190 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. II. No. 33. 



This is an admirable standpoint, and one 

 whicli should ensure the book a reading 

 from all earnest students. 



Wnfortunatelj', there are a number of de- 

 fects that impair its usefulness as a text- 

 book. In the effort to enhance its didactic 

 value by adhering to the inductive method, 

 systematic treatment has been neglected. 

 Descriptions of apparatus, operations and 

 manipulations are introduced in such se- 

 quence as may afford the student progressive 

 practice, indeed, but in no strictly logical 

 order. As there is a very scanty index, it 

 is impossible to refer to particular opera- 

 tions, for instance, without reading the 

 book through. Unnecessary verbiage, fre- 

 quent repetitions of facts already stated, 

 facts connected very remotely with the 

 subject in hand, tend to break the continu- 

 ity and unnecessarily to increase the bulk 

 of the volume. 



Several times the wrong equations are 

 given intentionally, ' because the right ones 

 would be too complicated.' This seems to 

 be rather unscientific treatment. 



As for the actual subject-mattei-, both the 

 special reaction and the systematic methods 

 of Qualitative Analysis appear to be ad- 

 mirably chosen. Is it not time, however, 

 that schemes for complete analysis should 

 consider the possible presence of elements 

 so frequently met with in natural and arti- 

 ficial products as are titanium, lithium, 

 uranium and tungsten ? It is also peculiar 

 that, while the rarer elements are dismissed 

 in the Qualitative Analysis, with a few par- 

 agraphs describing their most characteristic 

 special reactions, these same paragraphs 

 contain detailed instructions for their puri- 

 fication and quantitative determination ! 



The quantitative analj^sis of the common 

 elements is treated in the last two hundred 

 pages in an admirable manner, the separa- 

 tions especially receiving adequate consid- 

 eration. But it seems queer to read of 

 certain methods as recently discovered. 



which have been in use ten or fifteen years ; 

 whUe the author appears to be quite un- 

 familiar, for instance, with the Gooch Cru- 

 cible, whose use has removed so many 

 obstacles from the analyst's path. 



The translation is not done very skillfully 

 — it is unidiomatic, and in many passages 

 two or three readings are required before 

 the author's sense can be accurately ascer- 

 tained. Morris Loeb. 



Univeesity of the City of New Yoke. 



A Treatise on Civil Engineering. By "W. M. 



Patton. New York, John Wiley & Sons. 



1895. Octavo, pp. xviii, 1654. Price, 



S7.50. 



Fifty years ago it was easy to compress 

 the science and art of civil engineering into 

 a single volume; to-day it is an impossibility. 

 Civil, as distinguished from militarj^, engi- 

 neering is scarcely a century old, but its 

 growth has been so vigorous, and the 

 branches of its activity are so numerous, 

 that the term is becoming somewhat vague. 

 Telford's definition — the art that utilizes 

 the materials and forces of nature for the 

 benefit of man — was a good one in 1818, 

 but it now can only be applied to the whole 

 field of construction which is now subdi- 

 vided into civil, mechanical, mining and 

 electrical engineering. 



The best definition that can now be given 

 is perhaps the following: Civil engineering 

 is the science and art of economic construc- 

 tion undertaken for the purpose of facilita- 

 ting the transportation of men and matter. 

 It thus embraces roads, railroads and canals, 

 upon which men and freight are transported, 

 together with river and harbor improve- 

 ments; irrigation, water and sewerage sys- 

 tems for the transportation of water and 

 sewage; and all the necessary foundations, 

 bridges and structures for these objects. It 

 includes all the survej'S, estimates and me- 

 chanical principles required to build and 

 maintain such construction in the most 



