Am.jcur.l.harm,|        ^  Book  RevieWS.  517 
is  to  be  noted  that  the  author  gets  wrong  on  the  heHum  bibhography 
(as  every  one  else  seems  to  do)  for  he  says  that  "N  Lockyer"  dis- 
covered it  in  the  solar  chromosphere  in  1867.  It  was  in  1868 
that  J.  N.  Lockyer  saw  a  line  near  but  not  identical  with  the  sodium 
lines  while  examining  the  spectrum  of  a  solar  prominence.  Refer- 
ence is  made  to  Palmieri's  observation  of  a  peculiar  line  in  the 
spectrum  of  material  from  Vesuvius,  but  no  mention  is  made  of 
Hillebrand's  experiments  on  cleveite.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  no 
mention  is  made  of  the  peculiar  application  of  helium  as  a  substitute 
for  hydrogen  in  dirigibles  and  the  large  amounts  of  the  gas  that  were 
obtained  in  the  United  States  for  use  in  Europe,  just  prior  to  the 
armistice,  but  doubtless  the  time  has  been  too  short  for  the  incor- 
poration of  such  details. 
It  will  not  be  possible  in  the  space  available  to  present  in  any 
detail  the  merits  of  the  book.  The  amount  of  information  it  con- 
tains is  very  large.  The  translation  appears  to  be  well  done,  and  the 
translator  has  very  wisely  made  an  occasional  note  when  he  feels 
that  the  author's  statement  has  lost  its  value  by  the  progress  of 
discovery  or  he  has  accidentally  erred.  An  interesting  footnote  on 
the  effects  of  forests  on  rainfall  states  that  on  the  island  of  Malta, 
the  replacement  of  forests  by  cotton  areas  has  caused  the  rainfall  to 
be  often  deficient,  while  the  afforestation  of  St.  Helena  has  increased 
the  annual  rainfall  to  three  times  what  it  was  when  the  "little  cor- 
poral" was  the  resident. 
Dr.  Molinari's  book  deserves  the  success  it  has  had  for  the  first 
edition  was  soon  exhausted,  and  it  constitutes  a  valuable  addition 
to  library  of  both  the  teaching  and  works  chemist.  H.  L. 
The  Profession  of  Chemistry.    By  Richard  B.  Pilcher,  Registrar 
and  Secretary  of  the  Institute  of  Chemistry  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland.    Constable  Hall  &  Co.,  Ltd.,  London,  England. 
"When  a  boy  turns  a  room — probably  his  bedroom — into  a 
laboratory  and  starts  making  experiments  the  results  of  which  are 
commonly  obnoxious  to  the  other  members  of  his  home,  and  when 
the  household  is  startled  by  explosions  and  the  smell  of  sulphuretted 
hydrogen  penetrates  to  his  father's  study  the  question  immediately 
occurs  to  the  parent,  'How  can  the  boy  become  an  analytical  chemist?' 
Afterwards  he  learns  that  the  adjective  analytical  is  too  restrictive, 
but  we  will  deal  with  that  later." 
