302 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIII. No. 582. 



tion have thouglit of the eommoii use of 

 ' spore ' and * sporangium ' in the description 

 of the structure of the flowering plants, and 

 how they would have denounced the use of 

 ' flower ' and ' placenta ' in the similar descrip- 

 tion of the ferns and their allies ! Surely the 

 old boundaries between lower and higher 

 plants are rapidly being obliterated when we 

 find such a free borrowing of terms once 

 thought to be peculiar to this or that portion 

 of the vegetable kingdom. Here is the present- 

 day definition of a flower — ' a shoot beset with 

 sporophylls,' originated many years ago by 

 Schleiden, but generally rejected by botanists 

 until within a comparatively short time. In 

 this broad definition we may include the spore- 

 bearing cones, not only of Lycopodinae and 

 Equisetinae, but also the whole fern (sporo- 

 phyte) when it is bearing spores. On page 

 472 we have a chapter heading ' The Sporo- 

 phylls and Flower of the Pteridophyta ' — 

 which would have puzzled and no doubt 

 shocked the old-time botanists, and quite as 

 puzzling would have been the section (page 

 400) devoted to ' the cotyledons of the Pteri- 

 dophyta.' 



In this fine volume, which must at once 

 come into very general use, we have another 

 illustration of the excellent translations made 

 by Professor Balfour, and the high quality of 

 the printing and binding done by the Claren- 

 don Press, in the remarkable series of volumes 

 which have appeared during the past twenty 

 years. 



Charles E. Bessey. 



The University of Nebkaska. 



Outlines of Inorganic Chemistry. By Frank 

 Austin Gooch, Professor of Chemisti-y in 

 Tale University, and Claude Frederic 

 Walker, Teacher of Chemistry in the High 

 School of Commerce of New York City. 

 New York, The Macmillan Co. Pp. xxiv + 

 233 -f 514. 8vo. $1.Y5. 

 Until some few years ago the teacher of 

 general chemistry considered that he had cov- 

 ered his subject pretty fully if, in addition to 

 the descriptive facts concerning the elements 

 and compounds, he had given his students cor- 

 rect ideas concerning the laws of chemical 



combination, molecular and atomic weights, 

 the periodic law and the theory of valence. 

 The development of physical chemistry, how- 

 ever, in the last fifteen years has brought into 

 prominence a number of new laws and prin- 

 ciples and it is necessary that these should 

 find a place in every modern course of instruc- 

 tion in chemistry. This has given rise to a 

 demand for new text-books in which these new 

 generalizations are clearly set forth. 



One of the first text-books which gave prom- 

 inence to the laws of physical chemistry was 

 Ostwald's ' Grundlinien der Anorganischen 

 Chemie' which was published in 1900. This 

 book may be said to have been a veritable mine 

 of information for teachers and it has un- 

 doubtedly had a great influence in modern- 

 izing courses of instruction in inorganic chem- 

 istry. Ostwald's book, however, is too ad- 

 vanced and contains too much detail for the 

 average undergraduate. A number of smaller 

 text-books have appeared in which the attempt 

 was made to simplify the subject and adapt it 

 for college classes. 



This new text-book by Professors Gooch and 

 AValker is entirely different from these books 

 that were patterned more or less closely upon 

 the lines of the Ostwald. It is divided into 

 two distinct parts. In the first or inductive 

 part there is a consecutive experimental de- 

 velopment of the principles and theories of the 

 science. In the second or descriptive part the 

 facts concerning the elements and compounds 

 are clearly and concisely set forth. 



The first seven chapters of part one deal 

 with chemical change, elements, compounds, 

 the laws of combination and equivalent 

 weights, hydrogen, oxygen, air and nitrogen. 

 Then electrical equivalents and ions, acids, 

 bases and salts form the subject matter of the 

 eighth and ninth chapters. Then follow equi- 

 librium, mass action, the phase rule. The 

 last chapters are upon heat and thermal equiv- 

 alents, valence and atomic and molecular 

 theories. It is here shown that the chemical, 

 electrical and thermal equivalents represent 

 proportionate numbers of mass units or atoms 

 and atomic and molecular weights are defined. 



In the second or descriptive part, after a 

 chapter on classification and the periodic law. 



