
Notices respecting New Books. 607 
The first six chapters of the book deal with work and energy, 
quantity of heat and internal energy, chemical calorimetry, 
chemical equilibrium and the reversible transformation, the prin- 
ciples of chemical statics and the phase rule. Chapter vil. contains 
a large number of applications of the phase rule to multivariant 
systems. The succeeding chapters, vill. to xi1l., are concerned 
with mono- and bi-variant systems. Chapters xii. and xiv. 
deal with mixed crystals and metallic alloys; chapter xv. with 
the chemical mechanics of perfect gases; chapter xvil. with 
capillary actions and apparent false equilibria; chapter xvii. 
with genuine false equilibria ; chapter xix. with unequally heated 
spaces; and the concluding chapter xx. with chemical dynamics 
and explosions. 
A noticeable and highly praiseworthy feature of the book is the 
very large number of illustrative examples. Especially is this 
feature valuable in the earlier chapters of the book, devoted to 
general theoretical considerations, as it enables the reader to form 
a much more accurate and vivid idea of the subject under discus- 
sion thar would otherwise be possible. 
Considering the valuable service which Dr. Burgess has ren- 
dered to English-speaking students by translating this work, it 
may seem ungrateful to criticise the translation adversely. Yet no 
one could possibly mistake the rendering for an original work in 
- English. French idioms abound. These may be overlooked by an 
indulgent reader, but when it comes to the wholesale importation 
of French words without any attempt at translation, the reader’s 
patience cannot but be sorely tried. What, for example, are we 
to make of the following :—‘“ it is shown in mechanics by methods 
which we cannot expose here...” ? Or why does the author speak 
of a renversable change (without even italicismg the term)? To 
pass to another matter, we consider that a medern writer on 
chemical theory has no more right to speak of vapour-tension, 
meaning pressure, than a modern writer on dynamics has to apply 
the term ‘“ power” to a force. 
The revision of the proof-sheets must have been carried out 
very carelessly, as there are numerous instances of missing letters. 
For this, however, the publishers are to blame. 
Fractional Distillation. By SypNry Youne, D.Sc., F.RS., Pro- 
fessor of Chemistry in University College, Bristol. With 72 
illustrations. London: Maemillan & Co., Ltd. 1903. Pp. xii 
+ 284, 
Prorzssor SypNeEy Youne’s name is so well known in con- 
nexion with the numerous difficult and highly important physico- 
chemical researches carried out by him, that the present volume, 
which contains a vast amount of information, some of which has 
never been published elsewhere, is sure to meet with a warm 
welcome from the increasing band of workers on the borderland 
of physics and chemistry. The book is remarkable alike for 
the logical arrangement of the subject-matter and the lucid and 
