Fbbeuaey 12, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



281 



chemical journals form an excellent feature of 

 the book. The habit of going to proper sources 

 for fuller information cannot be formed too 

 early and is of fundamental importance to any 

 one hoping to do scientific work. 



W. A. N. 



A Manual of Quantitative Chemical Analysis, for 

 the use of Students. By Fredeeick A. Cairns, 

 A. M., Late Instructor in Analytical Chem- 

 istry in School of Mines, Columbia College. 

 Third edition. Revised and Enlarged by El- 

 WYN Waller, Ph.D., formerly Professor of 

 Analytical Chemistry in School of Mines, 

 Columbia College. New York, Henry Holt 

 & Co. 1896. Pp. xii+417. 

 This work was first published in 1880. In 

 the thorough revision, which has become neces- 

 sary, a considerable portion has been rewritten 

 and additional chapters have been inserted, 

 while the portion upon organic proximate an- 

 alysis has been omitted. 



The book is evidently intended for use in 

 training those who intend to use their knowl- 

 edge of analytical chemistry along commercial 

 lines. After an introduction of twenty-two 

 pages, ten chapters are given which contain 

 directions for the complete analysis of a series 

 •of pure salts, including directions for the deter- 

 mination of seventeen elements. Then follows 

 the main portion of the book, with chapters 

 giving detailed directions for the analysis of 

 limestones, clay, ores, metals and alloys as 

 found in commerce, potable and mineral waters, 

 acids and alkalies, bleaching powder, fertilizers, 

 coal and commercial nitrates. 



The selection of topics is such as to meet very 

 satisfactorily the need of the practical chemist, 

 and the directions given are clear and sufii- 

 oiently full for beginners. The appendix, by 

 Professor Waller, giving the properties of pre- 

 cipitates is an especially valuable feature of the 

 book. 



It would be impossible for any one to write a 

 book covering such an multitude of details as 

 are required in quantitative analysis and give 

 directions which accord, in every case, with the 

 best knowledge of the subject. Two cases 

 which may be criticized on this ground are 

 worthy of notice because of their importance. 



Gladding has shown (J. Am. Ch. Soc, 17, 398) 

 that barium chloride should be added very 

 slowly to secure a pure precipitate of barium 

 sulphate, and Jannasch and Richards (J. Prak. 

 Ch., 39, 321) and Schneider (Z. f. Phys. Ch., 10, 

 425) have shown that the barium sulphate pre- 

 cipitated in presence of ferric salts contains 

 ferric sulphate, which loses sulphuric acid on 

 ignition and renders a subsequent purification 

 by fusion inaccurate. The other case is that 

 of the Lindo- Gladding method for the determi- 

 nation of potassium. It has been shown that 

 the method is inaccurate because the potassium 

 of the chloro-platinate is partly replaced by am- 

 monium on washing with ammoniums chloride. 

 Since Ostwald has pointed out so clearly the 

 value of the new theories of physical chemistry 

 for the practical discussion of many topics in 

 analytical chemistry, it is to be hoped that some 

 discussion of that sort may soon find its way 

 into our text-books. The present book is 

 neither better nor worse than others in that re- 

 gard. 



W. A. N. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS. 

 THE AUK, JANUARY, 1S97. 



The number contains articles of varied inter- 

 est. Mr. E. W. Nelson describes some forty 

 new species and subspecies and one new genus 

 of birds from Mexico and Guatemala, collected 

 by himself and Mr. E. A. Goldman during ex- 

 plorations conducted for the Biological Survey 

 of the United States Department of Agriculture 

 during the last five years. These collections 

 include between four and five thousand speci- 

 mens, many of them collected in districts never 

 before visited by an ornithologist. Dr. A. P. 

 Chadbourne concludes his paper, begun in the 

 October number, on ' Evidence suggestive of 

 the Occurrence of Individual Dichromatism in 

 Megascops asio. ' This paper is illustrated with 

 a colored plate. Two captive individuals of 

 this species, fed on an exclusive diet of liver, 

 were observed to change from the gray to the 

 red phase without any evidence of molting. 

 Other technical papers treat of various ques- 

 tions of nomenclature and include descriptions 

 of a new subspecies each of the Yellow and 

 Black -throated Blue Warblers. 



