NOVEMBER 3, 1899. ] 
tinct advance in the teaching of General Chem- 
istry. Dr. Smith appears to recognize more 
clearly than most teachers have done that 
chemical experiments for beginners should not 
be selected merely or chiefly to give a knowl- 
edge of the striking superficial properties of a 
few substances, but that they should be so de- 
vised that the student may acquire a direct ex- 
perimental knowledge of those facts on which 
the real science of chemistry rests. For this 
reason the book contains an unusual number of 
carefully selected quantitative experiments. 
The book is notable also because of its intro- 
duction of experiments to illustrate ionization 
and the phenomena on which the modern theory 
ofsolutionsis based. The directions are of such 
a nature, too, as are suited to develop independ- 
ent thought and self-reliance. The student 
who thoroughly masters the course laid down 
will have made a good beginning toward an 
understanding of chemistry and of how chemists 
work. W. A. Noyes. 
GENERAL. 
La Théorie de Maxwell et les Oscillations Hertzi- 
ennes, by H. Poincaré (Paris, George, Carré et 
€. Naud, 1899), is a popular exposition of the 
mathematical treatise on the subject by the same 
author, which was reviewed in SCIENCE for Jan- 
uary, 1895. It is one of the series of popular 
treatises on scientific subjects published under 
the general name ‘Scientia.’ It is very at- 
tractive both in form and in substance and will 
furnish much interesting reading to those who 
have neither time nor inclination to study the 
mathematical treatise. IES 16 LE, 
THE excellent ‘Manual of Bacteriology’ of 
Muir and Ritchie (The Macmillan Company, 
1899), already reviewed in these columns, has 
in the second edition been revised, brought 
up to date and somewhat enlarged. It is, as 
was the first edition, a bacteriology for medical 
folk. About one-quarter of its pages are con- 
cerned with general technique ; the remainder 
with excellent, short and clear, but fairly com- 
prehensive descriptions of pathogenic micro- 
organisms. The exposition of that difficult and 
dangerous theme, immunity, isadmirable. The 
bibliographic suggestions are good, the historical 
glimpses illuminating. Altogether, the book is 
SCIENCE. 
655 
of such evenly sustained excellence throughout, 
that among a small host of competitors of sim- 
ilar scope in various languages, it easily holds 
the leading place. Av We 
THE authorities of the Royal College of Sur- 
geons in England have made arrangements for 
the compilation of a descriptive catalogue of 
the vertebrate brains in the Museum. Dr. G. 
Elliott Smith, of St. John’s College, Cambridge, | 
will undertake the work. 
BOOKS RECEIVED. 
The Elements of Alternating Currents. W.S. FRANK- 
LIN and R. B. WILLIAMSON. New York and Lon- 
don, The Macmillan Company. 1899. Pp. 212. 
Pulmonary Tuberculosis ; Its Mojern Prophylaxis and 
the Treatment in Special Institutions and at Home. 
S. A. Knopr. Philadelphia, P. Blakiston’s Son & 
Co. 1899. Pp. 343. 
The Story of the Fishes. JAMES NEWTON BASKETT. 
New York, D. Appleton & Co. 1899. Pp. xxii-+ 
297. 
About the Weather. MARK W. HARRINGTON. New 
York, D. Appleton & Co. 1899. Pp. xx + 246. 
Determination of Radicles in Carbon Compounds. H. 
MeryYeER. Authorized translation by J. BISHOP 
TINGLE. New York, John Wiley & Sons; London, 
Chapman and Hall, Ltd. 1899. Pp. iv+ 133. 
$1.00. 
SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 
In The American Naturalist for October the 
leading article is an interesting paper of ‘ Notes 
on European Museums,’ by O. C. Farrington, 
giving many interesting details of methods of 
installation. An important paper by O. P. 
Hay is ‘On some Changes in the Names, Ge- 
neric and Specific, of certain Fossil Fishes,’ not- 
ing a number of names which must be consid- 
ered as synonyms and replaced by others which 
are suggested. The ‘ Utility of Phosphorescence 
in Deep-Sea Animals’ is discussed by C. C. 
Nutting, and C. P. Sigerfoos describes ‘A New 
Hydroid from Long Island Sound’ under the 
name of Stylactis hooperi. The habits of ‘A 
Balloon-Making Fly,’ an Empis, is described by 
J. M. Aldrich and L. A. Turley, while the 
question ‘Have we more than One Species of 
Blissus in North America’ is answered in the 
negative by F. M. Webster. The fourth part 
of ‘Synopsis of North-American Invertebrates’ 
