218 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 345- 



satisfactory, and convenient to use. It is cer- 

 tainly worthy of a cordial reception by all who 

 are interested in the progress of astronomj', and 

 the editor should receive that cooperation which 

 he solicits for future volumes by bringing to 

 his notice all published articles which come 

 properly within the scope of the work. 



Geokge C. Comstock. 



Les plantes tinctoriales et leurs principes color- 

 ants. By V. Thomas (Chef des travaux de 

 chimie appliquee a la Faculte des Sciences 

 de Paris). Une publication de 1' Encyclopedic 

 Scientifique des Aide-Memoire. Publiee par 

 Gauthier-Villars, Paris, sous la direction de 

 M. Leaute (Membre de I'lnstitut). Pp. 196. 

 The author divides the study of tinctorial 



plants as follows : 



1. The coloring matters themselves. 



2. The glucosides ; the form of combination 

 in which coloring matters exist most frequently 

 in plants. 



3. The ferments capable of decomposing these 

 glucosides into sugars and the coloring matter. 



4. The tinctorial plants themselves, from the 

 point of view of the coloring principles which 

 they contain. 



In a previous volume in this same series, 

 ' Matieres colorantesnaturelles,' the author has 

 already discussed those natural coloring prin- 

 ciples which belong to the keton, xanthon, and 

 pheno-y-pyron groups. 



Part I. (pp. 7-142), therefore, of the present 

 volume, treats of the remaining important 

 plant-coloring principles, arranged in the fol- 

 lowing chapters : 



Chapter 1. Colors of the anthraquinon group ; 

 alizarin, xanthopurpurin, munjistin, rubiadin, 

 chrysazin and chrysammic acid, purpurin, 

 pseudopurpurin, alkannin, morindon and ven- 

 tilagin. 



Chapter 2. Brasilin and brasilein ; including 

 isobrasilein, and derivatives of brasilin and 

 dehydrobrasilin, together with a review of the 

 work done by Perkin, Kostanecki, Herzig and 

 others, to establish the constitutional formula 

 of brasilin. 



Chapter 3. Heematoxylin and hsematein ; also 

 isohaematein and derivatives of dehydroheema- 

 toxylin. 



Chapter 4. Miscellaneous coloring matters, 

 as follows: cyanomaclurin, genistein, gossy- 

 petiu, rottlerin, flemingin, orcein, santalin, 

 carthamin, lokanic acid, crocetin, curcurmin, 

 lapachol, lomatiol, and bixin. 



A brief history of every color is given, then 

 the most interesting and important methods for 

 obtaining it, together with its most character- 

 istic physical and chemical properties and a 

 discussion of its structural formula. The tinc- 

 torial properties are dealt with briefly, tables 

 being freely emploj^ed to show change of color 

 with change of mordant, effect of various sub- 

 stituting groups upon the color, comparison of 

 shades obtained from the natural colors with 

 those obtained from the same colors prepared 

 synthetically, etc. 



Part II. (pp. 143-180), Glucosides. Includes 

 the consideration of the following : ruberythic 

 acid, glucosides of quercetin and its derivatives, 

 apiin, vitexin, morindiu, datisciu, crocin, fustin, 

 lokaonic acid. 



Then follows a list of the principal tinctorial 

 plants, arranged alphabetically according to 

 their botanical names, and showing the color- 

 ing matters which they contain ; also an alpha- 

 betical table of the coloring principles them- 

 selves, giving their melting points and the 

 references to the text where the same are de- 

 scribed in detail. 



The references to the literature form a com- 

 mendable feature of the work, thus affording 

 ready access to the original articles. 



Upon the whole, the book gives a very good 

 digestof the work in this field and should prove 

 of value to the chemist. 



Marston Taylok Bogert. j ^ 



Mosquitoes :. How they live ; how they carry 

 disease ; how they are classified ; how they 

 may be destroyed. By L. O. Howard, 

 Ph.D. New York, McClure, Phillips & Co. 

 1901. 



One of the triumphs of the combined labors 

 of modern biologists and students of medicine 

 is the discovery of the animal parasite of ma- 

 laria and of the fact that the parasite of yellow 

 fever, whether it be an animal or a bacterium, 

 is, like the malarial one, transmitted by the 

 mosquito. 



