960 
tion occupies the last chapter of the plane 
geometry. 
Pages 272 to 359 are devoted to solid geom- 
etry. The usual properties of the plane and 
line are discussed. The quadric surfaces are 
studied from the simplest forms of their equa- 
tions, the treatment including the theory of the 
tangent, polar, diametral planes, conjugate 
diameters, circular sections and rectilinear 
generators. The reasoning throughout is 
clear and rigorous. Defects in the book are 
the rather scant treatment of problems in loci 
and the lack of good general (not numerical) 
examples. The book seems also dispropor- 
tionately long, considering that Salmon’s Conic 
Sections contains only 400 pages and that 
Smith’s Conic Sections in 191 pages covers 
pretty well the same ground in plane geometry 
as the present work. F. N. Come. 
CoLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. 
A Handbook for Chemists of Beet-Sugar Houses 
and Seed-Culture Farms. By GuILForD L. 
SPENCER, D.Sc. New York, John Wiley & 
Sons. 1897. Pp. 475. 
The beet-sugar industry, one of the most im- 
portant industries of Europe, has of recent 
years attracted considerable attention and 
gained a hold on the public interest in various 
sections of the United States. 
The painstaking and exhaustive researches 
into the various phases of successful beet-culture 
pursued for some time by the United States 
Department of Agriculture, largely under the 
able direction of Professor H. W. Wiley, have 
resulted in making available a vast fund of 
valuable information bearing on the best condi- 
tions of soil, climate, etc., for the growing of 
sugar-beets. 
A practical confirmation of the validity of 
the conclusions determined by these investiga- 
tions is to be found in the results obtained by 
the several beet-sugar factories now in success- 
ful operation in California, Nebraska, New York 
and elsewhere in our States. The combined 
capacity of these factories is, at the present, 
estimated to be about four thousand tons of 
beets, daily. 
Under these conditions it was felt to be de- 
sirable to have a reliable chemical guide for 
SCIENCE. 
[N.S. Vox. VI. No. 156. 
those entering upon the pursuit of this newly 
developing branch of American industry. 
The Handbook for Beet-Sugar Chemists has 
been written by Dr. Spencer with the express 
purpose of meeting this need and demand. 
The author, who has been connected with the 
United States Department of Agriculture for 
some years, and who has taken an active part 
in its researches and investigations in beet- 
culture, has certainly acquitted himself ably of 
the self-set task. 
This volume is modeled closely on the lines 
of the author’s earlier publication, ‘Handbook 
for Sugar Manufacturers,’ which is devoted 
almost exclusively to the cane-sugar industry. 
Nearly all of the numerous tables of the 
earlier work are reproduced in this, and, of 
course, others are added to meet the require- 
ments of the sujects specifically treated of in 
these pages. 
Directions for sampling and. averaging beets 
are carefully given. The optical and chemical 
methods of sugar-analysis are concisely and 
clearly described. Analysis of the beet, the 
juice, the syrup, of the marsecuites and mo- 
lasses and the sugars, receive attention in sep- 
arate chapters, as do also the analysis of bone- 
black, limestone, coke, ete. Proper stress is 
laid on the principles upon which beet-selection 
is based and the methods of seed-testing are 
fully explained. The author’s style is clear 
and lucid ; the numerous references to authori- 
ties, given throughout the book, a valuable 
feature. 
The problem of selecting the most desirable 
methods from the wealth of material stored in 
the current technical literature is a difficult one 
and has been well solved by Dr. Spencer. 
Care has evidently been given to the proof- 
reading; the misspelling of the name Karez— 
which is given as Kracz in both text and index 
—but serves, as an exception, to prove the rule. 
The text covers about three hundred pages ; it 
is followed by more than a hundred pages of 
‘Blank Forms for Practical Use in Sugar 
House Work,’ and some thirty pages are given 
to a ‘Summary of Yield and Losses.’ Then 
follows the index ; in the writer’s opinion it had 
better be placed immediately after the text, to 
which it refers. The book is bound in morocco; 
