854 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 492. 



tablishment and adeqviate maintenance of 

 research schools at public expense would 

 amply justify such a course, such promises 

 do not stand alone, as research, to use the 

 words of Lockyer quoted above, is the most 

 powerful engine of education known. 



The undertakings of communities, as is 

 well understood, are formulated and guided 

 by a comparatively few individuals who see 

 not only the immediate and tangible ends 

 to . be gained, but the far-reaching influ- 

 ences that follow. It is from these few 

 informally appointed directors of com- 

 munities that I venture tq, ask for due 

 recognition of the fundamental importance 

 of research, both as a means for securing 

 greater returns from commercial pursuits 

 and higher educational training in our 

 universities. When these truths are fully 

 appreciated and clearly expressed by the 

 leaders of communities, the keystone will 

 be placed in the educational arches states 

 have erected, and the continued advance of 

 our country and the attainment of a still 

 greater degree of human happiness be as- 

 sured. Israel C. Russell. 

 Univeesitt of Michigan. 



sgiejs^tifio books. 



Grundlinien der anorganischen Chemie. Von 

 WiLHELM OsTWALD. Zweite, verbesssrte 

 Auflage. Leipzig, W. Engelmann. 1904. 

 Tp. xs + 808. 



The first edition of this book appeared in 

 1900, and in the course of three years the 

 entire edition of four thousand copies was ex- 

 hausted. In addition, translations into Eng- 

 lish and Russian have appeared which have 

 also had a large sale. A translation into 

 French is in course of preparation. 



The second edition differs but very slightly 

 from the first. The first half of the first 

 chapter has been rearranged somewhat to se- 

 cure a clearer presentation of general funda- 

 mental conceptions ; but aside from this, prac- 

 tically nothing has been done except to correct 

 minor errors appearing in the first edition. 

 The general plan of arrangement and treat- 



ment of the subject matter of this book was 

 suificiently elucidated in the pages of Science 

 when the first edition appeared. The new de- 

 parture represented by this treatise consists in 

 an attempt to incorporate systematically the 

 conception of mass action, the phase rule and, 

 in general, the hitherto much neglected in- 

 fluence of temperature, pressure and concen- 

 tration, as vital factors in determining the 

 progress of chemical reactions. This feature 

 of the treatise together with the constant en- 

 deavor of the author to develop ideas induc- 

 tively and to connect with the substances 

 studied their various important physical and 

 physiological as well as chemical properties, 

 constitutes the valuable, if not the epoch- 

 making part of the book and justifies the re- 

 markable sale of the first edition, which clearly 

 indicates that chemists generally have gladly 

 embraced the opportunity afforded to become 

 acquainted with this new method of present- 

 ing elementary chemistry. 



On the other hand, the introduction of the 

 ' ions ' as a purely chemical conception is un- 

 fortunate. While there might possibly have 

 been a justification to thus introduce this con- 

 ception at the time the first edition was written, 

 the unqualified retention of this notion in the 

 second edition can not be justified; for, since 

 the appearance of the first edition, it has been 

 demonstrated that instantaneous chemical re- 

 actions occur in the best of insulators exactly 

 as they do in electrolytes. The use of the 

 term ion in the ' purely chemical ' sense as it 

 appears in this book must now be considered 

 merely as a mode of speaking, the term 

 signifying only what has hitherto been ex- 

 pressed by the word radical. 



The descriptive part of this book is not un- 

 like that of other books of similar scope, except 

 for an additional remark here and there about 

 ions of this or that kind. Indeed, in most 

 instances Ostwald writes reactions as they 

 have always been written, without using the 

 ionic notation ; in so doing he virtually admits 

 that it is not feasible to apply the ionic con- 

 ceptions logically in most cases. Such an 

 attempt would, indeed, often lead to grotesque 

 distortions rather than to a simple mode of 

 expression which every one could understand. 



