Fkhruaey 1, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



137 



^\'ooll or Peabody. as full ti'eatment of the 

 extra-tluTinodynaiiiic wastes as in Cotttn-ill, 

 or of experimental mi'thods as in Carpenter : 

 but the book exhibits much of that rarest of 

 tiilents, ability to condense, and, for an 

 abridged work, maintains an extraordinarily 

 high standard of scientific quality. The 

 discussion of the ' entropy-temperature ' di- 

 agram of Professor J. Willard Gibbs, whieh 

 is only now, after many years, finding its 

 place in the treatment of the heat motors, 

 is the fullest and most satisfactory yet pro- 

 duced, not even excepting the work of its 

 first trans-Atlantic ad\ocate, Mr. J. Mac- 

 farlane Gray. This method of gi-ai)hical 

 treatment is gradually finding its place, and 

 a very useful one, in the discussion of tlier- 

 modynamic machines. Following Wood 

 and Peabody, and later writers, this author 

 has adopted, in all his own computations, 

 the value, 778. for the thermodynamic equiv- 

 alent obtained bj- Rowland. It may prob- 

 ably be safely asserted that this value is now 

 universally accepted . 



The unavoidable brevity with which all 

 topics are treated in so small a space gives 

 the reader occasion, frequently, to wish that 

 the volume had been doubled in size, and 

 fuller discussion and more of result thus 

 8eciU"ed ; but the book takes its place, among 

 the many other treatises on the steam 

 engine, as meeting a need that is being con- 

 tinually felt more and more by engineers, 

 and which is not as wt'll supplied bj' any 

 other of the existing abridged discussions of 

 the theory of the machine. It is well up to 

 date in its practical aspects, as well as in 

 the van on its purely scientific side. 



R. H. Thikstox. 



CORXKLL rXIVEKSITV. 



-Ill Introduction to Chemical Analy.'si-i for Be- 

 ijlnners. — From the Sixth German Edition 

 of Dr. Fr. RrnoRFK. — Translated bj' 

 Chas. B. Gibson and F. Mex'/el.— Chi- 

 cago, The W. J. Keent-r Co. S vo., '.»0 jip. 

 Price 81.00 



This book is divided into two parts: Part 

 I, Reacti(ms: and Part II. Systematic Course 

 of Qualitative Analj-sis. Metallic copper is 

 the first substance examined, and then fol- 

 low copper, zinc, zinc chloride, manganous 

 sulphate, iron, lead, etc., in the order named. 

 A careful examination of this part fails to 

 detect any gi-eat novelty either of matter or 

 arrangement. In Part II the metals are 

 grouped under the liiiniliar group reagents 

 excejit that lead, mercury and silver are 

 placed along with those precipitated by hj'- 

 drogen sulfid and not, as is usual, separated 

 under hydrochloric acid as gi'oup reagent. 

 The scheme of analysis is well conceived, 

 but offers little of novelty. The explana- 

 tions and notes have been carefully adjusted 

 to meet the needs of the student and are a 

 valuable feature. The translation is, how- 

 ever, a very slovenly piece of work, and the 

 nomenclature is especially bad. For exam- 

 ple, on page 72, we find ' amnionic ' sulfid 

 written AnioS, and lower down we have 

 NHjOH. Why the authors deny to bis- 

 muth cobalt and nickel the ic terminations 

 which they give to nearly all the other 

 metallic salts is not apparent. Several very 

 awkward sentences occur. For example, in 

 the introduction, '• We have made a few ad- 

 ditions calculated to assist the medical and 

 dental student who sutfers mainly the dis- 

 advantage of being unable to devote but a 

 small part of his time to chemical stutlies." 



The mechanical execution of the book is 

 pretty good. There is no index. 



Edward Hart. 



Lafayette Colleuk. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 

 PALEOBOTANY. 



A LARGE collection of fossil plants m:ide bj- 

 Professor W. P. Jenny in the Cretaceous 

 rim of the Black Hills during the past field 

 season has just been opened atthc Xational 

 Museum and proves to be of the highest 

 interest to paleontology. It was made under 



