382'  Reviews  and  Bibliographical  Notices,  {^"^xl^^risj?™' 
statements  having  been  made  by  us  in  an  editorial  note  on  page  251  of  our  June 
number.  We  do  not  quarrel  with  the  peculiar  views  which  Fraudax  entertains  of 
chemical  nomenclature,  reactions  and  manipulations,  but  shall  content  ourselves  to 
refer  to  the  closing  sentences  of  his  amusing  communication,  which  we  reproduce 
here,  italicized  as  in  the  original : 
"  There  are,  however,  the  grossest  kind  of  7;//jj/'atements  ;  and,  having  at  hand  no  other  evidence  than 
the  assertions  of  this  wonderful  cYiQunst,  it  will  be  well  to  take  for  granted  that  Mohr  did  ?iot  make  him- 
self so  outrageously  ridiculous  as  to  affirm  such  nonsense  as  that  starch  does  not  turn  blue  in  a  mixture  of 
ferrous  sulphate  and  free  iodine,  or  a  mixture  of  ferric  chloride  and  potassium  iodide,  since  it  is  such  an 
easy  matter  for  almost  any  one,  with  perhaps  the  exception  of  this  most  wonderful  chejnz'sf,  to  convince 
himself  to  the  contrary.  A  solution  of  ferrous  sulphate,  with  the  addition  of  only  a  trace  of  free  iodine, 
or  a  solution  of  ferric  chloride,  with  even  a  trace  of  potassium  iodide,  or  a  solution  of  potassium  iodide, 
with  a  trace  of  ferric  chloride,  will  histantly,  on  the  addition  of  starch-paste,  yield  an  abundant\A\xt.  pre- 
cipitate. In  a  mixture  of  ferric  chloride  and  potassium  iodide,  the  presence  of  free  iodine  amply  man- 
ifests itself  by  its  odor;  even  if  only  loosely  combined,  there  could  be  no  smell.  We  will,  however,  hear, 
even  after  this,  of  the  deiiionstrated  existence  of  ferric  iodide,  and  bear  witness  to  the  disgusting  spec- 
tacle of  these  would-be  chemists  making  asses  of  themselves." 
In  the  note  referred  to  above,  we  have  given  the  years  in  which  the  investigations 
of  Mohr  and  Nickles  were  made,  and  it  would  have  been  easy  enough  for  any  one, 
except  such  a  self-sufficient  critic  and  authority,  to  satisfy  himself  of  the  correctness 
of  the  quotations,  by  consulting  the  journals  or  annual  reports  for  those  years, 
which  are  specially  devoted  to  chemistry.  Fearing,  however,  that  Fraudax  might 
execute  similar  harlequinades  upon  the  assumption  that  translators  would  missrepre- 
sent  the  facts  ascertained  by  others,  if  not  in  direct  accordance  with  his  crude  views 
or  cruder  experiments,  we  refer  him  to  the  periodicals  where  the  papers  cited  have 
been  originally  published,  and  trust  that  he  may  profit  from  their  perusal,  or  demon- 
strate to  his  own  satisfaction  that  in  both  cases  the  editors  and  printers  have  been 
guilty  of  making  misstatements  in  publishing  detailed  accounts  of  experiments,  in 
which  Fraudax  is  unable  to  succeed.  Mohr's  paper  appeared  originally  in  vol.  cv, 
(1858)  page  53,  of  "  Annalen  der  Chemie  und  Pharmacie,"  edited  by  Friedrich 
Woehler,  Justus  Liebig  and  Hermann  Kopp  5  and  Nickles'  essay  was  first  published 
in  full  on  page  161,  vol.  v,  4th  ser.  (1865)  of  "Annales  de  Chimie  et  de  Physique," 
edited  by  Chevreul,  Dumas,  Pelouze,  Boussingault  and  Regnault.  We  would  also 
suggest  to  Fraudax  thai  the  perusal  of  the  writings  of  Berzelius,  Liebig,  Otto,  Du- 
mas, Graham,  Gregory,  Watts  and  others,  would  be  likely  to  give  him  a  little  infor- 
mation, concerning  ferric  iodide  and  other  allied  subjects. 
Our  apologies  are  due  to  our  readers  for  deviating,  in  this  instance,  from  our 
course,  in  refering  to  such  an  attack,  and  while  promising  that  we  shall  not  trouble 
them  again  with  a  notice  of  such  scholarly  emanations,  we  leave  them  to  judge  as  to 
whether  this  anonymous  Fraudax  has  not  been  playing  Dogberry  with  the  most 
unqualified  success. 
REVIEWS  AND  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTICES. 
Proceedings  of  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences.  New  Series,  Vol.  II, 
(Whole  Series,  Vol.  X).  From  May,  1874,  to  May,  1875.  Boston:  Press  of 
John  Wilson  &  Son,  1875.    8vo,  pp.  535. 
Among  the  many  valuable  papers  of  this  volume  we  notice  botanical  essays  by 
Prof.  Asa  Gray,  Sereno  Watson,  and  W.  G.  Farlow  5  contributions  from  the  phys- 
