Geology and Natural History. 101 



4. Chemical Calculation Tables for Laboratory Use; by 

 Horace L. Wells. 8vo, pp. 43. New York, 1919 (John Wiley 

 & Sons, Inc., $1.25 net). — This is the second edition, revised and 

 considerably modified, of a little book intended particularly for 

 the use of students and practitioners of analytical chemistry in 

 making logarithmic calculations. It gives tables of atomic 

 weights, gravimetric and conversion factors, formula weights, 

 multiples of the atomic weights of the elements commonly occur- 

 ring in organic compounds, as well as a few other useful tables, 

 including a five-place table of logarithms of numbers which is 

 provided with a convenient double thumb-index. The present 

 edition is printed on bond paper in order that it may be durable. 

 The employment of this book should make the work of accurate 

 calculation more rapid and less laborious than is often the case. 



II. Geology and Natural History. 



1. The U. S. Geological Survey. Its History, Activities and 

 Organization. — Service Monographs of the U. S. Government, 

 No. 1. Published by the Institute for Government Research, 

 Washington, D. C, and printed by D. Appleton and Company, 

 New York, 1918. No author is given. — "The Institute for Gov- 

 ernment Research is an association of citizens for cooperating 

 with public officials in the scientific study of administrative 

 methods with a view to promoting efficiency in government and 

 advancing the science of administration." The visible part of 

 the Institute consists of six officers and eighteen trustees. In 

 this book is given the history and development of the early 

 explorations leading up to the present Survey; and the func- 

 tions, organization, and laws and regulations which govern the 

 latter. There is also a full bibliography of the sources of infor- 

 mation, official and private, bearing on the service and its opera- 

 tions. The study is wholly descriptive in character, and no 

 attempt is made at criticism. It is a very readable account of 

 what the U S. Geological Survey is doing, as seen by disinter- 

 ested parties. c. s. 



2. Manual of the Chemical Analyses of Bocks; by Henry S. 

 Washington. 3d edition. 8vo, pp. 269. New York, 1919 

 (Wiley & Sons). — In the last twenty years a notable improve- 

 ment in analytical work on minerals and rocks may be observed, 

 and especially with respect to rocks. On the one side, this is 

 owing to the development of superior methods of analyses, appa- 

 ratus, reagents, etc. ; but on the other, with rocks, it has largely 

 been due to a general inculcation of higher standards of work, 

 and a demand for more complete and exact results. This 

 general betterment in rock analyses we owe in great measure 

 to the work and writings of the author of the book before us. 

 This manual has become so well known to penologists and analy- 



Am. Jour. Sci.— Fourth Series, Vol. XL VIII, No. 284.— August, 1919. 

 11 



