later. Furthermore, a beginners' book ought, before all things else, to be interesting. "The main peculiarity of the present book," says the author, "is that it aims to teach children the history of the country by making them acquainted with some of the most illustrious actors in it. A child is interested, above all, in persons. Biography is for him the natural door into history. The order of events in a nation's life is somewhat above the reach of younger pupils, but the course of a human life and the personal achievements of an individual are intelligible and delightful." By this means, also, the young American gets distinct pictures of the careers of the great men of his country. It is easy, moreover, in a history of the biographical type, to adopt the modern style of describing the life of the people in former times, as well as the progress of public events. The author is convinced that the lamented lack of moral teaching in our schools can be largely supplied by the inspiring examples found in the careers of our great men. The author has availed himself abundantly of the aid of pictures in giving the pupil a vivid conception of the narrative. No precise mode of studying the book is prescribed, but brief suggestions for a topical recitation are appended to each lesson. The book is well adapted to be used as a class reader, and several school superintendents have already declared their intention of employing it in this way. The pictures are numerous and bear the signatures of some of the most eminent illustrators in America. The maps are bird's-eye views, and one, designed to show the territorial growth of the United States, has the successive additions of territory printed on successive pages, the blank parts of which are to be cut out.
Chemistry: General, Medical, and Pharmaceutical. By John Attfield, F. R. S., etc. Twelfth edition. Philadelphia: Lea Brothers & Co. Pp. 770. Price, $3.25.
This substantial volume is adapted to be the life-long companion of the pharmacist or physician—a manual of instruction in his student days and a work of reference in his business or professional practice. The author expressly disclaims the recognition of any such varieties of the science as medical and pharmaceutical chemistry, and uses these terms only to indicate that he illustrates the principles of chemistry by those facts of special interest to the followers of medicine and pharmacy. "From other chemical textbooks," he states in the preface, "it differs in three particulars: first, in the exclusion of matter relating to compounds which at present are only of interest to the scientific chemist; secondly, in containing more or less of the chemistry of every substance recognized officially or in general practice as a remedial agent; thirdly, in the paragraphs being so cast that the volume may be used as a guide in studying the science experimentally. The order of subjects is that which, in the author's opinion, best meets the requirements of medical and pharmaceutical students in Great Britain, Ireland, America, India, and the English colonies." A few leading properties of the elements are first given, some of the fundamental principles of the science are next stated, and then the properties and relations of the elements and the compound radicals are presented in detail, attention being directed to those qualities on which analysis and synthesis depend. The chemistry of the carbon compounds is next considered. Practical toxicology and the chemistry of morbid physiological products then receive attention. The concluding sections form a laboratory guide to the chemical and physical study of quantitative analysis. In the appendix is a long table of tests for impurities in medicinal preparations; also a short one of the saturating powers of acids and alkalies, designed for use in prescribing and dispensing. In his arrangement of the radicals, the author "has preferred to lead up to, rather than follow, scientific classification," for the reason that systems of classification give "undue prominence to one set of relations and undeserved obscurity to others." The metric system is alone used in the sections on quantitative analysis; in other parts of the volume avoirdupois weights and imperial measures are employed. Numerous etymological notes are scattered through the book. A list of questions follows each section. The present edition contains what alterations and additions have become necessary since the appearance of the eleventh in 1885. The work now includes the whole of the chemistry of the United States Pharmacopœia and nearly all that of the British and
