Notices respecting New Boohs. 305 



hydrogen. No one knows better than myself that the fringe 

 of the subject only is touched. When the investigator has 

 the means of examining the general properties of matter 

 under new conditions, surely in our time he does not claim 

 originality for the selection of the order in which he attacks 

 the many problems ready to hand ? The fact is the claims 

 set forward by Prof. Olszewski are fantastic and unfounded. 



Professor Olszewski has done good work in the deter- 

 mination of the pressure and temperature relations of the 

 liquid gases, but in future it is to be hoped he will modify 

 his claim for general priority in everything relating to Low 

 Temperature Research. 



Royal Institution, 14th Feb. 1895. 



XXX. Notices respecting New Books. 



Select Methods in Chemical Analysis {chiefly Inorganic). By 

 William Crookes, F.R.S. Sfc. 3rd edition, rewritten and 

 enlarged. (London : Longmans, Green, & Co., 1894.) 



THE subject of chemical analysis is capable of being regarded 

 from two points of view — first as a means of training students 

 in exactness of work, neatness, cleanliness, carefulness, and so forth, 

 and in the next place as a practical branch of science which the 

 working chemist is constantly obliged to resort to in order to 

 ascertain the composition of some kind of matter. This book by 

 Mr. Crookes, which has now reached its third edition, appeals to 

 the latter rather than to the former class of readers. It has in 

 fact from the time of its appearance occupied a unique position 

 among kindred works, and the new edition will be welcomed by 

 working chemists with the same gratitude that its predecessors 

 were received with when the author first enriched our chemical 

 literature with a compilation of such real practical value. In 

 speaking of the w 7 ork as a compilation, we have no desire to detract 

 from its merits. To expect the author of a book on chemical 

 analysis to originate all the processes described would be simply 

 absurd, but, although confessedly a compilation, there is one 

 feature that lifts the present work quite above the level of 

 such productions. A quotation from the preface will explain our 

 statement : — 



" The author has merely given such methods as have been proved 

 in his own laboratory. Others — possibly no less efficient — have 

 been passed over because he cannot vouch personally for their 

 value. A main object has been to bring into notice a number of 

 little-known expedients and precautions which prevent mistakes, 

 insure accuracy, or economise time." 



The user of this book therefore may rest assured that all the 



