Dbcembkr 14, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



921 



The Oil ChemisVs Handbook. By Erastus Hop- 

 kins, A.M., B.Sc, Chemist in charge of IT. 

 S. Laboratories, Boston, Mass. New York, 

 John Wiley & Sons ; London, Chapman and 

 Hall, Limited. 1900. Pp. viii + 72. 

 This book is intended as a practical laboratory 

 handbook for use in the examination of com- 

 mercial oils and fats. Concise and satisfactory 

 directions are given for the execution of the 

 ordinary quantitative determinations which are 

 made with materials of this class. The special 

 and most valuable feature of the book, however, 

 consists in the full tables which are given, and 

 in their excellent arrangement. These include 

 tables of general properties, solubility, adulter- 

 ants and of constants. The tables of constants 

 are duplicated by giving, first, a table arranged 

 with reference to the oils, giving all of the im- 

 portant constants for each oil, and then tables 

 for each constant, as saponification value, iodine 

 value, Reichert-Meissl value, etc., with the oils 

 arranged according to their numerical values 

 for the given constant. The tables appear to 

 have been prepared very carefully and the 

 book is a very valuable one for those working 

 in this field. 



W. A. N. 



The Calculations of Analytical Chemistry. By E. 

 H. Miller, Ph.D., Instructor in Analytical 

 Chemistry and Assaying in Columbia Univer- 

 sity. New York, The Macmillan Co. 1900. 

 Pp. 183. 



As the author states in the preface: "This 

 text-book is intended for use in scientific schools 

 and colleges, in connection with courses in ana- 

 lytical chemistry, and aims to give a logical 

 treatment of the calculations required by an 

 analyst." "The object has been to furnish a 

 text-book, which shall give the necessary in- 

 formation concerning those important chemical 

 calculations which every student should thor- 

 oughly understand before taking up advanced 

 work." " Formulae have been avoided, except 

 in the last chapters, so that the student shall 

 consider each problem individually and solve it 

 from a knowledge of chemical laws instead of 

 substituting in formulae for different cases." 



The subjects taken up in this book are as fol- 

 lows : Calculations of chemical equivalents and 



atomic weights ; of formulae and percentage ; of 

 mixtures having a common constituent ; calcu- 

 lations from equations ; calculation and use of 

 factors ; calculations of volumetric analysis ; 

 of density of solids and liquids ; of gases ; of 

 calorific power and electric and electrolytic 

 calculations for direct currents. The method 

 involved in each case is clearly explained with 

 example, and a number of problems for solution 

 are given in each chapter. The author has 

 brought together here in a compact form some 

 of the most important calculations of analytical 

 chemistry. Much of the material would be 

 inaccessible to a student or perhaps worked 

 out from formulae given without any explana- 

 tion of the principles involved. A number of 

 tables are also given of values used iu the cal- 

 culations. 



J. E. G. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 



The American Journal of Physiology, Decem- 

 ber, has as its leading article ' The Reactions of 

 Planarians, with and without Eyes, to Light,' 

 by G. H. Parker and F. L. Burnett. They found 

 that planarians without eyes tend to turn away 

 from their course when directed towards the 

 source of light and to keep in it when directed 

 away from the source. This reaction, however, 

 is less precise than in planarians with eyes. 

 Planarians with eyes move more rapidly than 

 those without eyes, and those moving away 

 from the light than those moving towards it. 

 Anne Moore contributes a paper on ' Further 

 Evidence of the Poisonous Effects of Pure NaCl 

 Solution.' According to her investigations pure 

 solutions of the chlorides of Na, Ca, K, Mg, and 

 Li are poisonous. The poisonous effects of a 

 pure NaCl solution may be antagonized by Ca, 

 although Ca is not necessary in itself, for it 

 renders a sugar solution more harmful. K does 

 not antagonize Na, but may antagonize Ca used 

 in small quantities. In weak solutions sugar 

 is as poisonous as isosmotic solutions of NaCl, 

 but in stronger solutions this is not true. 

 Young trout and tadpoles live indefinitely in 

 distilled water, and in salt solutions if Na and 

 Ca ions are in balanced proportions. The ' In- 

 fluences of Digestion on Animal Heat Processes ' 

 are presented in a study by E. T. Reichert. He 



