20 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVII. Nc 679 



nrneh as to-day when their power to serve 

 the welfai'e of the community has been so 

 vastly increased and is rapidly growing, 

 and if it wants good doctors it must help 

 to make them. 



I have been able, within the limits of this 

 address, to indicate only a relatively small 

 part of the increased strength gained by 

 both medical school and university by t)' 

 combination of their forces, but I hope that 

 I may have conveyed some impression of 

 the rich fields of discovery, of the benefi- 

 cent service to the community, of the im- 

 portant educational work opened to the 

 university by close union with a strong de- 

 partment of medicine, and of the inestim- 

 able value to medicine of intimate contact 

 with the fructifying influences and vital- 

 izing ideals of the university. Where is 

 there a university which, if provided with 

 the requisite resources, gives stronger as- 

 surance of securing these mutual benefits 

 than the University of Chicago, so fruitful 

 in achievement during its brief but event- 

 ful history, so vigorous in its present life, 

 so full of high promise for the future, and 

 where in all this land is there a location 

 more favorable to the development of a 

 great university medical school than here in 

 the city of Chicago? Such a development 

 is bound to come and the sooner it arrives 

 the earlier the day when America shall 

 assume that leading position in the world 

 of medical science and art assured to her 

 by her resources, the intelligence of her 

 people, her rank among the nations and 

 her high destiny. 



William H. Welch 



Johns Hopkins University 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 

 Denatured or Industrial Alcohol. By Eufus 



Frost Herrick. 8vo, pp. ix + 516. 163 



figures. New York, John Wiley and Sons. 



1907. Cloth, $4.00. 



The preliminary announcements, the con- 

 tents and the preface of this book were full of 



promise and the reviewer opened it with great 

 expectations. But, in reading, he experienced 

 a succession of disappointments, and closed it 

 with the sincere wish that he could be excused 

 from the ungracious and uncongenial task of 

 writing the review. 



Chapter I. (16 pp.) contains some brief, in- 

 teresting, historical items, also tables and ex- 

 tracts from consular reports relating to the use 

 of denatured alcohol. 



Chapter II. (47 pp.) describes methods of 

 manufacture of alcohol from potatoes, corn, 

 molasses and some other materials. Dr. 

 Wiley's suggestion that cassava root is a 

 promising raw material is not alluded to. 

 There are numerous good cuts of machines. 

 Under the heading " Theoretical versus Prac- 

 tical Yields of Alcohol " calculated yields are 

 compared with those actually obtained from 

 different raw materials. 



The microorganisms and fermentation are 

 not given space and thoroughness of treatment 

 proportionate to their importance in the in- 

 dustry. The work of Pasteur, Hansen, Buch- 

 ner, Effront and others, is disposed of in a few 

 lines for each, and no references are added. A 

 small figure in the upper corner of page 42 is 

 the only illustration of yeasts and the magni- 

 fication is not given. We could readily spare 

 the picture of a floating thermometer (ordi- 

 nary dairy or bath thermometer) on page 27 

 and the full-page illustration of " the largest 

 fermenting tank in the world " on page 33, 

 which shows nothing distinguishing it from a 

 railroad water tank surrounded by a group of 

 workmen, in order to make room for a little 

 more information regarding those interesting 

 microorganisms and the investigations done 

 upon them. 



There is an unnecessary duplication of some 

 figures. For instance, cuts of ordinary float- 

 ing hydrometers, the form of which may be 

 assumed to be familiar to most readers, are 

 found on pages 47, 48, 123, 142 and 259. On 

 the other hand, pycnometers, probably less 

 familiar objects and occurring in a greater 

 number of useful forms, are not given one 

 illustration. 



Chapter III., upon the distillation and recti- 

 fication of alcohol (58 pp.), abounds in electro- 



