Synthetic Aminoglucosides.

hydrochloric acid, and forms the corresponding cupric | some, at least, of the other alcohols related to ipuranol potassium or cupric ammonium ferrocyanide respectively. With potassium chloride the reaction is represented by the equation CuH2Fe(CN)6 +2KCl = CuK2Fe(CN)6 + 2HCI. With sodium chloride solution in the cold only half the hydrogen of the copper compound is replaced, thus: CuH2Fe(CN)6 + NaCl = CuNaHFe(CN)6 + HCl, forming the triple salt, cupric sodium hydrogen ferrocyanide, which has a dirty brown colour. When this triple salt is digested in a solution of potassium or ammonium chloride, the remaining hydrogen atom is replaced, forming one equivalent of hydrochloric acid and cupric sodium potassium or cupric sodium ammonium ferrocyanide respectively.

where G stands for the "glucosidic" group, and R1, R2, &c., for amino-acyl residues. Syntheses of complexes In view of these results it would appear probable that of this nature are now being carried out.

NOTICES OF BOOKS.

Outlines of Physical Chemistry. By G. SENTER, D.Sc. (Lond.), Ph.D. (Leipzig). Third Edition. London: Methuen and Co., Ltd. 1912.

A VERY short period of time has elapsed since the first publication of this book, which at once met with the success it thoroughly deserved as an elementary text-book of physical chemistry. In the third edition the most important alterations are firstly the fuller treatment of Colloidal Solutions, which could be adequately discussed in two pages in the first edition, whereas now a whole chapter is devoted to their preparation and properties and to the consideration of the phenomenon of adsorption. Secondly, a useful collection of problems has been added. In these problems references to the text and occasionally hints for solution are given, as well as the answers.

Leather Chemists' Pocket-book. Edited by Prof. H. R.
PROCTER, M Sc., F.I.C., F.C.S., assisted by EDMUND
STIASNY, Ph.D., and HAROLD BRUMWELL. London :
E. and F. N. Spon, Ltd. New York: Spon and
Chamberlain. 1912.

Electricity made Plain. By GEORGE R. PEERS. Manchester and London: John Heywood, Ltd.

THE general public with no special scientific knowledge is perhaps more interested in electricity and its applications in everyday life than in any other sciences, and any book which throws light upon its apparent mysteries in nontechnical language, if reasonably well written, should be sure of meeting with success. But the author of this book does not appear to be as capable of putting himself in the place of the unitiated reader and explaining from his point of view as the writer of popular scientific books should be. Nor are his statements always above reproach of inaccuracy; for instance, he speaks of those terms known as "Ohm's Law, and they are: Volt, Ohm, Ampère," and the actual law is never stated, though it is used in calculations. Moreover, the diagrams which are lettered but not explained, would frequently convey absolutely nothing to the reader. The author pays a good deal of attention to financial statistics and details, and treats fairly fully the applications of electricity in medicine.

Metropolitan Borough of Poplar. Annual Report for the Year 1911. By FREDK. WM. ALEXANDER. THIS Annual Report contains interesting information concerning the electrolytic disinfecting fluid which is distriTHIS book is intended for use as an adjunct to Prof. buted gratis in the Borough of Poplar. The report gives Procter's "Leather Industries Laboratory Book," and is statistics of its consumption, which is continually increasing, based upon manuscript sheets which have been for some and the adverse criticisms which have been directed against time in constant use by the students in the Leather Depart-manufacture and of the special difficulties which had to be it are commented on. A brief account is given of its ment of the University of Leeds. It follows the order adopted in the larger work, and gives succinct directions overcome when the manufacturing plant was first installed. for the analysis of water, the recognition and estimation of tannins, oils, and fats, and the analysis of leather, and, La Teinture dn Coton. ("The Dyeing of Cotton"). By although the subject is treated from an elementary point of view, the book will probably be found quite comprehensive enough for the use of the average student, while the practising chemist, who will also find it valuable for its clear directions and hints on the choice of methods and working details, can when necessary refer to the Laboratory Book for fuller information and for the discussion of the theoretical aspects of the analytical work relating to the leather trades.

Transactions of the American Institute of Chemical
Engineers. Volume IV. 1911. New York: D. van
Nostrand Company. London: E. and F. N. Spon,
Ltd. 1912.

THIS Volume contains the full reports of the meetings of
the American Institute of Chemical Engineers held during
1911, and the addresses and papers read before the Institute
are also reproduced in it. Many of these relate to subjects
of international interest, as for example the Presidential
Address, by Dr. F. W. Frerichs, on Some Problems in
Chemical Engineering Practice. Others deal at great
length with the reports of the Committee on Chemical
Engineering Education in America, and with the Patent
System in the United States.

By G. Fourth 1912.

Second Stage Inorganic Chemistry (Theoretical).
H. BAILEY, D.Sc.(Lond.), Ph.D. (Heidelberg).
Edition. London: University Tutorial Press.
IN the fourth edition of this book a chapter, which will
repay careful study and thorough assimilation, on the
theory of qualitative analysis has been added, and some
parts of the original text which dealt with organic
chemistry have been omitted. The book completely
covers the syllabus of the Lower Examination in Inorganic
Chemistry of the Board of Education, and also deals with
some subjects which are not required in that examination.
Thus there is a short, but clear and interesting, chapter on
radio-activity, and the outlines of crystallography and of
spectrum analysis are also discussed.

