702 Notices respecting New Books, 



general shape of the surfaces may, however, be in many cases 

 indicated, and this is done by the author in a large folding-plate 

 for a number of the more important elements. An examination 

 of these surfaces leads to the " wave law " of affinity, the affinity 

 surfaces presenting the successive appearances of an advancing 

 wave which repeats itself at the end of every fresh cycle of elements 

 of the periodic system. 



Numerous questions of outstanding theoretical importance are 

 discussed by the author, and his daring and original interpretation 

 of the significance of alcohol drinking, contained in one of the 

 appendices, will be read with interest even by those who may not 

 be prepared to agree with him. 



We wish that the literary merit of the book were equal to its 

 scientific value. Unfortunately, we cannot say that such, is the 

 case. The list of errata given at the end of the book is but a drop 

 in the ocean of errors of typography and grammar in which the 

 book abounds throughout. We cannot believe that the proof- 

 sheets were honestly read by any person whose powers of 

 observation are not utterly atrophied. The reader is kept in a 

 constant state of irritation by the altogether inexcusable and 

 frequent violations of the commonest rules of grammar and spelling 

 which assail his eye on almost every page ; and it is little to the 

 credit of the publishers that they should have allowed the book to 

 appear in its present state. 



Neuere Anschauungen auf clem Gebiete tier Anorganisclun Chemie. 



Von Prof. Dr. A. Werneb. Braunschweig : F. Yieweg unci 



Sohn. 1905. Pp. xii + 189. 

 This interesting and stimulating work forms the eighth volume of 

 the series of monographs now being issued by Messrs. Yieweg 

 & Son under the general title of " Die Wissenschaft," and deals 

 with modern views regarding the periodic classification of the 

 elements, the theory of valency, and the constitution of the more 

 complicated inorganic compounds. The existence of these latter 

 has been very largely ignored by many writers, and the importance 

 of questions of constitution has very generally been supposed to 

 be confined to the domain of organic chemistry. The narrowness 

 and inadequacy of this view are clearly brought out by the author. 

 The gradual abandonment of the old notions regarding valency, 

 and the generalisations of this idea so as to meet the demands of 

 growing knowledge, form highly instructive and suggestive reading. 

 The author is severely critical and extremely cautious in his 

 exposition, going, indeed, so far as to suggest that the evolution 

 of helium from salts of radium may possibly be capable of some 

 interpretation other than that which attributes it to the breaking 

 up of the radium atom. 



Index of Spectra. Appendix P. By W. Marshall Watts, D. Sc 



Manchester: Abel Heywood & Son. 1905. Pp. 103. 

 This appendix to the author's Index of Spectra contains tables of 

 the spectra of ruthenium and yttrium, and of the line and band 

 spectra of sulphur. 



