282 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 165. 



any subject, but has presented the same "in 

 what I thought the clearest way, sometimes 

 adopting one person's view in one part of the 

 subject, another's view in another part, and, 

 perhaps, my own in still another part." 



While this method of procedure unquestion- 

 ably endows the book with an individuality 

 all its own, the wisdom of adopting such a 

 course, especially in a book intended for ' self- 

 instruction * * * as well as for class-room 

 use,' may well be gravely questioned. 



The language employed is, as a rule, clear 

 and to the point, if, at times, unconventional. 

 In some instances, however, the author's mean- 

 ing is not readily gathered from his statements. 

 Thus, note the second sentence of the following 

 paragraph (p. 61): "There is another way of 

 getting at the molecular weight, which we shall 

 merely state. The theoretical relations are too 

 physical to justify attention in this book." The 

 calculus is freely used in the discussion and 

 elucidation of formulae and equations ; the 

 numerous problems and examples found 

 throughout the book form a valuable feature. 

 Typography and paper are excellent. 



The author certainly does not lack confidence 

 in his own judgment and evidently has the 

 courage of his convictions. Thus he says (p. 

 177): "But in chemical action we meet only 

 heat, light, electricity, mechanical energy or 

 some other well-known energy. So the as- 

 sumption of chemical energy is strictly gratui- 

 tous and not to be advised at all. ' ' 



The kinetic theory of gases seems to have in- 

 curred his special displeasure. He writes (p. 

 20) : ' ' The kinetic theory is a troublesome 

 thing and is becoming an object of ridicule. It 

 has never directed the chemist to any new dis- 

 covery or idea, unless it may be Van der Waal's 

 theory, and that would probably have come any 

 way." And again (p. 22), in referring to Van 

 der Waal's theory: "Originally derived from 

 the kinetic theory of gases, it has nevertheless 

 none of the absurdities of that theory and will 

 not fall with it." 



Contrast with this the words of Sir William 

 Thomson on the same theory (' Popular Lec- 

 tures and Addresses,' Nature Series, Vol. I., p. 

 226) : " A little later we have Daniel Bernouillis' 

 promulgation of what we now accept as a 



surest article of scientific faith — the kinetic 

 theory of gases." 



Evidently the views of Lord Kelvin will have 

 to undergo a radical change if they are to con- 

 form to those of our author. 



Ferdinand G. Wiechmann. 



Bibliography of the Metals of the Platinum Group, 

 X748-1896. James Lewis Howe. Published 

 by the Smithsonian Institution. 1897. Pp.318. 

 Professor Jas. Lewis Howe, whose initials 

 are familiar to all who read the well selected 

 ' Notes on Inorganic Chemistry ' contributed to 

 Science, has placed chemists under a debt of 

 gratitude by a carefully edited volume with the 

 above title. It forms an index to the literature 

 of platinum, palladium, iridium, rhodium, os- 

 mium and ruthenium from 1748 to 1896 ; so 

 extensive is this literature that the list of ref- 

 erences occupies no less than 266 closely printed 

 octavo pages. The plan is a slight modification 

 in style of that first followed in the ' Index to 

 the Literature of Uranium,' printed in 1870 by 

 the present writer. Professor Howe has taken 

 great pains to make the work complete at 

 every point ; he gives the titles of the one 

 hundred periodicals examined, indicating by 

 asterisks the complete sets, and at the end of 

 the book a classified subject-index and an 

 alphabetical author-index fill over fifty pages. 

 In a series of references to articles dealing with 

 a given topic the reference to the original paper 

 is placed first. So thoroughly has the author 

 ransacked chemical literature that he has prob- 

 ably overlooked very few references to the 

 metals named. Chloroplatinates of organic 

 bases are considered only in the case of those 

 early formed. 



To facilitate the use of the indexes the num- 

 ber of each title includes the year ; the abbre- 

 viations used are chiefly those recommended in 

 1887 by the Committee on Indexing Chemical 

 Literature of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science ; and the spelling of 

 chemical terms conforms to the rules adopted 

 in 1892 by the same Association. 



For the publication of this valuable bibliog- 

 raphy the chemical world is indebted to the 

 Smithsonian Institution; it forms No. 1,084 of 

 the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. 



