2 20 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVIII. No. 454 



ing rourses under bim can testify that he could always speak from 

 the fulness of his knowledge. It has seemed in perusingthis new 

 book that the author did not always appreciate that others had not 

 equal experience, and to those who find descriptions of apparatus 

 difiScult to follow without the aid of illustrations, their almost to- 

 tal absence may be disappointing. But it is enough to say that 

 Professor Cooke has brought out this new book to make sure that 

 all teachers of chemistry will be anxious to examine it. 



Eighty-odd experiments are described, some of them, owing to 

 the modern developments, of a physical rather than of a chemical 

 nature as formerly understood. The apparatus called for is not 

 expensive, and can be rendered even less so by resort to various 

 make-shifts, which are, however, always bothersome and time- 

 consuming. 



Conduct as a Fine Art. The Laws of Daily Conduct, by Nicho- 

 las P. Tn.MAN; Character Building, by Edward P. Jack- 

 son. New York, Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 12°. $1.50. 



Some time since the American Secular Union of Philadelphia 

 offered a prize of one thousand dollars for the best treatise for 

 teaching morals in the pubhc schools without inculcating any re- 

 ligious doctrine, and the prize was divided between the autliors 

 of the two works here named. They are quite different in literary 

 form, Mr. Oilman's being an essay in several chapters, and Mr. 

 Jackson's a series of conversations between a teacher and his pu- 

 pils. Religion as a basis of morality having been set aside, it is 

 held to be necessary to give it a " scientific basis; " and Mr. Oil- 

 man in particular makes special claims for his work on this ac- 

 count. After a careful i-eading of it, however, we are unable to 

 find any scientific quality in it. The only way to make ethics 

 scientific is to find the ultimate ground or criterion of right and 

 wrong, and then deduce all minor principles from this fundamen- 

 tal one. But Mr. Oilman expressly repudiates any design of do- 

 ing so. apparently because he has no settled opinion as to what 

 the criterion is. Nor is there anything scientific in the arrange- 

 ment of his work ; on the contrary, it is a series of desultory chap- 

 ters which might just as well have been arranged in any other 

 way. Mr. Jackson makes mqch less pretension of being scientific; 

 but after reading both works we can readily understand the state- 

 ment in the preface that the society that offered the prize was not 

 satisfied with either of them. 



But in saying these things we do not wish to be understood as 

 condemning the essays, either of thecn. They present the com- 

 mon-sense ethics of the time in a form suitable for instructing 

 children, and in the hands of good teachers may be made useful. 

 They are intended rather for teachers than for pupils, it being 

 supposed that the teacher will instruct his pupils orally; and 

 teachers of strong moral instincts who are also good talkers would 

 probably teach best in that way. To such teachers this book will 

 vmdoubtedly furnish many valuable hints. 



A Hand-bflok of Industrial Organic Chemistry. By Samuel P. 

 Sadtler, Ph.D. Philadelphia, Lippincott. 8°. .|5. 



Wagner's " Chemical Technology," which is about the only 

 book of moderate size in English which describes the chemistry of 

 industrial processes, is now somewhat antiquated, though doubt- 

 less some day a new edition will appear. There are the encyclo- 

 pedias of chemistry and of chemical industries, but no single vol- 

 ume. 



Dr. Sadtler has endeavored, within the compass of a moderate- 

 sized octavo, to take up a number of the more important chemical 

 industries, or groups of related industries, and to show in lan- 

 guage capable of being understood, even by those not specially 

 trained in chemistry, the existing conditions of those industries. 

 The present volume is limited to industrial organic chemistry. 

 This field, while covering many very important lines of manufac- 

 ture, does not seem at present to be so well provided for as the 

 inorganic part of the subject. A companion volume, covering 

 this other side of industrial chemistry, is in contemplation. 



