Jahresbericht uber die Fortschritte der Chemie, und verwandter Theile anderer Wissenschaften

Abstract

THE Jahresbericht is too well known as a trustworthy book of reference, both for chemists and physicists, to need commendation; and the care and judgment with which it is compiled have made it almost indispensable to those interested in science. In these days, when the amount of work done—both useful and useless—is so great, it is no slight convenience to have the year's labour carefully sifted and preserved for reference in a single volume. The present volume, under the editorship of Herr Adolph Strecker, is arranged with all the care which has characterised previous numbers, and contains numerous papers of unusual importance. Among the most important of these may be noted Becquerel's re searches on electro-chemical action, Graham's experiments on the occlusion of hydrogen by palladium, and the existence of the metal hydrogenium. Rammelsberg's researches on the periodates are given at considerable length, and also Bunsen's process for separating the platinum metals found in the residues of the Russian mint. In the organic section of the book very important papers are given on the constitution and derivation of benzol, toluol, and napthalin, and Gräbe and Liebermann's valuable researches on the preparation of alizarin from anthracene are fully described. Perhaps the success of the Jahresbericht has caused the Chemical Society to make the changes in their journal which, we understand, are in contemplation. We believe that it is intended toreproduce in the pages of the new journal all important researches made in this country and abroad, so that it will become to us what the Jahresbericht already is to Germany. If the same care is bestowed on its production that has always characterised its German contemporary, we anticipate for it a similar and deserved success. Jahresbericht uber die Fortschritte der Chemie, und verwandter Theile anderer Wissenschaften. Herausgegeben von Adolph Strecker, für 1868. (Giessen, 1870. London: Williams and Norgate.)