70 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 159. 



for elements other than carbon are described, 

 and then an account is given of the typical 

 reactions of the classes of organic compounds 

 (hydrocarbons, phenols, amines, etc.). By 

 means of a melting-point or boiling-point deter- 

 mination, a qualitative ultimate analysis, and 

 the application of the reactions described, a 

 large number of compounds can be easily 

 identified. 



The descriptions of such important laboratory 

 operations as crystallization, distillation, etc., 

 are but meagre and are scattered throughout 

 the book. Most of them are described in the 

 first chapter, which treats of the preparation of 

 acids. As the student will make scarcely more 

 than two or three of these compounds, and 

 probably not at the beginning of the work, he 

 is compelled to refer to the index and search 

 out, from the details of one or more experi- 

 ments, the description of the process which he 

 wishes to use. Filtration is discussed, for ex- 

 ample, on pages 21, 29 and 57 ; crystallization 

 on pages 27 and 54, and distillation on pages 

 13-15, 19, 46 and 48. The book will be par- 

 ticularly valuable to the advanced worker in or- 

 ganic chemistry on account of its logical and 

 thorough treatment of the subject, the numer- 

 ous references to the literature, and the fact 

 that it includes the recent work of importance. 

 James F. Noeeis. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



THE ALABAMA INDUSTEIAL AND SCIENTIFIC 

 SOCIETY. 



The regular winter meeting of this Society 

 was held in the city of Birmingham, on the 21st 

 of December, Truman H. Aldrich, President, 

 in the chair. 



W. M. Brewer, of the Committee on Statistics, 

 reported that he had collected and had pub- 

 lished, in the technical journals of the country, 

 monthly during the present year, the statistics 

 of coal, coke, iron-ore, limestone and other 

 mineral productions of the State. By the end 

 of the first week in January he expected to 

 have ready for publication, in the Proceedings 

 of the Society, the complete mineral statistics 

 for the year 1897. 



With reference to the approaching Exposi- 

 tion at Omaha it was the sense of the Society 

 that the State of Alabama should be repre- 

 sented there by a full and well arranged ex- 

 hibit of its mineral and other natural resources. 

 Four new members were elected, and a com- 

 mittee, consisting of Mr. James Bowron, Mr. 

 J. H. Fitts and Dr. Wm. B. Phillips, was 

 appointed to represent the Society at the Eiver 

 and Harbor Convention, which is to be held in 

 in the city of Tuscalloosa on the 29th of De- 

 cember. To this committee the President of 

 the Society was added. 



M. Henri Cardoza, a Commissioner of the 

 French Government to investigate the labor 

 conditions of this country, was presented to the 

 Society by Dr. Phillips, and made some remarks 

 explanatory of his mission. 



Mr. Mason H. Sherman then read a paper, 

 prepared by Wm. Blauvelt, on ' The Semet- 

 Solvay Coke Oven and its Products.' This 

 paper gave a very full account of the retort 

 oven plant which is now in course of construc- 

 tion at Ensley, near Birmingham, and which is- 

 the sixth installation of by-product ovens in 

 this country. The coke, tar, ammonia, gas- 

 and other fey-products of these ovens were 

 treated in detail by Mr. Blauvelt. As usual, 

 this subject gave rise to an animated discussion, 

 in which Dr. Phillips, Mr. Aldrich and others 

 took part. Inasmuch as recovery-ovens and 

 by-product plants have occupied a very promi- 

 nent place in the papers read before this So- 

 ciety and in the discussions thereon during the 

 past six years, it is believed that the installa- 

 tion of the plant at Ensley is the direct outcome 

 of the persistent efforts of this Societyto put a. 

 stop to the appalling waste incident to the use 

 of the old bee-hive ovens. 



Dr. Phillips then read a paper on ' Some of 

 the Results of Washing the Alabama Coals for 

 Coking,' in which he presented a number of 

 tests carried out by him upon the cokes from 

 the different coals mined near Birmingham, and 

 coked under different conditions. This paper is- 

 from advance sheets of a new edition of ' Iron 

 Making in Alabama,' by Dr. Phillips, soon to be- 

 published as a Bulletin of the Geological Survey. 



President Aldrich then spoke of the great 

 quantity of low-grade, free-milling gold ores- 



