Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  1 
September,  1899.  / 
Reviews. 
439 
This  volume  of  Allen's  well-known  book  is  one  of  the  most  valuable,  deal- 
ing, as  it  does,  with  the  whole  range  of  the  fatty  oils  and  their  products.  The 
previous  second  edition  was  a  most  satisfactory  reference-book  for  chemists, 
and  its  value  has  been  distinctly  added  to  in  this  revised  edition.  It  is  true 
that  there  has  appeared  in  the  meantime  a  special  work  on  this  general  sub- 
ject that  has  immediately  taken  first  rank,  viz.,  Lewkowitsch's  English  edition 
of  Benedict's  "Oils,  Fats  and  Waxes,"  but  there  is  room  for  both  books. 
While  Allen  is  not  quite  so  encyclopaedic  in  taking  up  the  list  of  fatty  oils,  his 
discussion  of  analytical  methods  is,  in  many  cases,  fuller  and  more  satisfactory, 
and  some  of  the  technical  side  products  of  great  importance  find  more  ade- 
quate notice  in  Allen  than  in  Iyewkowitsch. 
As  in  Vol.  I  of  the  American  revised  edition,  noticed  in  this  Journal,  Vol.  LXX, 
p.  629,  frequent  reference  is  made  to  the  official  methods  adopted  by  the  Asso- 
ciation of  Agricultural  Chemists,  and  these  are  given  in  full  detail.  Thus,  on 
p.  38,  we  have  the  method  for  the  determination  of  melting-point ;  on  p.  59, 
Vollny's  modification  of  Reichert's  method  in  full,  as  adopted  by  the  Associa- 
tion ;  and,  'on  p.  183,  the  methods  now  adopted  for  butter  analysis. 
The  special  points  of  value  in  this  revised  edition  are  quite  numerous,  and 
we  cannot  more  than  select  a  few  for  special  mention.  The  tables  of  the 
refractive  power  of  different  oils  with  the  oleo-refractometer,  on  pp.  73  to  75, 
are  valuable  when  taken  with  the  working  directions  for  the  use  of  the  instru- 
ment given  on  p.  72. 
Twitchell's  recent  method  for  separating  the  fatty  and  resin  acids  is  given, 
and  fully  discussed  on  p.  107. 
The  mention,  on  p.  150,  of  the  newer  siccatives,  which  are  used  in  solution, 
such  as  the  resinates  of  manganese  and  lead,  is  also  satisfactory,  as  is  the 
account  of  the  use  of  aluminum  oleate  in  adulterating  heavy  mineral  oils  for 
the  purpose  of  fraudulently  increasing  the  viscosity  of  the  oil. 
Very  timely  and  important  is  the  attention  paid  to  the  analysis  of  nitro- 
glycerin and  dynamite,  on  p.  337,  and  of  cordite  and  smokeless  powders,  on 
P-  343- 
The  section  on  cloth  oils  (or  wool  oils),  on  p.  369,  is  also  new  and  of  great 
value . 
We  notice  that  reference  is  made  at  several  points  to  Lewkowitsch's  work 
on  Oils,  but  no  page  is  mentioned.  This  is  a  drawback,  as  it  simply  involves 
loss  of  time,  if  one  must  hunt  it  up  from  the  index  or  table  of  contents. 
We  also  looked  in  vain,  under  the  mention  of  the  tests  for  adulteration  of 
olive  oil,  for  Milliau's  modification  of  Becchi's  test.  This  modification  has 
been  endorsed  by  official  recognition  in  both  France  and  Italy  as  an  improve- 
ment upon  the  original  Becchi  test. 
The  book,  taken  altogether,  however,  is  simply  indispensable  to  the  working 
chemist  who  is  interested  in  the  chemistry  of  either  food  adulteration  or  the 
technical  application  of  fatty  oils.  S.  P.  S. 
Die  ^EthERISCHEN  Oei,E  von  E.  Gildemeister  und  Fr.  Hoffmann.  Bearbeitet 
im  Auftrage  der  Firma  Schimmel  &  Co.,  in  Leipzig.  Mit  vier  Karten  und 
zahlreichen  Abbildungeu.    Berlin  :  Verlag  von  Julius  Springer. 
The  progress  of  organic  chemistry  has  in  many  instances  placed  many  of  the 
commercial  industries  on  a  more  or  less  sound  scientific  basis.  The  more  or 
less  crude  empirical  methods  have  been  supplanted  by  the  more  rational  modes 
