EDITORIAL. 
189 
centrated  extract.  It  is  strongly  recommended  by  medical  officers  of  the 
army,  who  have  extensively  used  it  in  hospital  practice. 
A  Manual  of  Inorganic  Chemistry,  arranged  to  facilitate  the  experimental 
demonstration  of  the  facts  and  principles  of  the  Science.    By  Charles  W. 
Eliot  and  Frank  H.  Storer,  Professors  of  Analytical  and  of  Industrial 
Chemistry  in  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology.    Second  edition, 
New  York;  Ivison,  Phinney,  Blakeman  &  Co.,  1868  ;  pp.  664,  12  mo. 
A  pretty  thorough  glance  over  the  pages  of  this  book  has  left  an  im- 
pression highly  favorable  to  its  merits  as  a  "  Manual  of  Inorganic  Chem- 
istry/'   It  is  written  in  a  style  at  once  agreeable  and  effective,  arranges 
the  subjects  in  natural  groups,  and  at  the  commencement  demonstrates 
every  step  in  advance  by  experiment,  until  the  student  is  rendered  familiar 
with  the  analytical  and  synthetical  methods  of  chemical  investigation,  and 
brings  in,  where  most  appropriate,  the  discussion  of  principles  and  the  ex- 
planation of  processes,  laws  and  methods,  so  as  to  impress  the  beginner  in 
each  case  with  an  example  in  the  discussion  of  the  subject  then  before 
him. 
Commencing  with  oxygen,  nitrogen  and  hydrogen,  air  and  water  are 
very  fully  considered,  and  in  the  demonstration  of  their  composition  the 
nature  of  atoms  and  molecules,  the  processes  of  distillation  and  solution, 
the  diffusion  of  gases,  the  nature  of  combustion,  flame  and  oxidation  are 
explained.  At  this  early  stage  ammonia  and  its  composition  and  relation- 
ships is  discussed,  followed  by  the  explanation  of  empyrical  and  rational 
formulas,  impressing  the  student  with  the  nature  of  those  two  schemes  of 
composition,  carefully  guarding  him  from  too  great  a  reliance  on  the  latter. 
The  chapter  on  chlorine  compounds  commences  with  the  nature,  prep- 
aration, and  uses  of  hydrochloric  acid  before  speaking  of  chlorine,  after 
which  the  other  compounds  of  chlorine,  followed  by  bromine,  iodine  and 
fluorine.  The  next  chapter,  a  most  interesting  and  instructive  one,  is  on 
ozone  and  antozone,  in  which  the  remarkable  properties  of  these  modifi- 
cations of  normal  oxygen,  as  far  as  their  occult  character  will  permit,  are 
developed. 
The  sulphur  group  is  then  discussed,  in  which  the  nature  of  the  pro- 
cesses of  crystallization  are  explained,  followed  by  the  subject  of  combina- 
tion by  volume  as  applied  to  the  numerous  gaseous  compounds  previously 
noticed.  Phosphorus,  arsenic,  antimony  and  bismuth  are  grouped  together 
as  in  close  relation  to  nitrogen.  Here  toxicological  researches  bearing  on 
the  subject  are  brought  in,  and  the  process  of  liquid  diffusion  as  developed 
by  Graham  under  the  name  of  dialysis  applied  and  explained. 
The  next  group  is  carbon  boron  and  silicon.  Under  carbon  some  of 
the  leading  subjects  in  chemical  philosophy  are  brought  in  ;  also  the  prep, 
erties  of  charcoal  as  a  disinfecter,  absorber,  reducer  and  decolorizer.  The 
authors,  in  considering  the  important  relations  of  carbon  with  organic 
matter,  use  the  following  language  :    "  The  best  definition  of  the  so-called 
