498 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVIII. No. 459. 



list of the typical compounds known, their 

 characteristics, estimation, separation and 

 finally valuable experimental work for labora- 

 tory practise. Numerous references to origi- 

 nal papers are given. 



To round the work off, consideration is 

 given to platinum and gold, which are with- 

 out doubt rare metals in some laboratories. 

 Some five pages are allotted to the newly dis- 

 covered gases in the atmosphere, wherein the 

 fact, not generally known, that Cavendish in 

 1785 found argon, is alluded to. The last 

 few pages are given to an enumeration of 

 some of the unconfirmed discoveries of new 

 elements within recent times, in fact since 

 1896. Radium and polonium are disposed of 

 in one paragraph. 



There is an index and no advertisements 

 are in the back, for which thanks are due the 

 publishers, who made the book of good ap- 

 pearance. 



While in such an abbreviated work the 

 author was confined to well-defined and veri- 

 fied observations, perhaps it might have 

 added value to mention incidentally those 

 uses to which some of the rarer substances 

 are put. 



The reviewer is doubtless not familiar with 

 the classification of the author, who places 

 thorium and zirconium in the aluminium 

 group. By analogy according to the oxides, 

 hydroxides and salts, these elements would 

 come in the silicon-titanium group. In the 

 preparation of lanthanum, didymium, etc., no 

 mention is made of the recent elegant electrical 

 methods of Muthmann. In the list of min- 

 erals bearing thorium, auerlite is not men- 

 tioned. The book does not pretend to con- 

 tain it all, however. 



Every one does not specialize in rare earth 

 chemistry, but the reviewer can not well un- 

 derstand how a teacher of inorganic chem- 

 istry can be without some work on the sub- 

 ject. These substances constitute as integral 

 a part of that subdivision of science as any 

 of the other elements. 



Erom the numerous requests for assistance 

 and advice as to literature on the subject, 

 made the reviewer from technical laboratories. 



it may be well to say that many would do 

 well to have a copy of this book close by. The 

 book is to be commended as fulfilling in a 

 most satisfactory manner what it pretends. 

 Chas. Baskerville. 



Lehrhuch der hosmischen Physik. II., Physik 



der Atmosphdre. Von Dr. Svante August 



Akrhenius. Leipzig, S. Hirzel. 1903. 8vo. 



Pp. viii + 553; 138 figs, and charts. 



The author of the ' Lehrbuch der kos- 



mischen Physik,' Dr. Svante August Arrhe- 



nius, who is professor of physics at the high 



school in Stockholm, is already known to 



meteorologists, chiefly through his researches 



on the effect of the earth's atmosphere upon 



solar radiation, and on the relation of the 



moon's declination to atmospheric electricity 



and magnetism. The ' Lehrbuch ' embraces 



over 1,000 pages all told, of which between 



500 and 600 deal with the physics of the 



atmosphere. With this second portion of the 



book this review is alone concerned. 



Any one who reads these chapters on the 

 atmosphere with the idea that he will find in 

 them a general account of meteorological phe- 

 nomena such as is to be had in most of the 

 text-books on meteorology will be disappointed. 

 The author makes no attempt to discuss his 

 subject from such a point of view. He ex- 

 pressly states in his preface that he has tried 

 to avoid matters which are purely astronom- 

 ical, geological or meteorological, and that he 

 has, so far as possible, discussed only such 

 problems as have close relations with physics 

 and chemistry. We have, therefore, in this 

 ' Lehrbuch ' no text-book or reference book 

 on general meteorology, but a discussion of the 

 more directly physical relations of the sub- 

 ject. From this standpoint Dr. Arrhenius has 

 given us an excellent piece of work. It is a 

 compact summary of the most important re- 

 cent investigations of the physics of the atmos- 

 phere, and as such it will prove useful to 

 working meteorologists and physicists. The 

 text, however, contains many mathematical 

 formulae and numerical data and, therefore, 

 makes decidedly ' heavy ' reading. The con- 

 sideration of the measurement of solar radia- 

 tion is particularly extended. The chapter on 



