424 Notices respecting New Books. 



Hydrogen by Mr. Muir, and 8 pages on Indigo by Mr. A. G. Green 

 conclude our list of the chief contributions to this volume. Al- 

 though we are bound to admit that the spirit of active research is 

 not so widely spread here as it is on the Continent, in scientific 

 literature we certainly can hold our own. The present work is a 

 production which reflects the highest credit upon the editors and 

 their staff. 



Bernthsen's Organic Chemistry. 



A Text-Boole of Organic Chemistry. By A. Bebnthsen", Ph.D., 

 formerly Professor of Chemistry in the University of Heidelberg. 

 Translated, by George McGowan, Ph.D. Blackie and Son. 

 The author of this excellent little volume of about 500 pages has 

 long been familiar to working chemists in this country for his bril- 

 liant investigations in synthetical organic chemistry, and especially 

 for his well-known researches into the colouring-matters of the 

 Methylene Blue series. It will be instructive to British manu- 

 facturing chemists to learn that Prof. Bernthsen, after having held 

 a Professorship in a German University, has now become Director 

 of the Scientific Department of the world-famed " Badische Anilin 

 und Soda-Pabrik " at Ludwigshafen on the Ehine. Such an in- 

 timate relationship between pure science and its applications as is 

 revealed by the transference of a University Professor to the 

 Directorship of a laboratory associated with a factory is the very 

 best illustration we have had in modern times of the way in which 

 industrial advancement is insured abroad. The book before us may 

 be described as a condensed epitome of the present state of know- 

 ledge concerning organic chemistry — full, accurate, and abreast of 

 the 'most recent discoveries. The original work has been revised 

 and brought up to date by the author expressly for this English 

 edition. The arrangement adopted is well calculated to impress 

 upon the student a sound knowledge of the chief characters of the 

 compounds of the various groups, and the author has throughout 

 kept in view the educational value of the branch of science on 

 which he writes by treating the subject as a logically connected 

 whole unburdened by the mass of purely descriptive detail which so 

 often repels the student of organic chemistry. The introductory 

 portion consists of thirty-two pages containing sections on the 

 usual general subjects, such as analysis, determination of formulae, 

 isomerism and polymerism, homology, radicals, classification, 

 physical properties, and fractional distillation. The remainder of 

 the volume forming the Special Part deals with the different groups, 

 classified in the first place into the two great divisons of Methane 

 Derivatives and Benzene Derivatives. This is certainly preferable to 

 the usual designations of " Patty " and " Aromatic." The Methane 

 derivatives are treated of under fifteen groups, viz. hydrocarbons, 

 haloid derivatives, monatomic alcohols, alcoholic derivatives,aldehydes 

 and ketones, monobasic acids, acid derivatives, polyatomic alcohols, 

 polyatomic monobasic acids, dibasic acids, tri- to hexabasic acids, 

 cyanogen compounds, carbonic acid derivatives, carbohydrates, 



