710 Notices respecting New Boohs. 



who is well known as an authority on meteorology. The present 

 section of the work is concerned with those phenomena which are 

 attributable to the gaseous constituents of the atmosphere, and which 

 are brought about by refraction and total reflection. These pheno- 

 mena are dealt with under three heads, corresponding to the three 

 chapters of the present section of the work. To the first class are 

 referred the effects produced by the normal distribution of density 

 in the atmosphere — i. e., by a uniform decrease of density iu an 

 upward direction. The second class comprises phenomena which 

 result from irregular density distributions, and the third relates to 

 effects in which more or less rapid fluctuations in the density of 

 the various layers take place. The discussion of the various 

 problems presented by such abnormal phenomena is a very 

 thorough one, and the volume should prove interesting to the 

 general reader, as it contains a large number of vivid accounts 

 by eye-witnesses of the phenomena dealt with, and is well 

 illustrated. 



Physico-Chemical Tables. For the use of Analysts, Physicists, 

 Chemical Manufacturers, and Scientific Chemists. By John 

 Castell-Evans, F.I.G., F.C.S., Superintendent of the Chemical 

 Laboratories and Lecturer on Inorganic Chemistry and Metallurgy 

 at the Finsbury Technical College. Vol. I. Chemical Engineering 

 and Physical Chemistry. London : Charles Griffin & Company, 

 Limited. 1002. Pp. xxxii + 548. 



Great credit is due to Mr. Castell-Evans for the extraordinary 

 amount of labour which the compilation of the present volume, 

 the first half of the complete work, must have cost him. One 

 cannot but admire his courage in persevering in his formidable task, 

 in spite of, as he informs us in the preface, the warning given him 

 by a friend that he was making himself " a hewer of wood and a 

 drawer of water for other people." But if so, it is now only fair 

 to add that probably the " other people " feel deeply grateful. 



The volume is divided into three parts. Part I. contains various 

 mathematical formulae and tables ; it may be suggested that 

 physicists would probably welcome, in addition to the tables given, 

 tables of exponentials and the hyperbolic functions, which are so 

 frequently useful. Part II. contains tables relating to mechanics 

 (gravitation, elasticity, &c). Part III., which occupies by far the 

 largest portion of the book, deals with physics and physical 

 chemistry : thermometry, expansion coefficients, calorimetry, 

 densities, barometry, thermal constants and volumes of gases, 

 vapour-densities, fusion, vaporisation, vapour pressures (we regret 

 to notice the term " vapour tension "), boiling-points, and latent 

 heats of vapours. 



We hope that the book will find the recognition it deserves 

 among all those whose scientific work would be much lightened by 

 the use of such tables. 



