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LXV. Notices respecting Neio Books. 



The Principles of Chemistry. By D. Mendeleeee. Translated 

 from the Russian (sixth edition) by George Kamen'SKY, A.R.S.M. 

 Edited by T. A. Lawson, B.Sc, Ph.D. In two volumes. 

 Longmans, Green, & Co., 1897. 



nnHB first English edition of this work, which was published in 

 -*- 1891, was noticed in these pages, and during the period that has 

 elapsed since that time, it may be fairly said that Mendelceff's 

 'Principles of Chemistry' has taken its position in Eoglish 

 scientific literature as a recognized classic. Of this fact the 

 publication of a new edition may be taken as proof, not only 

 because the work is somewhat costly as compared with the rank 

 and file of text-books which our students are in the habit of 

 using, but still more because the leading facts and principles of 

 the science are not presented in the usual cut and dried form 

 required by the syllabus of some examining board. It is essentially 

 a book for the philosophical studeut of chemistry, and as such it 

 occupies a unique position. 



With respect to the present edition, it will suffice to say that so 

 far as concerns the general arrangement it is unchanged, the 

 periodic law being still retained as the basis of the author's 

 treatment. It is, in fact, this particular treatment which gives the 

 special value to Prof. Mendeleeff's work and which has raised it 

 above all other treatises to its present position. That the law of 

 periodicity is a true law of matter is evident on every page, and 

 finds justification in the developments which the principles laid 

 down by the great Russian chemist have undergone in the hands 

 of later investigators. All these developments will be found duly 

 chronicled in the two volumes under consideration, and more 

 especially may atrention be called to the table facing Vol. II., in 

 which is set forth the " periodic dependence of the composition of 

 the simplest compounds and properties of the simple bodies upon 

 the atomic weights of the elements." 



. Apart from the use of this work as a text-book by students, 

 for which purpose it cannot be too highly commended, the working 

 and thinking chemists of the day will naturally turn to these 

 volumes to see what influence the modern views held by a certain 

 school of physical chemists have exerted on the mind of the 

 author during the interval between the fifth and sixth Russian 

 editions. On the question of the nature of solutions for example, 

 in which field Mendeleeff has himself laboured, his position is 

 unchanged, and in the preface he says : — 



" Although all aspects of the simplest chemical relations are as 

 far as possible equally developed in this book, yet on looking back 

 I see that I have, nevertheless, given most attention to the 

 so-called indefinite compounds examples of which may be seen in 

 solutions. . . . My own view is that a solution is a homogeneous 

 liquid system of unstable dissociating compounds of the solvent 

 with the substance dissolved. But although such a theory explains 



