628 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIII. No. 590. 



by careful investigation, they are disputed by 

 some, and have not yet been applied in com- 

 mercial testing." 



Apparently the author is not familiar with 

 the critical examination of the investigations 

 above referred to, nor vs^ith the facts brought 

 out in the recent trial of American sugar 

 importers against the United States govern- 

 ment. In that suit government officers in 

 charge of the polarization of sugar imported 

 into New York testified iinder oath that the 

 application of the so-called corrections made 

 to counteract the alleged influence of tem- 

 perature on the specific rotation of sucrose, 

 caused the polariscopic test in 30 per cent, or 

 more of the foreign sugars imported in New 

 York, to run over 100 per cent. — the excess 

 amounting to as much as 0.3 or 0.4 of one 

 per cent. In other words, apparently, fully 

 one third of all sugar imported into New York 

 is not only chemically pure, but more than 

 chemically pure! 



A defect noted in some parts of the book 

 is the lack of logical arrangement of the 

 topics discussed. There is no apparent rea- 

 son why the notes applying to special instru- 

 ments (pp. 68-86) should not have been in- 

 corporated with or placed in immediate 

 sequence to pages 15-38, on which the author 

 discusses polariscopes. 



As the text stands, some thirty-seven pages 

 of discussion on the accuracy of saccharimeter 

 measurements and notes on apparatus and 

 laboratory manipulations, intervene between 

 the description of one type of half-shade 

 saccharimeter — that of Peters, and that of 

 another half-shade saccharimeter — that of 

 Schmidt and Haensch. 



It is also questionable whether the joint 

 treatment of technological processes — in 

 sugar-houses, refineries and glucose factories 

 ■ — and of analytical methods used in the con- 

 trol of those processes, is the most advan- 

 tageous way of presenting the topics. 



The book is written in good style, the de- 

 scriptions of methods and manipulations are 

 concise, yet sufficiently explicit. The tables 

 given are those usually found in books of this 

 description and the bibliography appended 



cites the more important works of reference. 

 The make-up of the volume — ^paper, type and 

 print — is entirely satisfactory. 



r. G. WlECHMANN. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 



The first number of the Journal of Ab- 

 normal Psychology, edited by Dr. Morton 

 Prince, of Tufts College Medical School, and 

 published by the Old Corner Bookstore, Bos- 

 ton, contains the following articles: 



Db. Piebre Janet, Professor of Psychology, Col- 

 lege of Prance : ' The Pathogenesis of Some Im- 

 pulsions.' 



Pbofessor W. v. Bechtebew, St. Petersburg: 

 ' What is Hypnosis ? ' 



Db. James J. Putnam : " Eecent Experiences in 

 the Study and Treatment of Hysteria at the 

 Massachusetts General Hospital, with Remarks on 

 Freud's Methods of Treatment by ' Pyscho- 

 Analysis.' " 



Db. Mobton Peince : ' The Psychology of Sud- 

 den Religious Conversion.' 



Dr. John Franklin Crowell, secretary of 

 the Section of Social and Economic Science, 

 American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, has become a member of the editorial 

 stail of The Wall Street Journal. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 THE society of GEOHYDROLOGISTS, WASHINGTON. 



At the sixth regular meeting of the so- 

 ciety, which was held on Wednesday, March 

 7, the following papers were presented: 

 Thermal Springs of the Simplon Tunnel: 



B. L. Johnson. 

 Tidal Fluctuations of Certain Wells in Japan: 



F. G. Clapp. 



The seventh regular meeting was held 

 March 21, the following paper being pre- 

 sented : 

 Occurrence of Water in Crystalline Bocks: 



M. L. Fuller. 



The investigation, which formed a part of 

 the work of the division of hydrology of the 

 United States Geological Survey, was under- 

 taken at the writer's request by Mr. E. E. 

 Ellis for the purpose of securing definite in- 

 formation as to the probabilities of obtaining 

 water supplies from granites and other crystal- 

 line rocks. The work included a study of the 



