OcTOBER 27, 1899. ] 
The entire work is a most valuable contribu- 
tion to the reference books on Organic Chem- 
istry and no laboratory can well afford to be 
without a copy. CHAS. BASKERVILLE. 
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA, 
September 30, 1899. 
The Rise and Development of the Liquefaction of 
Gases. By WILLETT L. HARDIN, PH.D. Mac- 
millans, 1899. 8vo. 250 pp. 
Written from a historical point of view and 
with an ample command of the subject, this 
book of Dr. Hardin’s is really a very satisfac- 
tory compilation. It is prepared with evident 
care and industry, and is finely illustrated. 
Why a ‘ popular-science style,’ in which it pro- 
fesses to be written, should differ at times from 
good English, is not plain to the reviewer: but 
this is the severest criticism that need be made. 
The author limits himself to a record of the 
statements of others, and he is therefore respon- 
sible chiefly for the selection and arrangement 
of his material. Here we might wish that the 
researches upon the more readily condensable 
gases, preceding the achievements of Cailletet 
and Pictet, had been treated more concisely, in 
order that more room had been found, toward 
the end of the book, for the discussion of the 
utilization of liquid air, etc., as at present pro- 
posed. The treatment of the latter topic is 
very scanty, in view of the fact that probably 
four out of five of the prospective purchasers of 
the book are interested in the uses of liquefied 
gases, rather than in the methods of their 
production. Two chapters, involving ther- 
modynamics, would seem forbidding to the non- 
technical reader, while they bring no new in- 
formation to the chemist or physicist. If they 
could be made the basis of a new chapter, dis- 
cussing the economic value of gas-liquefaction, 
for commercial refrigeration and for the intensi- 
fication of the potential energy of engines, they 
would serve a most useful purpose. 
Morris Loes. 
BOOKS RECEIVED. 
The Compendious Manual of Qualitative Chemical Anal- 
ysis, C. W. Exvior and F. H. Storer. Newly 
revised by W. B. LinpsAy and F. H. STorRER. 
New York, D. Van Nostrand Company. 1899. 
Pp. vii-+- 202. $1.25. 
‘SCIENCE. 
615 
The Evolution of General Ideas. Tu. Ripor. Trans- 
lated by FRANCES A. WELBY. Chicago, Open Court 
Publishing Company. 1899. Pp. xi 231. $1.25. 
Wabeno, the Magician. MABEL OsGooD WRIGHT. 
New York and London, The Macmillan Company. 
1899. Pp. xi+346. $1.50. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE OF ST. LOUIS. 
Ar the meeting of the Academy of Science at 
St. Louis, held on the evening of October 16th, 
a paper by Dr. T. J. J. See, onthe temperature 
of the sun and the relative ages of the stars 
and nebulz, was presented in abstract by Pro- 
fessor Nipher. 
The author reviews the work of Helmholtz 
on the condensation of a homogeneous sun and 
finds that the heat developed in gravitational 
condensation from an infinite volume to its 
present size would be sufficient to heat an equal 
mass of water about 27 million degrees. In 
condensing to a mass whose radius was equal 
to the radius of Neptune’s orbit, only about 
1 / 6600 part was produced as has been produced 
since. Nearly all of the heat has been devel- 
oped since the primitive nebula has reached the 
dimensions of the solar system. The heat de- 
veloped before the nebula came within the orbit 
of Mercury, is only about 1/85 part of the 
total heat produced up to the present time. If 
the sun should contract 1/10000 part of its 
present radius, 69,700 M., assuming it to be 
homogeneous, the heat would raise the tem- 
perature of an equal mass of water 2,725 de- 
grees. The effect of the various planets is con- 
sidered, and is shown to be insignificant. An 
annual shrinkage of 35 meters a year would 
account for the present heat and would effect 
the radius less than 1/10’’ in 1,000 years. The 
fact that ancient and modern eclipses are sen- 
sibly of the same duration, in connection with 
the substantial constancy of the moon’s mean 
distance, shows that no considerable alteration 
of the sun’s diameter has occurred in historical 
time. The essential constancy of solar radi- 
ation during the last 2,000 years is well estab- 
lished by the agreement of plant distribution 
now with that described by Pliny and Theo- 
phrastus. 
Dr. See then takes up the case of a hetero- 
