Elements of General Chemistry with Experiments. By John H. Long, M.S., Sc.D., Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Chemical Laboratories in the Northwestern University Medical School. Fourth edition, revised and enlarged. Illustrated. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston’s Son & Co., 1906.

That Professor Long was more than justified in writing this textbook is shown by the fact that since the appearance of the first edition in 1888 two other editions have been issued, and it has been necessary now to issue a fourth edition. The time has gone by in all of the sciences when it can be said that a student is acquainted with fundamental principles unless he has repeated some of the classroom work in the laboratory. As Dr. Long well says: “Repetition is necessary to fix elementary principles thoroughly in the mind of the beginner.”

The present edition contains some additional matter on the theories of solution, the conditions of chemical equilibrium, some newer views of chemical theory and the description of several new substances. The book is a remarkably good one for the beginner, and is well adapted to the needs of the Freshmen class in any of the colleges where a general course in inorganic chemistry is given.

Chemical Abstracts. Published by the American Chemical Society. Vol. I, Nos. 1 and 2. Easton, Pa.: The Chemical Publishing Co. January 1 and 20, 1907.

Under this title the American Chemical Society has begun the publication of an independent semi-monthly periodical which shall furnish to American chemists at short intervals a full and comprehensive series of abstracts covering the whole range of pure and applied chemical science together with the titles of American, British, French and German patents on chemical subjects.

The importance and value of this undertaking can hardly be over-estimated. The Journal of the English Chemical Society has long covered somewhat similar ground, but hardly in the complete manner that our American society has now attempted; the Journal of the Society of Chemical Industry has always made a feature of its abstracts and patent references, but these cover applied chemistry only; the German Chemical Society some years ago took over the publication along with its Berichte of the Chemische Centralblatt for this same purpose of furnishing a complete series of abstracts, but it was felt that our American Chemical Society should take up this work for its own membership, now numbering over 3000 chemists.

So the Society for the future will publish its Journal as a monthly for original papers and communications, of which it has as many as it can possibly find room for in its twelve issues, and the Abstract Journal as a semi-monthly, covering the whole field of pure and applied chemistry under some 30 subdivisions, of which pharmaceutical chemistry is one. That this subject will be cared for in an appreciative and intelligent way can be assumed, as we note that Prof. A. B. Stevens of Ann Arbor is in charge of the abstracts in this field. For those who are not members of the Society the subscription price is as follows: Journal of the American Chemical Society, monthly, $6; Chemical Abstracts, semi-monthly, $6; for both journals sent to the same subscriber, $10. Members of the American Chemical Society receive both journals for the annual membership fee of $8.