The

E. SERRE. Paris: H. Dunod and E. Pinat. 1912. THIS book contains a detailed account of the processes employed in the dyeing and printing of cotton. history and theory of dyeing are first briefly discussed, and then the properties of water, sulphuric acid, caustic soda, sodium sulphate, and various other raw materials used in the industry are described. Methods of preparing some important substances are given, with a certain amount of analysis and quantitative work. In the second part the treatment of the cotton before dyeing is first discussed, and the different dyes-substantive, basic, alizarine dyes, indanthrene dyes, &c.-are then considered in turn with considerable completeness. Full instructions are included for the use of each dye, and specimens of the tints produced are also given.

Das Erdöl. ("Petroleum.") Edited by C. ENGLER and
H. V. HOFER. Volume I., Part I. By C. ENGLER.
Leipzig: S. Hirzel. 1912.

THIS treatise on petroleum, which is the work of a number
of authors in collaboration and is to be complete in five
volumes, aims at giving an exhaustive account of the
geology, physics, chemistry, and technology of petroleum,
surpassing in comprehensiveness and fulness of detail any
other treatise in the German language. In the first volume
the results of the physical and chemical examination of
petroleum and its allied products are given. Original
papers and articles are examined critically, and every
effort has been made to sift thoroughly all the great mass
of detail which has been accumulated and to pass over no
results which are well-attested and of undoubted
accuracy. In the early part of the book chapters are
devoted to certain phenomena and processes which play
an important part in the production, purification, or em-
ployment of petroleum, such as catalysis, dissociation,
polymerisation, &c., but by far the greatest part of the
book deals with petroleum itself, its behaviour on heating
and towards reagents, its constituents, and its physical
properties, and it would be difficult to suggest any ampli-
fication or extension which could add to its value.

CHEMICAL NEWS,

Jan. 10, 1913

}

Chemical Notices from Foreign Sources.

V. Congrès International de Photographie. ("Fifth Inter-
national Congress of Photography"). Edited by CH.
PUTTEMANS, L.P. CLERC, and E. WAllon. Brussels:
Emile Bruyant. 1912.

THE proceedings of the fifth International Congress of
Photography, held at Brussels in the summer of 1910, are
given in full in this volume. The congress was divided
into three sections dealing with subjects of a scientific and
technical nature and with the reproduction of documents,
&c., by photography, and many questions of interest both
to amateur and professional photographers were discussed
at the meetings. All memoirs and communications ad-
dressed to the congress are also reproduced in full, those
which were in foreign languages having been translated
into French. These papers include one by Prof. Zeeman
on radiation in a magnetic field, and many of them are
well illustrated by diagrams and photographs.

Manufacture of Pressed Yeast"). By Dr. WILHELM

23

Mr.

north in 1882, and was until 1885 metallurgist and chief
chemist to the Sheffield Smelting Co., and from 1885 to
1889 he occupied a similar position in a similar works in
Birmingham. From 1889 to 1892 he was engaged as
works manager, metallurgist, and chemist to the Morfa
Copper Works and Williams Copper Syndicate, Ltd.,
Swansea. In 1892 he came to the Rand, and was first
employed as chemist to the Robinson G.M. Co.
Bettel was one of the founders of the Chemical, Metal-
lurgical, and Mining Society of South Africa, and was the
first president in 1894-5. The proceedings up to the time
of the war contain a large number of contributions from
his pen, and many of his methods have become classic.
Of late years he had been a frequent contributor to the
South African Mining Journal, and occasionally to the
CHEMICAL NEWS, London. He was a member of the
recently-formed South African Association of Analytical
Chemists, and until recently acted as an alternate on the
Council.-S. African Mining Journal.

KIB. Braunschweig: Friedr. Vieweg und Sohn. 1912. CHEMICAL NOTICES FROM FOREIGN

(M. 24).

THE pressed yeast industry is growing very rapidly both in magnitude and in importance, and there appears to be no reason to think that it will not see even greater extension in the near future owing to the increased use of its valuable by-product, raw spirit. This text-book for students and practical men by an author who has a very wide knowledge of the scientific questions involved in the preparation of pressed yeast, in addition to a lengthy experience of its manufacture on a large scale, will fill a gap in literature which has existed for many years, for the last treatise on the subject, Otto Durst's "Handbuch der Presshefenfabrikation " has for some time been decidedly out of date. The manufacture of yeast is treated very fully both from a technological and scientific point of view, and, far-reaching and complicated as the subject is, the author has been very successful in producing a really comprehensive account of it.

was

OBITUARY.

WILLIAM BETTEL.

