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XIX. Notices respecting New Books. 



A Theoretical and Practical Treatise on the Manufacture of Sulphu- 

 ric Acid and Alkali, with the collateral Branches. By George 

 Lttjtoe, Ph.D., F.O.S., Professor in the Polytechnic School in 

 Zurich, formerly Manager of the Tyne Chemical Works. London : 

 John Van Voorst, Paternoster Row. 1879. (8vo, pp. 685, and 

 309 woodcuts.) 



npHE first volume of Professor Lunge's exhaustive monograph on 

 -"- our leading chemical industry must be ranked with a well-known 

 work on metallurgy, of which, as metal-workers, we may be justly 

 proud. 



As Professor Lunge says in his Preface, the treatise is intended to 

 supply various wants, and appeals to various classes of readers, 

 and, we hope, careful studiers ; for in hardly any other text-book 

 or manufacturing treatise have we found such a mass of well-told 

 general information and accuracy of minutiae and detail as in this 

 work of Professor Lunge's, who also may be deservedly compli- 

 mented on his vigorous style and use of an acquired language. 



In a brief and pithy introduction the Professor says " the manu- 

 facture of sulphuric acid and alkali is the foundation of the whole 

 Chemical Industry of our time," a statement with which we fully 

 agree. 



The earlier chapters of the book treat on Oxides of Sulphur, on 

 Chemical and Physical Properties, Sulphuric Acid, and working 

 methods of analysis, passing to a long chapter on raw materials of 

 manufacture, well supplied with Tables and illustrations. 



But it is the portion of the work treating on the production of 

 Sulphurous Acid from Pyrites, the recovery of Nitrogen com- 

 pounds, and concentration of Sulphuric Acid, which will be more 

 especially valuable to manufacturers and practical men — very 

 large and carefully executed drawings of plant and apparatus, mostly 

 to scale, and working formulas being very plentiful. 



Under " The Denitration of Vitriol" the Grlover tower is fully de- 

 scribed, and its drawbacks and merits somewhat more exhaustively 

 discussed than is perhaps now necessary. 



Under "By-products of Manufacture" we are pleased to see 

 that, in addition to Silver, the recovery of Selenium and Thallium, 

 and various processes for the making of fuming acid, receive a good 

 share of attention. 



In the presence of so much correct and useful matter in this first 

 volume, from which errors of all kinds seem to have been most 

 thoroughly sifted, we wonder what the second may contain ; but 

 we can safely prophesy the same success that cannot fail to attend 

 the present one. 



