BOOK NOTICES. 125- 
wet and dry methods ; also the manner of precipitating metals by electrolysis, 
volumetric assays, colorimetric assays and preliminary assays by the blow-pipe. 
Then mechanical manipulations, such as sampling ores, alloys and non-alloys, 
washing, weighing, and measuring, fluxes: chemical operations, such as ignition,, 
carbonizing, fusion, precipitation, filtration, volumetric analysis, etc.; assay fur- 
naces, muffles, charcoal and coke and gas furnaces, subHmation and distillation, 
furnaces ; assay vessels, balances and weights, tools and implements, and assay 
reagents. All of these are treated comprehensively and in detail under the first 
general division of the work and occupy eighty-four pages, copiously illustrated.. 
The special division includes specific and detailed instructions for assaying 
the ores and alloys of lead, copper, silver, gold, platinum, nickel, cobalt, zinc, 
cadmium, tin bismuith, mercury, antimony, arsenic, uranium, chromium, mang- 
anese, sulphur, and fuels, comprising 189 pages. An appendix, giving tabular 
synopses of atomic weights, fusing points of metals, etc., with the methods of 
assaying employed in the Oker (Lower Hartz) assay laboratory and Schaffner's 
assay of zinc, and a complete index close the volume. The reputation of the 
author guarantees excellence of a high degree, while the translator and editor 
seem to have done their work equally well. 
Work and Wages : By Sir Thomas Brassey, K, C. B,, M. P. i2mo., pp. 296. 
G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1883. For sale by M. H. Dickinson. 
This work was written at the suggestion of Mr. Arthur Helps, who was pre- 
paring a life of the author's father, and is probably as fair and comprehensive a 
statement and discussion of the questions at issue between employers and em- 
ployees as has ever been published. The elder Brassey was one of the largest 
manufacturers and contractors of England in his lifetime and consequently had 
the greatest opportunities for studying this subject. These opportunities the son. 
shared, and has in addition given much time to the study of the labor-question in 
all its departments. 
The branches of the general subject treated are strikes, trades-unions, demand 
and supply, industrial capabilities of different nations compared, rise of wages 
abroad, comparison of the commercial progress of nations, fluctuation of wages, 
influence of American wages upon the English labor-market, etc. If Mr. Bras- 
sey 's views upon trades-unions, which he shows conclusively to have been detri- 
mental to the laboring class, could be thoroughly disseminated among both employers 
and laborers, the effect would certainly be beneficial and serviceable to both. 
classes, as well as to the community in general 
Practical Carpentry: Fred T. Hodgson. i2mo., pp. 144; Illustrated. In- 
dustrial Publication Company, New York, 1883. $1.00. 
This work is offered to builders and mechanics as a guide to the correct 
working and laying out of all kinds of carpenter's and joiner's work, with the 
