54 Scientific Intelligence. 



tical acquaintance with it. The second purpose has evidently 

 been more successfully carried out than the first. To a beginner 

 in the laboratory the book would be of much practical aid, as the 

 details for the preparation of compounds are clearly and copiously 

 given, but as a guide to the systematic study of the paraffine com- 

 pounds and their chemical structure and behavior the usefulness 

 of this volume seems doubtful. w. t. h. h. 



1 0. Histoire de la Philosophie Atomistique, par Leopold Mabil- 

 leau, 8vo, pp. 560. Paris, 1895. (Imprimerie Nationale.) — As the 

 title indicates, this work is a history of the various forms of atomic 

 philosophy, and it includes discussions of Hindu and Grecian 

 systems, as well as the theories of the Arabs and alchemists and 

 finally modern atomistic philosophy and the atomic theories of 

 science. The work has been crowned by the French Academy of 

 moral and political science and is evidently a notable philosophi- 

 cal production. The part devoted to scientific theories occupies 

 but a small portion of the book, and while this subject is well 

 presented from a historical standpoint, it offers little that is novel 

 to well-informed chemists and physicists. h. l. w. 



11. Modern Copper Smelting, by Edward Dyer Peters, Jr. 

 Seventh edition, 8vo, pp. 642. New York, 1895. (The Scientific 

 Publishing Co.) — The popularity of Dr. Peters' work on the 

 metallurgy of copper is shown by the fact that it has gone 

 through seven editions since 1887. The work has been the rec- 

 ognized authority upon the subject, both from the theoretical and 

 practical points of view, since its first appearance. The new edi- 

 tion has been re-written and greatly enlarged, bringing the sub- 

 ject up to date and describing the prevailing practice in all parts 

 of the world. The number of working-drawings has been largely 

 increased, and much new matter of a very important nature has 

 been added. In this connection the chapters upon the Bessmeriz- 

 ing of copper mattes, the electrolytic refining of copper and on 

 pyritic smelting deserve special mention and commendation. The 

 author uses the term "pyritic smelting," not in the sense of 

 smelting with sulphides in the old-fashioned way to produce 

 matte, but, as he defines it, " the fusion of sulphide ores by the 

 heat generated by their own oxidation, and without the aid of 

 extraneous heat such as carbonaceous fuel, etc.," a blast-furnace 

 operation which has lately become an accomplished fact in several 

 different localities. h. l. w. 



12. Comparison of the light- emission power of bodies at high 

 temperatures. — An important research by Mr. Chas. E. St. John, 

 late holder of the John Tyndall scholarship of Harvard Uni- 

 versity, has just been published. This research was conducted 

 under Professor Warburg in Berlin, and led to an interesting 

 method of comparing the light-emissive power of different bodies. 

 The question has an immediate practical bearing in relation to 

 the Auer burner and the Welsbach burner, the light of which is 

 produced by the vivid incandescence of the various oxides of the 

 rare earths zirkonium, yttrium, lanthanum, etc. — in the Bunsen 



