464 Scientific Intelligence. 



Philadelphia, 1920 (P. Blakiston's Son & Co.) —With the excep- 

 tion of a few slight changes the present edition of the book 

 corresponds to the first one which appeared in 1913. It repre- 

 sents a course of lectures given at Liverpool University by the 

 late Professor Brown, whose notes were revised by the editor for 

 publication. There is a frontispiece portrait of the author and 

 a sketch of his life, and there are more than 100 illustrations, 

 including the portraits of a number of chemists. 



The book gives an excellent account of chemical history from 

 the earliest times. The author appears to have been particularly 

 interested in the history preceding the rise of modern chemistry, 

 so that practically one-half of the book deals with those early 

 times previous to about 1775. Probably the book contains more 

 details about the names and writings of the alchemists than most 

 readers will care to follow closely, but there are interesting 

 chapters concerning the aims, methods and symbolism of those 

 searchers for the transmutation of the metals. It is the last 

 half of the book that is of particular interest to students of 

 chemistry since it deals with the development of the modern 

 science. h. l. w. 



4. The Simple Carbohydrates and the Glucosides; by E. 

 Frankland Armstrong. Third Edition. Royal 8vo, pp. 239. 

 London 1919 (Longmans, Green and Co. Price $4 net). — This 

 is one of the series of monographs on biochemistry. It gives a 

 clear and concise account of the sugars and their compounds, their 

 nomenclature, the theories regarding their moleeular structures, 

 their synthesis, etc. There is a very extensive classified bibliog- 

 raphy which adds greatly to the usefulness of the book. It 

 is a very valuable monograph for the use of students who are 

 familiar with the subject so far as it is dealt with in the 

 ordinary text-books and wish to know what has been done in 

 this interesting and important branch of organic chemistry. 



h. l. w. 



5. Chemical Reactions, their Theory and Mechanism, by K. 

 George Falk. 12 mo, pp. 211. New York, 1920 (D. Van Nos- 

 trand Co. $2.50 net) . — This book gives an interesting discussion 

 of the theories of valence in connection with chemical compounds 

 and of the theoretical mechanism of their reactions. Not many 

 ideas that are fundamentally new are presented, but some striking 

 modifications of previous theories are brought forward. It is 

 attempted to develop a general theory of reactions which will 

 include those of both inorganic and organic substances, by 

 assuming that an addition product is always the first step in both 

 kinds of reactions, but it appears doubtful to the reviewer that 

 this view will be generally accepted for the ionic reactions. The 

 ideas of the connection of the electron with valence are adopted 

 in a very satisfactory way, particularly in connection with 

 water of crystallization and other molecular compounds. Consid- 

 erable use is made of Thiele's ideas in connection with the 



