746 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIII. No. 1117 



The translator has admirably performed his 

 task and has placed in the hands of American 

 students a book almost unique in its field in 

 the English language. The text is excep- 

 tionally free from the peculiarities of Teutonic 

 sentence construction usually met with in 

 translations of German works. The additions 

 made by Dr. Warren to the new American 

 edition greatly enhance the usefulness of the 

 book as a student text. It is to be regretted 

 that in his additions to the chapter dealing 

 with the identification of human blood he did 

 not include the recent American advances in 

 the study of " blood crystals " (Eeichert and 

 Brown) which to the chemist are more im- 

 portant than agglutination tests, and that he 

 did not feel warranted in inserting in Chapter 

 VI. some of the official methods of drug assay 

 according to the U. S. Pharmacopoeia. Doubt- 

 less many other teachers in common with the 

 reviewer, using this book as a laboratory text 

 with their students, believe that, although the 

 primary object in work of this nature is to 

 afford instruction in manipulation and chem- 

 ical reactions, if this can be accomplished by 

 the use of official methods it is wiser to employ 

 such processes than those which the student may 

 not use in his future work. It would not have 

 added materially to the size of the book to have 

 introduced notes pointing out the divergence of 

 TJ. S. P. methods (if any) from those given 

 by Autenrieth. 



A matter of surprise is that the space de- 

 voted to poisoning by phosphorus has been in- 

 creased, although statistical information leads 

 to the conclusion that cases of phosphorus poi- 

 soning have greatly decreased since the manu- 

 facture of the yellow phosphorus match has 

 been forbidden by statutory enactments. Obvi- 

 ously no small laboratory manual can be com- 

 plete, yet it is a matter of disappointment that 

 such very important drugs as the morphine 

 derivatives such as heroin, peronin, etc., have 

 received no mention, nor have the cocaine sub- 

 stitutes, eucaine, novocaine, etc. In view of 

 the stringent American antinarcotie laws and 

 the nation-wide campaign to stamp out habit- 

 forming drugs, it is difficult to understand why 

 such manifestly important matter should have 

 been omitted by the translator. 



In spite of the small size of the book, Dr. 

 Autenrieth has succeeded in incorporating be- 

 tween the covers a surprising amount of infor- 

 mation and suggestions. This has been accom- 

 plished by the free use of fine type and by ma- 

 king all descriptions of tests and methods as 

 brief as possible. This attempt to carry con- 

 ciseness of statement to the limit is one of the 

 only serious faults so far as the actual mate- 

 rial presented is concerned, for the reviewer 

 has found that his students experience great 

 difficulty in properly performing many of the 

 tests described. 



Taken all in all the tests selected have been 

 well chosen and with one or two exceptions 

 the directions given are correct and down to 

 date. The book can be heartily recommended 

 to all who are interested in the usual problems 

 of forensic chemistry and should prove a wel- 

 come addition to the book shelf of every an- 

 alytical chemist and pharmacist. Not the 

 least interesting sections will be found to be 

 those giving a brief summary of oiu" present 

 knowledge of the action of poisons and the 

 changes they undergo during their elimina- 

 tion. E. M. Chamot 



The Chemistry of Colloids. By W. W. Taylor. 



London, Edwa-rd Arnold. 328 pp. Y/6 net. 



This is the first attempt at an original text- 

 book in English dealing with the important 

 subject of colloidal chemistry. The author is 

 a lecturer in chemistry at the University of 

 Edinbiu-gh, and the book owes its birth, as is 

 the case of many scientific books, to a series of 

 lectures given by the author before a class of 

 advanced students. Viewed in this light, the 

 book will undoubtedly prove useful, not only 

 to the student, for whom it will save laborious 

 note-taking; but also to the instructor, who 

 will benefit by the mass of arranged facts 

 which the book offers. 



The principal portions of colloidal chemistry 

 are treated in a manner which is not only brief 

 but sometimes approaches laconicism. The 

 general jjroperties of colloids are followed with 

 a discussion of the van Weimarn theories of 

 amorphous substances which naturally lead to 

 a description of the usual methods for prepar- 

 ing colloidal solutions. The theoretical side of 



