504 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE^ 



seriatim the special operations and examinations by means of tlie blow-pipe, 

 such as the management of the flame, the blast, the oxidizing flame, the re* 

 ducing flame ; examinations in closed and open tubes and on charcoal alone ; ex- 

 aminations for fusibility, alkilinity, flame coloration, with glass fluxes, with soda, 

 with cobalt solution, etc.; tables showing the behavior of the alkalies, the earths 

 and the metallic oxides. Chapter III is devoted to special tests for the elements 

 or their compounds necessary in some combinations, and comprises fifty-five 

 pages. Then follow the instructions for systematic blow-pipe examination of sub- 

 stances, including the excellent scheme of Prof. Egleston, with explanatory notes- 

 and with some alterations by the author; also of metallurgical products and paints^ 

 Chapters are also devoted to analysis with the aid of the wet way and spectrum 

 analysis. One of the most important chapters in the whole book is that upon 

 Quantitative Blow-Pipe Analysis, or Assaying, in which the subject is fully treat- 

 ed, there being directions for the assaying of gold, silver, copper, lead, bismuth,, 

 tin, cobalt, nickel, and mercury. Chapter VIII comprises descriptions of the 

 more important ores and coals, while the remainder of the work is taken up with 

 a treatise upon determinative mineralogy with explanatory remarks upon miner- 

 als, formulas, systems of crystallization, cleavage, hardness and tenacity, lustre 

 and color, streak, magnetism and pyro-electricity, action of acids, specific gravity, 

 fusibility, method of using the determinative tables, etc. His remarks upon clas- 

 sifying examination are divided into minerals with metallic or sub-metallic lustre 

 and minerals without this lustre, with proper and lucidly explained divisions. All 

 the detailed processes are simple, easily understood and readily performed by 

 students or others having an elementary knowledge of inorganic chemistry and a 

 reasonable degree of expertness in handling apparatus. The indexes are full and 

 satisfactory, which is no small desideratum in such a work. We can unhesitating- 

 ly recommend it as a reliable guide for all persons who desire practical informa- 

 tion and instruction upon the important branches of metallurgical knowledge to 

 which it applies. < 



Ants, Bees and Wasps. By Sir John Lubbock, F.R.S., LL.D., etc. i2mo. 

 pp. 448, Illustrated. D. Appleton & Co.,N. Y., 1882, For sale by the 

 Kansas City Book and News Company. $2.00. 



This is the forty-second volume of the International Scientific Series, which 

 now comprises some of the very best works in all departments of science ever 

 brought together in one continuous set. Several of these have been noticed in. 

 these pages from time to time and the series has met with a ready sale in this, 

 community. 



Sir John Lubbock has for a number of years given the study of ants, in par- 

 ticular, a great deal of attention and his articles have been published and copied 

 all over the world. In the present work only two chapters are given to bees and 

 wasps, since, as he says, he found that ants were more convenient for most exper- 



