An Introduction to the Practice of Commercial Organic Analysis: Being a Treatise on the Properties, Proximate Analytical Examination, and Modes of Assaying the Various Organic Chemicals and Preparations employed in the Arts, Manufactures, Medicine, etc. With Concise Methods for the Detection and Determination of their Impurities, Adulterations, and Products of Decomposition. By Alfred H. Allen, F. C. S., Lecturer on Chemistry at the Sheffield School of Medicine, Fellow of the Institute of Chemistry of Great Britain and Ireland, Public Analyst for the West Riding of Yorkshire, the Northern Division of Derbyshire, and the Boroughs of Sheffield, Chesterfield, Barnsley, etc. Vol. I. Cyanogen Compounds, Alcohols and their Derivatives, Phenols, Acids, etc. Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston. Pp. 360. Price, $3.50.
This useful volume is the first part of an ample treatise which will be carried out if the reception of the present portion justifies the compilation of the second volume. The author has been moved to its preparation by a conviction of the palpable deficiency in this branch of chemical literature. While manuals of inorganic analysis abound, books on organic analysis, the author avers, are chiefly conspicuous by their absence. He says: "It is a lamentable fact that while our young chemists are taught to execute ultimate organic analyses and to ring the changes on the everlasting chloro, bromo, and nitro derivatives of bodies of the aromatic series, the course of instruction in many of our leading laboratories does not include even qualitative tests for such everyday substances as alcohol, chloroform, glycerine, carbolic acid, and quinine. As a natural consequence of this neglect, the methods for the proximate analysis of organic mixtures and for the assay of commercial organic products are in a far more backward state than is justified by the great inherent difficulties of this branch of analysis.
"Having in my own practice as a consulting chemist repeatedly felt the need of a convenient hand-book containing all reliable information respecting the methods of assaying and analyzing organic substances in common use, I presume that others will have suffered similar experiences, and hence that a work on' the subject will 'supply a want which has long been felt.'
"In the arrangement of the subject-matter I have ignored the more obscure relationships, and have preferred grouping the bodies treated of in a manner which it is hoped will be found convenient for practical reference, though such an arrangement has necessitated some inconsistencies."
The Relations of Mind and Brain. By Henry Calderwood LL. D., Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh. New York: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 455. Price, $4.
In the progress of modern psychology the organic side, or corporeal conditions of mind, has been brought into constantly increasing prominence, until now it is no longer denied that cerebral physiology is, if not a foundation, at least an essential part of mental science. But the necessity of having to mix up cells, fibers, blood capillaries, and protoplasmic pulp with subtile and refined mental operations, has been looked upon with great repugnance by the old-school metaphysicians. It has virtually divided them into two parties, one of which raises the cry of "Materialism!" and will have nothing to do with the new heresies; while the other accepts the situation, and is only anxious that the new views are not pushed too far. Among these more rational devotees of mental philosophy is Professor Calderwood, who, approaching the subject from the metaphysical side, has entered into the general inquiry of the physiological relations of the human mind. He thus explains the purpose of his book: "The object of the present work is to ascertain what theory of mental life is warranted on strictly scientific evidence. The order followed is to consider—1. The latest results of anatomical and physiological research as to the structure and functions of the brain; 2. The facts in human life unaccounted for by anatomical and physiological science, and requiring to be assigned to a higher nature. On the side of mental philosophy it must be recognized that analysis of consciousness can not be regarded as affording a complete survey of the facts of personal life. On the other hand, it is clear that the known facts connected with cerebral action do not include familiar phases of mental activity. If we allow ourselves to be engrossed with physiological investigations as to brain, we restrict our attention to a single class of
