Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 57.djvu/224

214 then paint samples are brought for analysis. It is a collection of notes by a chemist who has had much experience along this line.

the field of applied chemistry quite a number of books have come out lately, the most useful of which is probably the seventh volume of 'The Mineral Industry.' The field of mineral resources and industries of the world is very thoroughly surveyed, and the volume is brought as closely down to date as possible. In this respect it has a great advantage over the corresponding publication of the United States Government. Among the subjects which are treated very thoroughly in the present volume are calcium carbid, fire brick and paving brick, coal mining methods and their economic bearing, progress in the metallurgy of copper and of gold, notes on the progress of iron and steel metallurgy (by Henry M. Howe), sulfuric acid, progress in ore dressing (by Robert H. Richards). It is a book necessary to the teacher, of great value to the economist and of much interest to the general reader. The second edition of McMillan's "Electro-metallurgy* is a considerable improvement on the former edition, and is brought well down to date. The greater part of the book is devoted to the electro-deposition of metals, and is thorough and satisfactory. It is, however, unfortunate that the treatment of electrometallurgical ore-extraction should be very inadequate, this whole subject, together with electro-refining, being confined to a single chapter of thirty pages.

'Chemische-technische Untersuchungsmethoden' is passing through its fourth edition, of which the second volume is just out. This treats of metals and metallic salts, fertilizers, fodders, explosives, matches, gas manufacture, ammonia and coal tar and inorganic colors. The book aims at exhaustive treatment, and while some subjects are in parts weak, as is naturally the case where there are many different authors, it is as a whole the best work in its field.

in a new line is H. and H. Ingle's Chemistry of Fire and Fire Prevention' (Spon and Chamberlain). The book takes its origin from lectures delivered to an audience of insurance men. After three chapters on the history and theory of combustion, various industries more or less connected with fire are taken up; coal gas, dust explosions, fuel, illuminants, explosives, oils, volatile solvents, paints and varnish making, textile manufactures, spontaneous combustion, are some of the subjects treated. The last chapter is a quite useful one on fire prevention and extinction. The book contains much useful information and should prove of very considerable value outside of the rather limited audience to which it is addressed.

past few months have witnessed the publication of many important works on zoölogical subjects, and among these it may not be amiss to note first Kingsley's 'Text-Book of Vertebrate Zoölogy,' since it adopts a new method, that of showing the bearing of embryology upon the morphology of vertebrates, and in turn, of morphology upon their classification. Its object is stated to be to "supplement both lectures and laboratory work, and to place in concise form the more important facts and generalizations concerning the vertebrates," and the author has succeeded in crowding a large amount of information into the 439 pages of the work. The illustrations are numerous, and for the most part very good, comprising some figures that have appeared in other text-books and some that are the outcome of Dr. Kingsley's own work. It is to be noted that in place of many of the standard European forms that have done morphological duty for years, we have such American types as Acanthias, Necturus, Amblystoma and Sceloporus, a change for which we are duly grateful.

and Haswell's admirable 'Manual of Zoölogy' has been revised