Chemistry and Physics. 659 



isfactory one. The methods described in it are frequently poorly 

 chosen or bad. Some of them are absolutely wrong. The most 

 astonishing thing of this kind that has been noticed is the method 

 given for the determination of the principal constituents of 

 apatite. The substance is to be placed in a porcelain evaporating 

 dish, nitric acid added and the liquid evaporated to dryness, and 

 so on, in order to determine silica and the other things. The 

 interfering effect of the fluorine in forming silicon fluoride and in 

 dissolving material from the porcelain dish is entirely overlooked, 

 although a method is given for determining fluorine in the min- 

 eral. This is practically the method of Berzelius, but even here 

 the fatal error is made of not mentioning the addition of silica 

 (when much of it is not present) before fusion with sodium car- 

 bonate, h. l. w. 



4. Household Chemistry for the Use of Students in Household 

 Arts • by Hermann T. Vulte. 12mo, pp. 254. Easton, Pa., 

 1915 (The Chemical Publishing Company). — This book gives a 

 large number of experiments to be carried out by the student in 

 the laboratory. These include many important tests and quanti- 

 tative determinations, and the course, in general, seems to be a 

 very good one. The book contains a large amount of descriptive 

 matter, and it appears that this contains some rather serious 

 errors. For instance, an old mistake, due to experiments with 

 oxygen containing chlorine, is here repeated in regard to the 

 oxygen of the air : " In materially increased amount it [oxygen] 

 is a poison to human beings." In the chapter on metals the 

 method for making malleable iron, the definition of steel, and the 

 description of the smelting of sulphide ores of copper are given 

 in a very unsatisfactory way. Malleable iron is made, not by the 

 slow cooling of cast iron, as stated, but by the long heating of 

 white iron castings in contact with oxide of iron ; steel contains 

 many other proportions of carbon besides the 1*5 per cent given 

 as characteristic ; it is not partly roasted copper ore that is treated 

 in the Bessemer converter but a blast furnace product called 

 copper matte. It is evident that students taking the course 

 require a rather extensive preliminary chemical training, and the 

 book is undoubtedly too technical to be recommended for the use 

 of general readers in connection with household matters. 



h. x. w. 



5. Chemical G-erman / by Fkancis C. Phillips. 8vo, pp. 

 252. Easton, Pa., 1915 (The Chemical Publishing Co.).— This 

 excellent text-book, which was noticed in this Journal at the 

 time of its first appearance, has now reached a second edition in 

 the short period of about two years. This circumstance indicates 

 that the book lias been largely used. It has been newly printed 

 for the new edition, but no extensive changes or additions have 

 been made. It is again to be highly recommended as an aid to 

 students who desire to read chemical German. h. l. w. 



6. A Gomp end, of Medical Chemistry • by Henry Lbsfmann. 

 12mo, pp. 241, Philadelphia, 1915 (P. Blakiston's Son & Co. 



