250 THE ANALYST. REVIEWS. A COURSE OF QUALITATIVE CHEMICAL ALALYSIS. By the late T. G. Valtwtin, revised and corrected by V. R. Ho@&imot&, Ph.D., and A: H. C h a p w ~ . London : J. and A. ChWChill. IN the former Editions of Talentin’s Qualitative Analysis the undoubted value of the book was obscured for general students, by the exceedingly copious use of constitu- tionalformulm In the present edition this drawback has been modified to a great extent, and the formdm and equations given are such as to be easily grasped by any ordinary student. There can be no doubt of the care with which Messrs. Hodgkinson and Chapman have done their work, and on careful perusal we have been struck by the freedom from wrata, and from the unreliable reactions too often introduced in such works.The acid course is extremely good, and is a real one, worthy of the name of a course, and the preliminary examination with sulphuric acid, so impor.ant from a practi- cal point of view, is fully entered into. We also find special instiwctions for the analysis of insoluble cyanogen compounds and silicates. The general poition of the book occupies 240 pages, and following that ve have 43 pages devoted to the rare metals, and the whole concludes with a set of illustrations of spectra. To tjum up the merits of the book in a single sentence, we say that it is one of the best works of English origin on the subject of general mineral Qualitative Analysis at present before the public, and does its present revisers the utmost credit. When the constitional fonnuh (which are really out of place in a strictly practical book) are altogether removed, it will become all that can be desired.TULETS 03 Cm&ircfi hziLp8rs. By Armattd Xempls, B.A. London : BailliAre’s EP is a, great pity that the compiling of theso tablets was not left by the proprietors of the (( Students’ Aids Series” in the hands of a practical analytical chemist. We do not cloubt that following the course laid down for bases, the student may eventually come to the right conclusion, but the same effect might be produced in an infinitely more simple manner. Take, for instance, the second gro~p, and keeping in remembrance the fact &at the book only deals with one base and one acid, we have a direction to distinguish B g from Bi and Cu by the action of boiling hydrochloric acid on the group pre- cipitate (if black), involving, of course, filtration and washing.Then, again, although PbS is specidly mentioned as a possible constituent of the precipitate, we have no conhnation for lead given. Now, it appears to us, that any practical analyst getting a blaok with 31,s insoluble in N&ES would simply take a little of the original solution and settle at once whether it was Pb by adding a drop of diluts H,SO, and then finish the affair by the action of ICHO to distinguish between Hg, Bi and Cu in a manner which we advise the author to try. Again, in the third group, the examiners who want to catch a man crammed upon these tablets, have only to give him calcium phosphate and upset the whole affair. The acid courm is wisely not called a course in (( steps ” but in ‘ 4 trials,” and it mould be there the candidate’s ‘( trials ” would, in our opinion, begin.There are no directions for the proper preparation of the solution 80 necessary before acid terjting, and the very first (‘ trial ” vith AgNO, l a d s the unhappy student ( 4 Students’ ‘Aids Series.”THE ANALYST. 231 is a maze of fifteen possible acids. It is astonishing that with so many real acid courses at his hand in other works, the author should not have adopted one of them where the abseuce of certain acids are properly assured, and all those capable of giving odours or appearances with B280a are first of all put out of the question or readily detected and specially confirmed in the original solution. We are sorry to be unable to commend this portion of the 8eries.b a TO PUBLIU €IEA,LTH, By J. L. T. Z’hzcdiehztm, ZD. London : Bailliere’s Students’ Aids Series.” THIS is an addition to a set of cram books, very justIy popular among medical students. That anything more than the merest sketch of the subject could be given within the compass of 50 short pages is of course absurd, but what is done is well and tersely expressed. In a word, the book is more an index to what to read than an actual work on the subject. As such it mill doubtless sell and fulfil its mission. THE ASSAY AND ANALYSIS OF IRON AND ,STEEL, IRON ORES AND FUEL. By Thomas Bayleg, London : Emmott and Co., and E. and IT must at once be admitted that this is an exceedingly tnseful little book, as it gives the pure and simple processes well and shortly described, and divested of undue verbiage.The matter it contains mas originally contributed by the author to the Medanical World, but is now extended and improved. The system is to give in large type the process for each determination as tested and approved by the author, and then to add, in smaller characters, all those processes which have from time to time been published by other workem in the same line, That, although in small compass, the work is really an exhaustive monograph, mill be at once apparent when we state that, commencing with the preparation of the specially pure reagents required for such work, it takes us through the estimation of manganese, phosphorus, silicon, sulphur, graphite, tungsten, carbon, chromium, titanium, slag, oxygen, nitrogen, &a, all in iron and steel.It then deals with iron ores, and finally, with the analysis of fuel. There are found a compendious set of recent analyses of such typical steels as those used by IGxpp, by the Russians, the Swedes, and in our own Royal Gun Factories, not to mention the products of Landore and the British Iron Go. There are fifteen illustrations, and in a word, the subject is well exhausted. This book will be found a very useful one by all interested in the impoi-tant industry with mhich it deals. THE ALELALI-MAXERS’ POCKET-BOOK. By 6. finge, Ph.D., and F. Aicrter, PkB. THIS book is the outcome of Dr. hnge’s work, under the auspicee of the Committee, formed some time ago, by the German Alkali-Makers’ Society, to decide upon fixed pro- cesses, specific gravity tables, and standards generally, to be recommended for universal use by all the members in the analysis and valuation of the various chemicals with which they deal.It is, as it were, the first attempt at the establishment of a manufacturers’ pharmacopoeia, intended to hold good until officially revised at a future date. Only one definite process is selected in each case, and no question of choice or detail is left to the Aztthor of “ A Pocket Book for Chen~i‘sts.” F. N. Spon. London : George Bell 8t Sons, York Street, Covent Garden.232 THE ANALYST. judgment of individuals. Conimencing with 70 pages of useful tables, the book devotes a similar space to the analysis of such articles as fuel, pyrites, salt cake, manganese ore, limestone, lime, bleaoliing powder, potassium ohlorate, black ash, soda, ash, nitrate of Boda, chloride and sulphate of potash, gas liquor, ammonium sulphate, furnace gases, gtc, ; concluding with rules for sampling and for making standard solutions. I t is a work which must of necessity find a place on the shelves of every chemist dealing with the subject.