Am.  Jour.  Pliarra.) 
January.  1906.  / 
Book  Reviews. 
43 
ance  of  the  subject  under  discussion.  It  is  true  that  the  view  hitherto 
prevailing  that  fusel  oil  was  formed  from  the  sugar,  must  be  given 
up,  but  at  the  same  time,  the  experiments  of  the  writer  showed  that 
with  proper  readjustment  of  the  relative  amounts  of  the  sugar  and 
yeast  it  is  possible  to  convert  any  amount  of  leucine  that  may"  be 
added  to  the  fermenting  mash  into  amyl  alcohol,  which  can  be  later 
separated  in  the  usual  way  without  disturbing  the  conditions  of  the 
fermentation. 
For  the  future  manufacture  of  large  amounts  of  fusel  oil,  the  point 
of  importance  will  be,  therefore,  to  use  the  leucine,  which  is  easily 
obtainable  from  all  kinds  of  waste  products,  rich  in  proteid  matter. 
The  first  in  importance  of  these  sources  are  the  waste  liquors  from 
the  strontian  sugar-extraction  process  from  which  leucine  crystallizes 
out  directly  ;  also  the  waste  liquors  of  starch  and  glue  manufacture, 
and  horn  and  blood  waste-products  and  other  cheap  proteid  matter, 
which  will  be  conveniently  decomposed  in  advance  by  the  action  of 
acids  or  by  fermentation. 
It  is  to  be  hoped  that  by  combination  of  the  spirit  industry,  espe- 
cially with  the  chemical  and  industrial  manufacturing  branches,  a 
new  and  very  remunerative  branch  of  industry  will  be  developed. 
BOOK  REVIEWS. 
The  Follies  of  Science  at  the  Court  of  Rudolph  II.  By 
Henry  Carrington  Bolton,  Milwaukee.  Pharmaceutical  Review 
Publishing  Company,  1904.    Price,  $2.00. 
This  book  was  originally  published  as  a  serial  in  the  Pliafmaceu- 
tical  Review,  and  was  probably  the  last  literary  effort  of  its  author, 
he  having  died  in  November,  1903,  a  little  over  a  month  after  the 
appearance  of  the  last  installment. 
Rudolph  II  was  Emperor  of  Germany  from  1576  to  161 1,  but  he 
was  more  interested  in  art  and  science  than  in  the  affairs  of  State, 
which  he  entrusted  largely  to  others.  Unfortunately,  however, 
Rudolph  was  of  a  superstitious  and  fanatical  turn  of  mind  and  he 
was  more  concerned  about  the  Elixir  of  Life  and  the  Philosopher's 
Stone  than  the  discovery  of  Kepler's  laws  or  the  truths  of  chemistry. 
For  more  than  thirty  years  charlatans,  who  flocked  to  Prague,  the 
seat  of  the  Emperor,  from  all  parts  of  Europe,  continued  to  rise  and 
