464 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 742 



book in nearly all our universities, was not 

 to be permanently laid on the shelf. The 

 friends of Professor Furman heard of his 

 demise with the deepest regret, and it was 

 with the greatest of pleasure that the writer 

 learned that a lasting monument to his name 

 was to be erected through the publishing of 

 a sixth edition on " Assaying," revised and 

 enlarged by Mr. W. D. Pardoe. 



This book has been, and will continue to 

 be, the standard on assaying for technical 

 chemists, and for students in the universities 

 which have a mining, metallurgical or any 

 course on the quantitative determination of 

 metals and their associated elements. 



The aim of the author was to present to 

 technical chemists and students of chemistry 

 a practical book. That he succeeded is dem- 

 onstrated fully by the demand for a sixth 

 edition. In this book only the most approved 

 methods of analysis have been chosen, and 

 particular attention has been paid to rapid 

 methods which are so indispensable to tech- 

 nical chemists employed on commercial enter- 

 prises. At the same time slower and more 

 accurate methods are nearly always given, so 

 that the analyst can use either, according to 

 the dictates of the time at his disposal. 



By the revision of the chapters on zinc, 

 water and coal analyses, and the addition of 

 methods for telluride ores, tungsten, molyb- 

 denum and vanadium, together with other 

 minor changes, this book has been most 

 thoroughly brought up to the present practise 

 common in most of our large commercial 

 laboratories. 



The whole book is singularly free from 

 lengthy theoretical discussions of the reac- 

 tions taking place, but enough of the reasons 

 "why" are given to enable the trained 

 chemist to understand fully the methods he is 

 pursuing. At the same time the chemist's 

 assistant who may lack a college training can 

 easily pick up " Assaying " and do good work 

 if he follows carefully the very explicit direc- 

 tions. 



If the writer may be allowed a word of 

 friendly criticism, since the text is very clear 

 and leaves little to be improved upon, it 

 would seem in some cases as though this text 



could have been supplemented to a very great 

 advantage to the student if more diagrams 

 and illustrations of apparatus had been inter- 

 polated. For example, a picture or diagram 

 of the quite complicated apparatus, such as is 

 used for the determination of total carbon in 

 the analysis of iron and steel, would go a long- 

 way toward helping the beginner in quantita- 

 tive analysis to fully understand its setting 

 up. 



But taken altogether, the book is most ad- 

 mirably adapted for the teaching of assaying 

 in a practical way, and is a most desirable 

 addition to the chemist's library, be he begin- 

 ner or an expert. 



Henry C. Boynton 



Tbenton, N. J. 



A Study of Splashes. By A. M. Worthing- 

 TON. With 197 illustrations from instan- 

 taneous photographs. London and New 

 York, Longmans Green & Co. 

 " This publication," as the author says in 

 his preface, " is an attempt to present in a 

 form acceptable to the general reader the 

 outcome of an inquiry, conducted by the aid 

 of instantaneous photography, which was be- 

 gun about fourteen years ago. . . ." 



Every observant person must have at some- 

 time or other been impressed with the curious 

 appearance of the splashes produced by rain 

 drops falling into still water: the small pits 

 or craters with little fountains in their 

 centers, which sometimes rise above the sur- 

 face to the height of an inch or more, can 

 hardly fail to have attracted the attention of' 

 every one. In this book we find a collection 

 of some of the most interesting photographs 

 ever obtained by the aid of instantaneous 

 photography. It is a volume of interest to 

 old and young alike, and should be in the 

 hands of every boy interested in natural 

 phenomena. Some of the phenomena re- 

 corded by the instantaneous flash of the elec- 

 tric spark can be seen by ordinary eye ob- 

 servation. If a drop of milk is allowed to. 

 fall from a height of fifteen inches into a cup 

 of tea or cofFee, to which milk has not been 

 added, observation shows us that the white- 

 drop appears to penetrate a short distance- 



