February 19, 1897.] 



SGIENGE. 



313 



guage, which Is by no means an easy task. The 

 last chapter, on the climate of the United States, 

 is also quite extended, and will prove useful. 



We might state our opinion of the volume in 

 the following words : It is good, but it is not an 

 elementary meteorology. Our author has suc- 

 ceeded in condensing a very great deal of infor- 

 mation into his 372 pages, but for our part, we 

 do not consider the book adapted for use in 

 high schools. Some of the chapters can be easily 

 understood, but certainly many of them would 

 be difficult for anyone to appreciate thoroughly 

 unless a pretty careful study of meteorology 

 had preceded. Take, for instance, the chapter 

 on the general circulation of the atmosphere, 

 which, as already stated, is well done. We 

 wish we could believe that our high school stu- 

 dents, or even many of our college students, 

 could thoroughly master that. We think our 

 author has made a mistake in attempting to put 

 so much information into this one volume, if his 

 intention is to give an elementary presentation 

 of the subject. It would be better to treat fewer 

 matters, and to take each up at some length, 

 than to attempt to include so many topics and 

 necessarily dismiss many of them with a few 

 words only. An elementary meteorology adap- 

 ted to school use still remains to be written. 

 Such a book, according to our way of thinking, 

 should not attempt to cover nearly so much 

 ground as has hitherto been the practice of 

 writers of ' elementary ' text-books of meteor- 

 ology. It should devote far more attention to 

 the instrumental side, to the study of weather 

 maps, and to individual observations, both with 

 and without instruments. Only after some such 

 truly elementary knowledge concerning local 

 phenomena has been gained can the student 

 fully appreciate the larger facts which the gen- 

 eral temperature, pressure, wind and rainfall 

 conditions of the globe present. 



What has been said regarding the non-ele- 

 mentary character of Dr. Waldo's book should 

 not operate in the mind of the reader to de- 

 tract from any of its merits as a text-book for 

 the use of more advanced students. It will un- 

 doubtedly be widely read, and do a good work 

 in disseminating sound meteorological learning. 

 E. De C. Ward. 



Harvard University. 



Lecture Notes on Theoretical Chemistry. By Fer- 

 dinand G. WiECHMANN, Ph.D., Columbia 

 College. Second edition. Eevised and en- 

 larged. New York, John Wiley & Sons. 

 1895. 8°, pp. xviii-f 288. 

 The apparently growing tendency to divorce 

 practical and theoretical chemistry is probably 

 unfortunate for the training of the next genera- 

 tion of chemists. To study chemical phenomena 

 without studying the principles of chemistry is 

 much like relegating the student to the days 

 when these principles were unknown ; yet, in 

 many of our modern text-books, every effort 

 seems made to eliminate theory, as far as pos- 

 sible, and carry chemistry back to where botany 

 was a few years ago, the study of a sufficient 

 number of plant forms to enable the student to 

 ' analyze ' a flower. True, when one has ac- 

 quired a good knowledge of general chemistry 

 by several terms of study, it is desirable to go 

 over the theoretical ground again and more ex- 

 tensively than it can be done in an elementary 

 course, and for this purpose there are a number 

 of excellent works not only in German, but also 

 in English, and one at least by an American. 

 Professor Wiechmann's work, however, covers a 

 more elementary ground and is well fitted to 

 accompany, rather than to succeed, college work 

 on general chemistry. While it consists of 

 'Lecture Notes,' it is fuller than this title 

 would indicate and might well be called an Ele- 

 mentary Treatise on Theoretical Chemistry. 

 Undoubtedly, it would be a great advantage 

 for a student to have before him the original 

 lectures of which this book gives the notes ; 

 nevertheless the subject is set forth so clearly 

 that the book has an independent value even as 

 a text-book. It would be very helpful for all 

 teachers of chemistry in secondary schools to 

 have a good knowledge of its contents, and 

 would be a great advantage to their teach- 

 ing. 



Chapter I. treats of matter and its forms, in- 

 cluding solutions and change of state ; chapter 

 II. of the measurement of matter and specific 

 gravity. The various methods of taking specific 

 gravity and density are well classified and 

 briefly described. Chapter III., the science of 

 chemistry, is a brief introduction. Chapter 

 IV., on chemical nomenclature and notation, is 



