NOVEMBEK 14, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



705 



have shown their -willingness to overcome the 

 handicap. The spirit of this university is as 

 liberal as in any other, but some ancient 

 special requirements have been interpreted as 

 placing it outside the prescribed list of bene- 

 ficiaries. An attempt has been made to revise 

 the charter so as to put it into conformity with 

 the conditions of the foundations, and while 

 that might have been a properly expedient 

 step to take, there may be a feeling of larger 

 satisfaction in attaining the same results 

 through its own efForts. After twenty-five 

 years of service in some cases and fifteen in 

 others, any one connected with the active work 

 of the university is entitled, after the age of 

 sixty-five, to a pension of four hundred dollars, 

 plus fifty dollars for each hundred dollars of 

 active pay. Eetirement at seventy is manda- 

 tory. This overcomes what otherwise might 

 prove a disadvantage and puts the institution 

 on both a strong and an independent basis. — 

 Boston Evening Transcript. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 

 Allen's Oommercial Organic Analysis. Fourth 



edition, Volume VII. Philadelphia, P. 



Blackiston's Son and Co. 1913. $5.00 net. 



Volume VII. of this comprehensive and 

 useful work deals with vegetable alkaloids, 

 glucosides and other " bitter " principles, ani- 

 mal bases, putrefaction bases, animal acids, 

 lactic acid and cyanogen and its derivatives. 

 Like nearly all such extensive compilations 

 representing the joint work of many authors 

 there are to be noted considerable variations 

 in the excellence and value of the different 

 chapters. Hundreds of different compounds 

 of animal and vegetable origin are described. 

 Their formulae when known are given to- 

 gether with their medicinal value and chem- 

 ical properties including characteristic tests 

 used for their detection and estimation. 



It would be easy to pick flaws in a book of 

 that kind, since much of the material repre- 

 sents compilations of variable value from 

 other books. The individual contributors 

 have evidently been hampered more or less by 

 the decision of the general editors to preserve 

 the classifications of the older editions. Thus 



the purines are discussed in Taylor's excellent 

 chapter on the animal bases, but uric acid, 

 the most important of the purines, is not in- 

 cluded. It is discussed in the chapter on 

 animal acids. Urinary calculi and bile pig- 

 ments, but not lactic acid, are included in the 

 latter chapter. 



To the commercial chemist who has to an- 

 alyze many different substances and to con- 

 tinually turn from subject to subject, in many 

 instances to subjects with which he has had 

 no experience, this volume of Allen's " Com- 

 mercial Organic Analysis " will prove a val- 

 uable source of information. 



Otto Folin 



Haevaed Medical School 



House Sanitation^ By Marion Talbot. Bos- 

 ton, Whitcomb & Barrows. 1913. 

 In view of the rapidly growing conviction 

 that home-making is a science as well as an art, 

 and the increasing purposefulness with which 

 women are preparing themselves for this func- 

 tion, there is no more important need in public 

 health than for authoritative manuals of home 

 sanitation. It was one of the most substantial 

 achievements of the late Mrs. Eichards that 

 she saw the need before it was generally recog- 

 nized and met it by the preparation of a series 

 of books which will always remain as inspiring 

 models for workers in this field. Public health 

 science has developed with such rapidity, how- 

 ever, that every few years makes necessary a 

 revision of the older viewpoints. The reviewer 

 has of late frequently been puzzled when asked 

 to recommend a good book on home sanitation. 

 The Sanitary Science Club of the Associa- 

 tion of Collegiate Alumnae, under the guidance 

 of Mrs. Eichards herself, published a book 

 upon this subject twenty-five years ago. It 

 has naturally become in many respects out of 

 date ; and the new work just published by one 

 of Mrs. Eichards's most distinguished pupils 

 has been so completely rewritten as to con- 

 stitute an entirely new contribution, and ono 

 which shows that the mantle of the pioneer in 

 scientific home-making has fallen on no un- 

 worthy shoulders. 



It is, indeed, refreshing, to one familiar with 



