NOVEMBER 19, 1897. ] 
On the economic sheet of the folio structural 
contours at intervals of 100 feet are represented 
by white lines. These, as drawn, represent the 
inequalities of the upper surface of the principal 
coal bed in the Upshur sandstone. The thick- 
ness of the strata being known, it is evident 
that the position of any other coal seam or bed 
may be determined from this datum plain. 
Laboratory Manual of Inorganic Chemistry. By 
Rurus P. WILLIAMS, in charge of the 
Chemical Department of the English High 
School, Boston. Boston, Ginn & Co. 1896. 
This book, which is intended especially for 
use in elementary schools, is arranged so that 
each page is devoted to a separate topic. The 
alternate pages are left blank for notes and the 
experiments are unusually full of minute direc- 
tions. This minuteness of directions may be 
well in the case of one who is working alone 
and can use the book to aid him in difficulties ; 
but when working undeér the eye of the instruc- 
tor it is questionable whether such close atten- 
tion to details given in the book and, as in this 
ease, working by rules is not apt to make the 
student too dependent, instead of teaching him 
to observe for himself and to devise, toa certain 
extent, the methods of work he shall follow in 
each experiment. The free use of symbols in 
other than equations is especially objectionable 
in the early stages of the study, as the student 
~ becomes impressed with the idea that proficiency 
in the use and manipulation of chemical symbols 
is the thing to be acquired and not the princi- 
ples of the subject. Difficulties encountered 
and overcome by the ingenuity of the student 
are a great incentive and give him confidence in 
his own powers. After taking up in order the 
common non-metallic elements, the author gives 
the usual methods of separating the members of 
the different groups of metals. These are given 
without any preliminary study of the different 
members of the groups, which would enable one 
to understand the principles upon which the 
separations are based and must be entirely me- 
chanical in their nature. No text-book is rec- 
ommended for use with this laboratory guide, 
and while it can probably be used with good re- 
sults in many cases it must be with the con- 
stant attention of the teacher and the elimina- 
SCIENCE. 
iit 
tion of some features, especially the part rela- 
ting to the separation of the metals. 
J. KE. G. 
Elements of Chemistry. By Rurus P. WILLIAMS, 
in charge of the Chemical Department of the 
English High School, Boston. Boston, Ginn 
& Co. 1897. 
The title of this book is rather a misnomer, as 
the author has gone beyond the capacity of 
an elementary student and has introduced much 
matter which would only bewilder a_ be- 
ginner in the subject. As he says in the pref- 
ace, ‘the division of matter into coarse and 
fine print enables a choice to be made’ accord- 
ing to the needs of the class. He is a strong 
advocate of graphic methods of representing 
compounds, and ‘and many topics—such, for 
example, as valence, etc.—hayve been treated 
in quite an original manner.’ On turning to 
this chapter we find that he represents valence 
graphically ‘by using cubical kindergarten 
blocks with small screw-eyes and hooks’ to 
represent the bonds and their method of attach- 
ment. Before studying the simplest element 
he instructs the student in the methods of writ- 
ing symbols and finding molocular weights by 
rule. Thesubject, omitting the theoretical part, 
is treated in a very thorough manner for an ele- 
mentary book; but the arrangement, especially 
that of the non-metals, is not as systematic 
as it might be. The latter part of the book 
contains an account of some common organic 
substances and achapter on the chemistry of 
fermentation and of life. 
J EG: 
Congreso Internacional de Americanistas. Actas 
de la Undecima Reunion, Mexico, 1895. 
Mexico, 1897. 1 Vol. Pp. 576. - 
The previous volumes of the International 
Congress of Americanists all contain some val- 
uable articles and all a good deal of trash. In 
both these respects the present Compte-rendu 
resembles its predecessors. Why people who 
pretend to be scholars still want to publish arti- 
cles showing that the name of the Atlas moun- 
tains is derived from the Nahuatl ‘ Atlan ;’ 
that the Otomis are related to the Chinese; that 
the cross of Palenque is a proof of Buddhistic 
