REVIEWS. 
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inorganic branch. If so, he would find the subject difficult in the extreme, 
and we do not see that, in such a case, the present volume would prove an easy 
introduction to the field of practical research. While, on the other hand, 
if the reader is already informed, so far as a six months’ course is likely to 
achieve, we fancy that he will consider much of Messrs. Thorpe and Muir’s book 
an idle task. Still, in all that relates to the ordinary laboratory work, the stu- 
dent will be fully recompensed by the perusal of this volume. For we find in it 
many of those little facts relative to the bending of tubes, the preparation of 
three-necked Florence flasks, and many other of those practical difficulties 
which the student eventually overcomes only through the aid of a good- 
natured chemical assistant. When to this we add an excellent system of 
qualitative analysis, we can say that the authors have done their work 
creditably. There is only one question we should like to ask, and that is 
whether the Fresenius mode of conducting the method of analysis be not 
more simple than the author’s F It certainly is shorter by dividing the ele- 
ments of analysis into three groups — the chlorohydric acid, sulphuretted 
hydrogen, and the sulphide of ammonium classes. In any case we are well 
pleased with these two works of Messrs. Longmans. 
LITTLE DINNERS.* 
A LTHOUGH a volume with the title of the present one hardly deserves a 
place in a Science Review, yet a cookery book, when well done, is 
really a work in which all men, whether savans or not, must feel an 
interest. And so it is, most unquestionably, in the present case. The book 
now before us is not one of the ordinary kind, whose instructions about the 
simplest dinner would be simply extravagant for anyone whose income was 
less than a thousand a-year. On the contrary, it is addressed to those who 
have been compelled to give up the cod and oyster-sauce, and the time- 
honoured saddle of mutton, as entirely beyond their income. The authoress 
has endeavoured to lay before her readers a very valuable variety of dishes of 
all kinds ; but it is of importance to bear in mind distinctly her remarks on 
the subject of dealing with the butcher and fishmonger, for these are of the 
utmost importance, more especially as we are aware how very universally 
they are neglected, and that by those who most need them. She says, “so 
far from there being any real difficulty in procuring the morceaux required 
for her little dishes in the following menus, they are precisely those which 
may be most easily and cheaply obtained. But it will not do, if economy is 
an object, to order them from the butcher or fishmonger. Ten to one if 
they will send the weight or cut asked for, and ten to one also if any other 
will answer. The Spanish proverb, ‘ He who wants a thing goes for it, he 
who would miss a thing sends for it,’ should be borne in mind by all house- 
wives and cooks. True artists are always most careful about the kind and 
quality of the material they use, and it is only by going to market and choos- 
ing for yourself that you will get the right thing. The system of sending for 
* “ Little Dinners ; how to Serve them with Elegance and Economy.” 
By Mary Hooper, Professor of Domestic Economy in the Crystal Palace 
School of Art. London : Henry S. King & Co., 1874. 
