Chemistry and Physics. 479 



which was heated by a measured electric current until it pro- 

 duced the same effect as the radiferous material, and this value 

 was determined also by Bunsen's calorimeter. It was thus found 

 that 1 g. of radium gives off a quantity of heat amounting to 

 about 100 small calories per hour. One gram-atom (225 g.) of 

 radium would therefore give every hour, 22,500 caL, a quantity 

 comparable to the heat evolved by the combustion of 1 gram of 

 hydrogen in oxygen. The authors remark that the continuous 

 disengagement of such a quantity of heat cannot be explained by 

 an ordinary chemical change. If it is supposed that the produc- 

 tion of heat is due to an internal transformation, this must be 

 profound in its character, and must be due to a modification of 

 the radium atom itself. However, if such a transformation 

 exists, it takes place with extreme slowness, for the properties of 

 radium do not undergo appreciable ; variations in the course 

 of several years at least. Therefore, if the transformation 

 hypothesis is true, the energy produced by the transformation of 

 the atoms must be extraordinarily large. The hypothesis of a 

 continual modification of the atom, however, is not the only one 

 compatible with the disengagement of heat by radium, for the 

 fact may be explained by supposing that radium utilizes some 

 exterior energy of unknown nature. — Comptes Hendus, cxxxvi, 

 673. h. l. w. 



6. Analytical Chemistry ; by F. P. Treadavell. Translated *" 

 from the Second German Edition ; by William T. Hall. Vol. 



I, Qualitative Analysis. 8vo, pp. xi, 466. New York, 1903. 

 John Wiley & Sons. — This is a rather elaborate work on qualita- 

 tive analysis, possessing many excellent features. The descrip- 

 tions of the operations are full and clear and the methods appear 

 to be generally well chosen. However, the retention of the test 

 for barium and strontium with calcium sulphate, which has gen- 

 erally been abandoned, and the omission of the very delicate 

 potassium cobaltic nitrite test for potassium, have been noticed. 

 The equations of the reactions are very fully treated, and the 

 treatment of the acids is unusually extensive. A supplement 

 deals with the rarer metals. Analytical tables, to which some 

 teachers object, are used, but it is the author's experience that 

 these give the best results. The translation appears to have been 

 very well done, but a few errors, particularly in the equations, 

 indicate some lack of care in proof-reading. h. l. w. 



7. JBeitrage zur Chemischen Physiologie, herausgegeben von 

 F. Hofmeister. III. Band, 9-12. Braunschweig : Vieweg und 

 Sohn. 1903. — The most notable contribution in the concluding 

 numbers of this volume is the paper by Stoklasa and his cowork- 

 ers, giving an account of the anaerobic metabolism of the higher 

 plants and its relation to alcoholic fermentation. It is demon- 

 strated that the enzyme zymase is widely distributed in the 

 vegetable kingdom, and that alcohol and carbon dioxide are 

 metabolism products excreted by the vegetable cells even under 

 conditions where micro-organisms are completely excluded. The 



