Skftembee 12, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



431 



Vanadium, Index to the Literature of. By G. 

 Jewett Rockwell. Annals of the New 

 Yorh Academy of Sciences, Vol. I., No. 5, 

 1877. Svo. Pp. 32. 



Zirconium, Index to the Literature of. By A. 

 C. Langmuir and Charles Baskerville. 

 Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, No. 

 1173. City of Washington. 1899. 8vo. 

 Pp. 29. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

 JAHRBDOH DEE CHEMIE FOR 19U0. 



The latest volume of this familiar work, 

 edited by Richard Meyer, with the cooperation 

 of other well-known chemists, contains an ac- 

 count of the progress of pure and applied 

 chemistry for the year 1900. Here are repre- 

 sented some fifteen hundred investigators, of 

 whom, as nearly as can be determined, about 

 fifty-five per cent, are German, over eleven per 

 cent. French, ten per cent. American, and 

 nine per cent. English. From this it appears 

 that America is next to France and Germany 

 in the number of chemical investigators, and 

 the great prestige of Germany stands out very 

 strikingly. 



The subject matter of the book is divided 

 into fourteen sections. In a division so nearly 

 complete geological and mineralogical chemis- 

 try should find a place. The sense of propor- 

 tion is, on the whole, well kept. The amount 

 of work done in the organic field still greatly 

 preponderates all others, a fact which may be 

 judged suificient reason for devoting 104 pages 

 to this section, as against 66 to inorganic, and 

 50 to physical chemistry, but it may perhaps 

 be questioned whether the coal-tar and color 

 industry deserves, in a work of this kind, a 

 greater space than any other branch of the 

 science. 



The preface to the first volume of the Jahr- 

 huch (1891) distinctly sets forth that the ob- 

 ject of the book is to present a connected ac- 

 count of the work in each field, disclaiming 

 any effort to be exhaustive. It is for the read- 

 er, not for the reference hunter. From this 

 view-point, the work meets a well-recognized 

 need. To judge how well the editors have suc- 

 ceeded in their task would require an amount 



of labor little less than their own. A com- 

 parison of the Jahrhuch with the abstracts of 

 the Centralhlatt in one or two fields, shows 

 that the work is pretty comprehensive — quite 

 so in inorganic chemistry: In the physical 

 section more has been omitted, though pre- 

 sumably not overlooked. 



After some experience with the book, I ven- 

 ture to suggest that its use would be greatly 

 facilitated if the names of the authors in the 

 text were printed in a heavy-face type. 



E. T. Allen. 



Leitfaden fiir das zoologische Praktikum. 



Von Dr. Willy Kukenthal. Zweite, Um- 



gearbeitete Auflage. Jena, Verlag von 



Gustav Fischer. 1902. Mit 169 Abbil- 



dungen im Text. 



The first edition of this guide for the 

 beginner in the study of zoology was reviewed 

 in Science for November 17, 1899, Vol. X., 

 No. 256. 



This, the second edition, does not differ 

 essentially from the first edition though it has 

 been materially improved by abbreviating some 

 of the descriptions of the systematic surveys, 

 rearranging the matter in some of the chap- 

 ters, making small but more or less important 

 additions here and there and introducing two 

 new chapters of eleven pages on the Cestoda 

 and Nematoda. A number of the figures of 

 the first edition have been discarded and some 

 of the borrowed figures have been replaced by 

 original drawings. The latter are not always 

 equal to those replaced. There have also been 

 added a few good new original figures. 



The original 284 pages with 172 figures have 

 become 304 pages with 169 figures. The 

 typographical work is good, what one ac- 

 quainted with Fischer's work would expect. 

 The price of the book unbound is placed at 6 

 Marks. 



Henry F. Nachtrieb. 



University of Minnesota. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 



The Popular Science Monthly for Septem- 

 ber begins with an article on 'Aerography' 

 by Percival Lowell, which gives a resume of 

 the mapping of the surface of Mars and shows 



