesting new volume 

 (" Inorganic Chemistry," Charles Seribner's 



Son's) which is more or less frankly con- 

 structed along the lines of Alexander Smith's 

 texts, and, in scope, lies between his " College 

 Chemistry" and the larger work mentioned 

 above. It is rather a pity that the publishers 

 saw fit to dress this material in a garb so 

 exactly like that of Professor Smith's books 

 that, in appearance of the printed page, the 

 books are indistinguishable, which creates an 

 unwarranted impression of reproduction of 

 material, in view of the general similarity of 

 treatment. 



In the "Principles of Chemistry" of Dr. 

 Joel H. Hildebrand (The Macmillan Co.) 

 there is to be found a volume which has real 

 freshness and originality of treatment of its 

 subject matter. With a minimum of descrip- 

 tive matter, for which the student is referred 

 to existing texts, the fundamental concepts 

 are clearly stated and well illustrated for 

 beginners. The book contains much for the 

 consideration of thoughtful teachers. 



Two texts for secondary schools are to be 

 found in the editor's collection, one by Dr. B. 

 W. McFarland, of New Haven (" A Practical 

 Elementary Chemistry," Charles Seribner's 

 Sons), which presents a thoughtfully arranged 

 course of instruction in which the laboratory 

 forms the central feature, and another by 

 Charles E. Dull, of Newark ("Essentials of 

 Chemistry," Henry Holt & Co.), which has 

 appeared since the beginning of the war and 

 in which particular stress is laid on the im- 

 portance of the science, throiigh the use, as 

 examples, of the chemistry of common things. 

 Laboratory manuals to accompany the texts 

 of Newell and of Byers have been issued by 

 the publishers of these texts; also one to ac- 

 company the well-known text-book of Mc- 

 Pherson and Henderson (Ginn & Co.). Other 

 manuals by W. A. Noyes and B. S. Hopkins 

 (Henry Holt & Co.), W. J. Hale (The Mac- 

 millan Co.) and W. M. Blanchard (D. Van 

 Nostrand Co.) make no reference to any 

 specific text. All of these manuals are care- 

 fully prepared, and while each has some par- 

 ticular points of excellence, the material is 

 presented along well-recognized lines. The 

 "Laboratory Study of Chemistry," by H. E. 



