May 5, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



643 



ters formally undertaken by the Union at 

 former meetings, we find a considerable num- 

 ber of accounts of investigations privately 

 conducted and submitted to the Union as com- 

 ing within its general province, the whole 

 composing a pot pourri probably beyond the 

 competence of any one person not a professed 

 encyclopedist. Among the matters discussed 

 we note, by way of illustration only, the sun's 

 rotation; the measurement of its radiant 

 energy; the measurement of wave-lengths; ob- 

 servation of sun spots, prominences and 

 faculse; the organization of solar eclipse ob- 

 servations ; the study of solar vortices ; the re- 

 fraction of light in the solar atmosphere; the 

 sun's magnetic field; etc. 



While in general the papers dealing with 

 these several themes can hardly be regarded 

 as addressed to the lay reader, when taken in 

 connection with the discussions evoked, they 

 furnish to the serious student the best avail- 

 able resume of current opinion upon contro- 

 verted questions relating to the sun, as well as 

 upon certain wider aspects of general physics. 

 The reporting appears to have been well done, 

 although, perchance, something of geographic 

 prophecy rather than current fact is to be 

 found in the secretary's classification of Fin- 

 land as an independent country and the assign- 

 ment of Kopenhagen to Norway, in the tab- 

 ular list of delegates. 



The personal reports of American partic- 

 ipants in the conference confirm the impres- 

 sion produced by the narrative parts of the 

 volume, that the hosts left nothing undone 

 that could promote the social side of the con- 

 ference and the enjoyment of their guests. 

 How bitter must be to many of these the com- 

 mentary of August, 1914, upon the chairman's 

 closing words in August, 1913, " und so hoffe 

 er dass die Bonner Versammlung niitzbringend 

 fiir die Wissenschaft und angenehm fiir die 

 Theilnehmer werden wiirde, so dass sie spater 

 gem an Bonn zuriickdenken konnten." 



Wiile it is not to be supposed that the pres- 

 ent European war will end international co- 

 operation for scientific research it has cer- 

 tainly placed obstacles in the way thereto, and 

 may it not be that in the coming decade men 



of divers tongues, accustomed to work to- 

 gether for the advancement of knowledge, may 

 find a major line of usefulness in collectively 

 seeking to restore good will to the world. 



Geo. 0. CoMSTOCK 

 University op Wisconsin 



Representative Procedures in Quantitative 

 Chemical Analysis. By Frank Austin 

 GoocH, Professor of Chemistry and Director 

 of the Kent Chemical Laboratory in Tale 

 University. New York and London: John 

 Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1916. Pp. viii -f 250. 

 Price $2.00 net. 



In the volume entitled " Methods in Chem- 

 ical Analysis " published in 1912, the author 

 gave to his colleagues a fund of material 

 drawn from the records of a laboratory which 

 for more than a generation has outranked 

 most others in the development of authorita- 

 tive analytical procedures. In the volume 

 under review he writes from the fullness of 

 his experience as a teacher of quantitative 

 chemical analysis, one whose influence has 

 been widely felt, through both his publications 

 and his pupils. The manual is intended as an 

 introduction to representative analytical pro- 

 cedures. 



The book opens with a brief discussion of 

 non-reversible and reversible reactions, includ- 

 ing the mass law and the principle of LeCha- 

 telier. This is succeeded by a full considera- 

 tion of the processes of weighing and meas- 

 uring. The analytical procedures are, as 

 usual, subdivided into gravimetric and volu- 

 metric analyses, the latter including brief sec- 

 tions upon gasometric and colorimetric meth- 

 ods. The concluding chapter deals with sys- 

 tematic analyses of brass, limestone, silicates, 

 siibstances yielding ammonia, and a few appli- 

 cations of indirect methods of analysis. 

 Among the volumetric procedures much space 

 is devoted to iodometric processes, many of 

 which have been devised or developed in the 

 Kent Laboratory. Iodometric processes are, 

 as the author states, among the most accurate 

 and satisfactory available, and do not, in gen- 

 eral, receive the recognition which they 

 deserve. 



