April 19, 1918] 



SCIENCE 



379 



by the various works of reference; the general 

 and special journals and society publications; 

 discussion with explanation of the kind of in- 

 formation to be had in the different abstract, 

 index and review serials; and information as 

 to the best works available here in the several 

 sections of chemistry, general, analytical, in- 

 organic, mineral, organic, physiological, ap- 

 plied, theoretical, physical and colloid. The 

 selection of these " best " works has been 

 made or approved by the man who uses that 

 section, before they are presented to the class 

 for consideration. Frequent revision is of 

 course necessary to keep the lists up to date. 

 No parallel course is given elsewhere to my 

 knowledge, and training of this kind has a 

 money value, as well as does that in the lab- 

 oratory proper, since many of the larger in- 

 dustrial plants have libraries and reference 

 librarians, to help them keep up with current 

 investigations and the effect upon their spe- 

 cial problems. Little & Co., of Boston, is a 

 good e-xample. 



Students are referred to what are the best, 

 t. e., most comprehensive and up-to-date books 

 at any given time, and are compelled to some 

 use of them. For example, some of the larger, 

 important works at present, 1917, in the 

 various divisions of chemistry at Illinois are: 



Inorganic: Eoscoe and Schorlemmer, edition 

 four, 2 vols., and in German the Handbiicher of 

 Abegg and Gmelin-Kraut, edition 7, but both of 

 these German texts are as yet incomplete, but 

 have good bibliographies for the elements and the 

 years they cover. 



Organic: Meyer and Jacobson, "Lehrbuch, " 

 edition 2, has no equal in English, and the lack 

 due to the fact that Vol. 2 has not come out may 

 be supplied in part by the eleventh German edi- 

 tion of Hichter's text-book, and in part by Hil- 

 ditch's thirty-year course, in English, with 

 Clarke 's Introduction as a more elementary but 

 modern work. 



Analysis: Here i's Treadwell, edition 4, 2 vols., 

 for general, Gooch, Crookes and Classen for se- 

 lected methods. Lunge in 6 volumes on technical, 

 Allen in 8 for technical organic; for organic, Mul- 

 liken has at last got three volumes out with a 

 promise of the fourth soon. Clarke's Handbook, 

 and Weston on carbon compounds, are less com- 

 prehensive. 



Biochemistry: Abderhalden 's 10 volumes of 

 methods are supplemented by Oppenheimer 's vol- 

 umes of general information. In English the 

 series of mouographs on biochemistry is being 

 kept up and covers practically every topic. 



Theoretical: Nernst, edition 7, in English is 

 now available. Mellor's "Chemical Dynamics," 

 and his book on mathematics for chemists, with 

 Partington's are very useful. 



Industrial: The newest books are old here aa 

 compared to the serials, but Martin's edition 2, 

 Molinari and Sadtler, edition 4, do well for indus- 

 trial organic. Molinari 's inorganic industrial is a 

 trifle old and Rogers, edition 2, does not include 

 everything. The analytical texts have been men- 

 tioned and the number of special texts is great. 



Of course, to do new work we must begin on 

 the basis of present knowledge. It is assumed 

 that the specialist will keep up in his own 

 field, receiving publishers' circulars, and 

 noting book reviews for new books. But 

 given a new topic, or an unusual one, chem- 

 ists should know how to find or at least where 

 to search for what is known at present, 

 quickly and surely. Here the organic chemist 

 has an immense advantage, in the case of a 

 known substance. Having the formula, Hich- 

 ter's " Lexikon " with its supplement will give 

 him physical constants, the principal refer- 

 ences to literature, and most important of all 

 the page reference to Beilstein's " Handbuch," 

 where he finds a concise careful summary. 



Thus he has all information to and includ- 

 ing 1911. The annual indexes of Chemical 

 Abstracts and the London Journal of the 

 Chemical Society, may be supplemented by 

 the formula indexes, annual, of papers pub- 

 lished in the Annalen and Berichte. Some- 

 times Abderhaldon's " Biochemisches Hand- 

 lexikon " is helpful, being newer than Beil- 

 stein and giving more information than Rich- 

 ter. If the substance is a coal-tar product, a 

 dyestuff or the like, the volumes of Fried- 

 laender's " Fortschritte " with subject indexes 

 and collective indexes by German patent num- 

 bers, 1877 to 1914 inclusive, are invaluable. 

 If the problem as processes or material is not 

 listed under a special substance, Weyl and 

 Lassar-Cohn give methods, in German of 

 course. For preparations, adequate, brief and 



