72 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. III. No. .54. 



followed Dr. Olivei' Lodge who said that ' ' The 

 real rule on Engineers' principles would be to 

 put ' g ' somewhere into the expression for any 

 quantity with which gravity has nothing to do, 

 and to leave ' g ' out whenever gravity is pri- 

 marily concerned." By conscientiously adher- 

 ing to this rule one may come out fairly well in 

 the end, but in the present instance the confu- 

 sion is more likely to be due to an oversight. 

 On the whole the book will be a welcome ad- 

 dition to the library of any physicist who desires 

 to avoid the necessity for much laborious re- 

 search among original sources. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS. 



AMERICAN CHEMICAL JOURNAL, DECEMBER. 



The principal article in this number of the 

 Journal is one by C. F. Mabery on the compo- 

 sition of the Ohio and Canadian sulphur petro- 

 leums. In this article, which is only a partial 

 report of the work, he reviews and discusses the 

 work of other chemists in this field, and de- 

 scribes methods and forms of apparatus used in 

 his investigations. As decomposition takes place 

 in the distillation of ci-ude petroleum during re- 

 fining process, he could not use these products, 

 but started with the crude oil and subjected it 

 to fractional distillation in vacuo, in apparatus 

 specially devised for this purpose. He found in 

 the distillation of Ohio petroleum that no color 

 or odor could be detected in the distillates be- 

 low 235°; but above this point decomposition 

 took place with evolution of hydrogen sulphide. 

 The amount of ash left was small, aud consisted 

 chiefly of lime and magnesia, showing that the 

 oil had dissolved some of the constituents of the 

 rocks forming the cavities in which it was con- 

 fined. A number of the lower-boiling hydro- 

 carbons belonging to the methane series were 

 isolated, and it was found that they were pres- 

 ent in smaller quantities in the Ohio petroleum 

 than in that from Pennsylvania. 



Stillman and Yoder find that the compound 

 formed by the action of anhydrous ammonia on 

 aluminium chloride is AICI3.6NI-I3. In their 

 experiments dry air and ammonia were passed 

 over aluminium chloride, and a partial decom- 

 position of the product formed was always ob- 

 served. The ammonia was partly oxidized. 



and water, aluminium oxide, and ammonium 

 chloride formed. 



Schlundt and Warder in an article, entitled, 

 'The Chemical Kinetics of Oxidation,' contrib- 

 ute some results on the speed of reactions un- 

 der different circumstances. They find that the 

 rate of liberation of iodine in a mixture of 

 potassium chlorate, potassium iodide and 

 hydrochloric acid is influenced by temperature, 

 concentration and amount of excess of inor- 

 ganic acid present. 



L. W. McCay publishes a preliminary notice 

 on the existence of the sulphoxyantimoniates. 

 He finds that the salt prepared by Rammels- 

 berg, aud supposed by him to be a double salt, 

 is potassium orthodisulphoxyantimoniate. 



Freer gives the results of some experiments 

 with tetrinic acid which are not in accord with 

 the views of Nef and others on this subject. He 

 finds that by the action of bromine on methyl- 

 acetoacetic ester or its sodium salt, a uniform 

 product is not obtained, but a mixture of four 

 compounds. Two of these products are a- and 

 y- brommethylacetoacetic ester. From the lat- 

 ter tetrinic acid is easily formed; but, from the 

 former, only in the presence of hydrobromic 

 acid. There is a review in this number of 

 'The Principles and Practice of Agricultural 

 Analysis ' by H. W. Wiley, and obituary notices 

 of Louis Pasteur and Felix Hoppe-Seyler. 



J. Elliott Gilpin. 



NEW BOOKS. 



Die Sausthiere. Edward Hahn. Leipzig, 



Duncker & Humblot. 1896. Pp. x-f 581. 



Lecture Notes on Theoretical Chemistry. Ferdi- 

 nand G. Weichmann. 2d edition. New 

 York, John Wiley & Sons ; London, Chap- 

 man & Hall, Lt'd. 1895. Pp. viii-F288. 



Manual of Lithology. Edward H. Williams. 



2d edition. New York, John Wiley & Sons; 



London, Chapman & Hall, L't'd. 1895. Pp. 



418. 

 Report of the Columbian Sigtorical Exposition. 



Madrid, 1892; Washington, 1895. Pp. 411. 



Lessons in Elementary Botany. Thomas H. 

 Macbride. AUyn & Bacon, 1896. Pp. xi 

 + 233. Introductory price, 60 cts. 