THE chemical world of Johannesburg, and indeed of South Africa generally, is to-day considerably poorer by the death of Mr. William Bettel. Mr. Bettel's work in this country is well known, and it may be of interest to give a short summary of his technical training and career before his arrival on the Rand. From 1869 to 1872 he a pupil-assistant in the laboratory of Messrs. B. Samuelson & Co., Newport Iron Smelting Works, Middlesbrough-on-Tees. He attended the summer courses at the Royal College of Science, London, under the late Sir Edward Frankland during the years 1872 to 1873. In 1875, at the early age of twenty-one, he was appointed Public Analyst to the Borough of Middlesbrough, which appointment was confirmed the following year by the Local Government Board. The years 1874 and 1875 saw Mr. Bettel appointed Gas Examiner to the Corporation of Middlesbrough and Water Examiner to several urban and rural sanitary authorities. From 1873 to 1879 he practised all branches of his profession, and gained an invaluable experience. Depression in the iron trade and excessive competition caused him to leave Middlesbrough in 1879, and he went to Worcester, where for two years he was associated with Dr. Horace Sweete, who was then public analyst for eight districts. From 1881 to 1882 he was assistant to Edward Riley, F.I.C., analytical and consulting chemist and metallurgist, London. He returned

SOURCES.

NOTE. All degrees of temperature are Centigrade unless otherwise expressed.

Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de l'Académie des Sciences. Vol. clv., No. 22, November 25, 1912. Chemical Reactions of B-Gold. Crystallised Gold. -M. Hanriot and F. Raoult.-Brown gold is rapidly attacked by nitric acid, and the solution contains the nitrate (NO3)3Au.Aq. The action of hydrochloric acid on brown gold leads to the formation of auric chloride, AuCl3, mixed with a little aurous chloride, AuCl. In a neutral medium auric chloride hardly attacks brown gold, but in presence of hydrochloric acid solution occurs rapidly. When such a solution is cooled it deposits gold in crystals, partly rhomboid tetrahedra and partly dodecahedra. If the magnetic susceptibility of crystallised gold is examined it is found that it consists exclusively of the B-variety. Gold chloride appears to be a separating reagent for the two varieties of gold, one at least of which can be obtained in a pure state.

Carpiline, a New Alkaloid from Jaborandi.—E. Léger and Ferdinand Roques. When the basic mixture obtained from Pilocarpus microphyllus is converted into nitrate or hydrochloride, a certain number of bases remain in the mother liquors, and if these bases are precipitated a new alkaloid carpiline is concentrated in the first fractions. It crystallises in colourless anhydrous prisms which melt at 184-185°. It is soluble in chloroform, benzene, and boiling water, and slightly soluble in ether. Its formula is C16H18N2O3. It is a very feeble base, and its salts do not reduce potassium permanganate in the cold; the base is therefore saturated. Like pilocarpine it possesses a lactone function, and from its reactions it appears to contain the groups C8H11N2, C6H5—CH<, -OH, and

-0.

Its toxic action is very slight, and it does not act on the secretions in the same way as pilocarpine.

Influence of Radio-activity on the Development of Plants.-J. Stoklasa. From the study of the germination and development of seeds of Triticum vulgare, Hordeum disticum, &c., the author has found that the effect of radioactive water is to hasten germination and promote the growth of leaves and roots to an extraordinary degree. The radio-active waters of Joachimsthal hinder the development of certain micro-organisms, such as Bac. mycoides and Bac. fluorescens liquefaciens. The only exception which has been met with is Azotobactar chroococcum, which is

capable of assimilating gaseous nitrogen, and on the| Thus, the natural product gave an alloy of great hardness development of which radio active water has a less powerful effect than on other bacilli.

Royal Institution.-On Tuesday next, January 14th, at 3 o'clock, Prof. Bateson begins a course of six lectures at the Royal Institution on "The Heredity of Sex and Cognate Problems"; on Thursday, January 16th, Mr. Seton Gordon delivers the first of two lectures on "Birds of the Hill Country"; and on Saturday, January 18th, Dr. H. Walford Davies commences a course of three lectures, with musical illustrations, on "Aspects of THURSDAY, Harmony "(1) Chord Progression, (2) Added Dissonance, (3) The New Whole Tone Chord and its Predecessors. The Friday Evening Discourse on January 17th will be delivered by Prof. Sir J. J. Thomson on "Further Applications of the Method of Positive Rays"; on January 24th, by Prof. J. O. Arnold, on "Recent Advances in Scientific Steel Metallury"; and on January 31st, by Mr. George H. Trevelyan, on "The Poetry and Philosophy of George Meredith."

"Tempered Copper" Tools. According to the Engineering and Mining Journal, vol. xciii., No. 20, p. 986, the copper cutting instruments of the Tarascans, found in the Balsas River ruins in Guerrero, are so hard that they would turn the edge of a modern knife, and it has been claimed that these people, along with the Aztecs and Toltecs, possessed the secret of tempering copper. On the other hand, copper knives and axes, found at Atcopotzalco, are so soft that they can be cut with an ordinary pocket knife. Analysis showed that in all three localities the copper implements were of the same composition as the copper ores found therein. The blades FRIDAY, 17th.-Royal Institution, 9. "Further Applications of the

F. E. BECKER & CO., 17-27, HATTON WALL, E.C.

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