714 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIII. No. 1116 



recent years mucli criticism has been passed 

 upon Moritz Cantor's monumental work, 

 written in German, yet nothing approaching 

 it exists in the English language. Cantor is 

 now in his eighty-seventh year and is nearly 

 blind. If the revisions of his volumes which 

 were planned before the war, and were to be 

 executed by younger men, are carried out, then 

 his history will doubtless maintain an undis- 

 puted supremacy for many years to come. 

 Professor Miller says that Tropfke's work is 

 "getting too old to be entirely reliable." 

 Tropfke himself stated last spring to the pres- 

 ent writer that his history needed revision. 

 But Miller's criticism on Tropfke's history ap- 

 plies with even greater force to the general 

 histories vsrritten in the English language. 



Floeian Cajori 

 C'OLOEADo College, 

 Colorado Springs, Colo. 



Dyestuffs and Coal Tar Products. Their 

 Chemistry, Manufacture and Application. 

 By Thomas Beacall, B.A., F. Challenger, 

 Ph.D., B.Sc, Geoffrey Martin, Ph.D., 

 M.Sc, B.Sc, and Henry J. S. Sand, D.Sc, 

 Ph.D. Pub. D. Appleton and Co. 8vo. 

 156 pages, 29 fig. 



The critical situation which developed in 

 the textile, leather and other industries on ac- 

 count of the shortage of dyes, as well as in the 

 pharmaceutical and photographic trades on 

 account of a similar shortage of synthetic 

 drugs and organic chemicals was largely re- 

 sponsible for the publication of this book. It 

 is virtually a reprint with certain revisions and 

 additions of chapters from " Industrial and 

 Manufacturing Chemistry," Vol. 1, edited by 

 Geoffrey Martin, on the following subjects: 

 " Industry of Coal Tar and Coal Tar Products." 

 " Industry of the Synthetic Coloring Matters." 

 " Industry of ^Natural Dyestuffs." 

 " The Dyeing and Color-Printing Industry." 

 " Modern Inks." 



" Saccharine and other Sweetening Chemicals." 

 " The Industry of Modern Synthetic Drugs." 

 " The Industry of Photographic Chemicals." 



The field covered is so broad and presents 

 such extreme possibilities of theoretical and 



practical details that the present publication 

 can only be looked upon as a resume. To 

 those having a knowledge of organic chemis- 

 try a study of the book will serve as a valuable 

 review and a foundation for further study. A 

 valuable feature of the book is the bibliography 

 at the introduction of each chapter. 



L. A. Olney 

 Lowell Textile School, 

 Lowell, Mass. 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL 

 ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



The third number of volume 2 of the Pro- 

 ceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 

 contains the following articles : 



1. The Mechanics of Intrusion of the Blach 

 Mills (8. D.) Pre-Camirian Granite: Sidney 

 Paige, TJ. S. Geological Survey, Washing- 

 ton, D. 0. 



2. On the Fossil Algae of the Petroleum- 

 Yielding Shales of the Oreen Biver Forma- 

 tion of Colorado and Utah: Charles A. 

 Davis, Bureau of Mines, Washington, D. C. 

 Scientific, as well as economic interest has 



been aroused in these shales, because they have 

 recently been discovered to yield petroletmi 

 when subjected to destructive distillation in 

 closed retorts. The author finds that these 

 shales may be examined microscopically by the 

 methods of sectioning already in use for peats 

 and coals. 



3. Archeological Explorations at Pecos, New 

 Mexico: A. V. Kidder, Department of 

 Archaeology, Phillips Andover Academy. 

 The most important results are stratigraph- 



ical; various styles of pottery being found 

 in superposition. 



4. Man and Metals: Walter Hough, TJ. S. 

 National Musemn, Washington, D. C. 



An account is given of the author's study 

 of the uses of fire by man in so far as the de- 

 velopment of metallurgy is concerned. 



5. On the Observed Potations of a Planetary 

 Nebula: W. W. Campbell and J. H. Moore, 

 Lick Observatory, University of California. 

 The nebula 'No. Y009 of Dreyer's New Gen- 

 eral Catalogue is rotating about an axis 



