Januaey 9, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



73 



on the philosopher's stone are dated 1412. 

 The first person of high rank to practice al- 

 chemy was the Empress Barbara (wife of 

 Emperor Sigismund, 1451) who acquired a 

 high reputation. 



The second section deals with the begin- 

 nings of pharmacy in Bohemia. Up to the 

 end of the fifteenth century the art of the 

 apothecary was chiefly connected with the 

 merely mechanical preparation of drugs, but 

 when iatro-medicine began to develop, chem- 

 ical processes and medicaments acquired an 

 important place in pharmacy; a certain Mas- 

 ter Bandinus de Aretio (Aretino = Arezzo) 

 is named as apothecary to Prague in a manu- 

 script of the early part of the fourteenth cen- 

 tury. 



This second section contains an interesting 

 and useful table giving the names by which 

 a large number of pharmaceutical prepara- 

 tions were commonly known in the years 

 1585, 1699, 1Y60 and modern times (besides 

 several intermediate years), which shows that 

 Bohemia was little behind other nations in 

 introducing chemisti-y and chemical nomen- 

 clature into pharmacy. 



In the succeeding sections the author treats 

 of the metallurgy and the technological in- 

 dustries of the sixteenth, seventeenth and 

 eighteenth centuries (III.) ; of chemistry in 

 educational institutions (IV.) ; of scientific 

 researches and publications in the past one 

 hundred and fifty years (V.), and progress 

 made in all branches of chemistry up to the 

 middle of the nineteenth century (VI.). 



At the University of Prague the professor 

 of botany gave the instruction in chemistry 

 in accordance with the statute of 1654, and 

 it was not until 1745 that a committee ap- 

 pointed to reorganize the curriculum reported 

 in favor of establishing an independent chair, 

 which was done the following year by the 

 installation of Johannes Antonius Scrinci, 

 the first professor of chemistry and physics 

 in Bohemia. Scrinci at once gathered a 

 quantity of apparatus, etc., at his own exisense, 

 and opened public lectures which attracted 

 students from all parts of Bohemia as well 

 as from adjoining nations. Among his suc- 

 cessors should be named Josef von Freysmuth, 



who was the first professor of general and 

 pharmaceutical chemistry in 1812; under him 

 modern rooms and fittings were introduced, 

 but he died at the early age of thirty-three. 

 Among the Bohemians who became eminent 

 in chemistry may be named Plischl, Lerch, 

 Balling (1805-1868), noted for his treatise 

 on fermentation and his work on sugar, and 

 lastly Ammerling (1807-1884). 



A comment of the author is true of other 

 nations than Bohemia ; he writes : ' Analyses 

 made in the eighteenth century, as late as the 

 second half, have only historical value.' This 

 remark is made apropos of examinations of 

 the many mineral springs, whose healing 

 qualities early attracted attention. 



In the last section of this comprehensive 

 and carefully arranged work Dr. Wrany dis- 

 cusses the introduction and growth of the 

 coal industry, of assaying, of iron smelting, 

 of the extraction and refining of the precious 

 metals (especially in Joachimsthal), as well 

 as the metallurgy of lead, mercury and other 

 heavy metals. Nor does he neglect the his- 

 torical aspects of the industries peculiarly 

 connected with chemistry, as the manufacture 

 of inlv, of matches, of dyestufis, of glass, 

 keramics, sugar and of the brewing of beer. 



The volume is full of details not found 

 elsewhere, and made accessible by an author 

 and a subject index separately (why divided?). 



Dr. Wrany is already known by his work 

 on mineralogy in Bohemia, from a historical 

 point of view (1896), but he has not survived 

 the publication of the book under review. 

 This book is clearly printed on good paper, 

 but so wretchedly sewn (two stitches placed 

 close together) that only with the greatest 

 care in handling has it survived the examina- 

 tion made for this review, and it goes imme- 

 diately to a bookbinder. 



Henry Carrington Bolton. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



The annual meeting of the New York 

 Academy of Sciences was held at the Amer- 

 ican Museum of Natural History on Monday, 

 December 15, at 8:15 p.m.. President J. Mc- 

 Keen Cattell presiding. 