In taking up the several industries for survey, there are first enu- 

 merated and described the raw materials which serve as the basis 

 of the industrial treatment; second, the processes of manufacture 

 are given in outline and explained; third, the products, both in- 



termediate and final, as well as side-products, are characterized 

 and their composition illustrated in many cases by tables of analy- 

 ses; fourth, the most important analytical tests and methods are 

 given which seem to be of value either in the control of the pro- 

 cesses of manufacture or in determining the purity of the product; 

 and, fifth, the bibliography and statistics of each industry are 

 given, so that an idea of the present development and relative im - 

 portance of the industry may be had. 



The author has endeavored in a number of cases to give a clearer 

 picture of the lines of treatment for an industry by the introduc- 

 tion of schematic views of the several processes through which 

 the raw material is carried until it is brought out as a finished 

 product. 



The subjects treated are: petroleum and mineral oil industry; 

 industry of the fats and fatty oils ; industry of the essential oils 

 and resins; the cane-sugar industry ; the industries of starch and 

 its alteration products; fermentation industries ; milk industries; 

 vegetable textile fibres; textile fibres of animal origin ; animal 

 tissues and their products; industries based upon destructive dis- 

 tillation; the artificial coloring matters; natural dye-colors; 

 bleaching, dyeing, and textile printing. 



That such a book is needed cannot be questioned. It will be of 

 value to the specialists engaged in industrial chemistry and to the 

 general reader seeking information. 



The author has had experience in writing chemical books and 

 in editorial work. The number of illustrations is large, and they 

 are well made and increase materially the value of the book for 

 the purposes for which it is intended. There is also a considera- 

 ble number of valuable tables. 



A Study of Greek Philosophy. By Ellen M. Mitchell. Chi- 

 cago, S. C. Origgs & Co. 12°. $1.25. 



The authoress of this book has been for some years the leader 

 of a baud of ladies who have devoted themselves to the study of 

 philosophy. Being a disciple of Hegel, it was natural that she 

 should devote special attention to the history of philosophy, that 

 aspect of the subject having been given special prominence by 

 Hegel himself and by some of his principal followers; and this 

 sketch of the Greek philosophy is the outcome of her studies. It 

 is written in an earnest and serious spirit, and with an evident 

 desire to present the truth as the writer understands it. It is im- 

 partial, too, as between the different schools and thinkers, none 

 of them being slighted and no decided preference shown for one 

 over another except as their real importance demands it. The 

 chief fault of the book, to our thinking, is its excessive Hegel- 

 ianism. In treating the various Greek thinkers, those points in 

 their teaching that seem to anticipate Hegel's philosophy, or lend 

 it support, are given special prominence, and sometimes there is 

 a tendency to read into the ancient writers views derived from 

 Hegel himself. Then the fi'equent repetition of the Hegelian 

 catchwords, such as " self -consciousness," "the idea," ••subjec- 

 tivity and objectivity," the "infinity of mind," etc., detracts from 

 the merit of the work. 



Miss Mitchell has followed Zeller largely in her interpretation 

 of the Greek thinkers, but has also derived something from Hegel's 

 history of philosophy, and she quotes occasionally from both these 

 writers. Her account of the earlier philosophers is one of the best 

 parts of her work, their leading characteristics, as far as known, 

 being very clearly presented in a small space. In the chapters 

 relating to Plato and Aristotle the dialectics and physics of these 

 writers are examined at greater length than seems necessary; 

 while in the latter part of the book we could have wished for a 

 little more information about the relations between Greek philoso- 

 phy and Jewish and Christian thought. But though the book is 

 not free from faults, it has much to recommend it, and it will be 

 specially acceptable to adherents of German philosophy. 



The Philosophy of the Beautifid. I. Its History. By William 

 Knight. New York, Scribner. 16°. $1. 



This book is one of a series to be published by John Murray in 

 England and by Messrs. Scribner in America, and designed to 

 furnish books for study and reference on a variety of subjects. 

 They bear the general title of " University Extension Manuals," 



