400 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LI. No. 1321 



composition of platinum, as investigated by the 

 ordinary methods used and certain new ones 

 that have been applied. The average content 

 of deposits is presented as a test of the even- 

 tual results of working them, and the diiler- 

 ences in the composition of native platinum 

 from the principal deposits are noted. Sec- 

 ondary deposits and platiniferous alluvial, and 

 the extraction of platinum from alluvial, form 

 the subject of two chapters. 



The dunitic deposits of the Urals are very 

 fully and extensively presented by Professor 

 Duparc, who has investigated the occurrences 

 of platinum in this region with especial care 

 and thoroughness. The succeeding chapter is 

 devoted to an equally ex'haustive examination 

 of the pyroxenitic platinum deposits of this 

 region. Then oomes a chapter on the deposits 

 in other parts of the world; in San Domingo, 

 Honduras, equatorial Colombia, Brazil and 

 French Guiana, as well as in North America, 

 where the deposits of the United States, of 

 Meixico and of Briti^ Columbia are studied. 

 To these succeed the deposits of Oceania, of 

 Borneo, of New South Wales, Australia, of 

 New Zealand and of Tasmania. Nor are the 

 African deposits in the Transvaal forgotten, 

 while the alleged deposits on the Island of 

 Madagascar are duly mentioned. Asiatic de- 

 posits of the Wilui and the Oldoi rivers, and 

 of the Altai, close this comprehensive descrip- 

 tion. 



The treatment of the ore and the metallurgy 

 of platinum are tlien gone into very fully, and 

 the extraction and separation from one another 

 of the various metals of the platinum group, 

 such as paUadium, iridium, rhodium, osmi- 

 ridium and ruthenium. The melting and 

 moulding of platinum closes this chapter. 



The uses of platinum in the arts and indus- 

 try are then presented, whether for apparatus 

 employed in sulphuric acid concentration, for 

 colalytic mixtures, in photography, in the 

 manufacture of electrodes, in dentistry, in in- 

 candescent lamps, in laboratory apparatus, or 

 for various other minor uses. Its employment 

 in jewelry is also duly noted. 



A concluding chapter gives a recapitulation 

 of the main results and statistics of the world's 



production of the metal. This is followed by 

 a bibliographical list. 



The whole will form a quarto volume of 600 

 pages, with 99 text illustrations, 90 stereotype 

 plates, 11 plates in black and colors, an atlas 

 with 5 geological colored maps of the Ural de- 

 posits, and 8 plates giving illustrations of the 

 principal installations of buddies, dredges, etc. 



The work is issued by the " Societe Anonyme 

 des Editions ' Sonor,' " 46 Hue du Stand, 

 Geneva, Switzerland. The first hundred num- 

 bered copies are not in trade; for the 500 num- 

 bered copies, running from No. 101 to No. 600, 

 the price to subscribers is 100 francs; if pur- 

 chased through booksellers, 125 francs will be 

 charged. 



An interesting recent publication of Pro- 

 fessor Duparc (in collaboration with A. Gros- 

 sett) is a study of the lately discovered plati- 

 niferous deposits of the Sierra de Ronda, 

 Spain, in which he draws attention to the 

 similarity of the conditions there to those ob- 

 servable in certain parts of the Ural region.^ 



The new edition of Professor James Lewis 

 Howe's " Bibliography of the Metals of the 

 Platinum Group," which has just appeared, 

 may confidently be pronounced to be a realiza- 

 tion of just what a bibliography ought to be.' 

 Professor Howe acknowledges his indebtedness 

 to a supplement of his earlier bibliography, 

 issued in 1897, bringing this down to 1910, 

 which was prepared by Dr. Hendrick Coenraad 

 Holtz, then of Amsterdam; the few references 

 in this supplement to American and English 

 works were completed by Professor Howe, and 

 the amplified record was brought down to the 

 end of 1916. 



I 2 L. Duparc and A. Grossett, ' ' Etude comparge 

 des gftes platinif fires de la Sierra de Bonda (Es- 

 pagne) et de I'OuraJ," M&m. Soc. phys. et Jmt. 

 nat. Geneve, Vol. 38, fesc. 5, p. 253, 1916. 



3 ' ' Bibliography of the Metals of the Platinum 

 Group, Platinum, Palladum, Iridium, Rhoduim, Os- 

 mium, Ruthenium, 1748-1917," by Jaa. Lewis 

 Howe and H. C. Holtz, Washington, D. C, 1919, 

 558 pp., 8vo ; TJ. 8. Geol. Surv. Bulletin 694. The 

 first previous edition of 1897 (under the same 

 title) bears only the name of Jas. Lewis Howe; 

 published by the Smithsonian Institution, Wash- 

 ington, D. C, 1897, 318 pp. Svo. 



