Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 41.djvu/283

Rh older economists were disposed to view the science too largely from the point of view of the needs and actions of the "economic man" an ideal construction actuated only by economic motives, instead of those of the actual man, in the determination of whose economic action many motives enter besides those that are strictly economic. Paramount among these are the ethical forces, family affections, and other altruistic feelings, which in any given set of conditions are sufficiently uniform to produce conduct that may be predicted. The introduction of considerations of this kind as economic factors, while leaving the older conclusions substantially as they were, tends to give to them much less sharpness of outline, and presents economic laws more as statements of general tendencies than as a set of fixed and invariable conditions.

The book is well printed and bound and of convenient size, and is provided with marginal notes indicating the subject-matter. An appendix concerned with the application of mathematics to economic problems, and an index complete the volume.

great have been the changes in the chemical treatment of materials in the various industries since the author's last edition of this work appeared that the present edition is practically a new book. The eleventh edition was completed by Wagner shortly before his death in 1880. The twelfth edition, which was issued in 1886, was edited by Dr. Fischer, who cut out the matter that had become obsolete, and inserted references to recent improvements in the processes treated, but made no extensive changes. In the present edition the work has been wholly remodeled; the alphabetical arrangement of the subject-matter has been replaced by a classified grouping; new subjects have been introduced, the latest developments in old subjects have been inserted, and about half the six hundred illustrations are new.

Since fuel is indispensable in every department of technology, it is first considered, over one hundred pages being given to this subject and lighting. Both the preparation and use of heating and lighting materials are considered. The greater part of this section is new matter. In Section II, Metallurgy, a new subdivision on potassium and sodium is inserted. Section III is devoted to Chemical Manufacturing Industry, including the production of sulphur, sulphuric acid, soda, explosives, ammonia, salts of the metals, etc. New topics in this section are water, manures, and thermo-chemistry. Section IV, on the Organic Chemical Manufactures, has been written entirely anew. This chapter includes alcohols and ethers, organic acids, benzol colors and other organic coloring matters, etc. The fifth section is devoted to glass, earthenware, cement, and mortar; the sixth deals with Articles of Food and Consumption; and the seventh with the Chemical Technology of Fibers, while the eighth is a miscellaneous group, comprising the products of hides, bones, and fats, the essential oils, resins, and the preservation of wood. Thermometric, hydrometric, and other tables are appended to the volume. The translation has been carefully edited by Prof. Crookes, with the omission of some passages of merely local application and the insertion of notes and bibliographical references, making the version much more valuable to English readers than a simple translation would have been.

this small volume of three hundred odd pages Mr. Findlay has detailed the working and management of one of the great English railways—the London and Northwestern. His description includes the financial and business as well as the mechanical operations of the road. What strikes the reader of these pages the most forcibly is the thoroughness with which all the details of operation have been worked out, and the care exercised over these details to assure the perfect operation of the road at all times. To this end the road is placed under the most detailed supervision, as well as being provided with the various modern appliances