The Microscopy of Drinking-Water Examination of Water (Chemical and Bacteriological)

Abstract

THIS is an example of a class of books in the production of which the Americans are bidding fair to take a lead, the type of book which may be termed the popular practical scientific manual, where the limitation of the subject-matter and the thoroughness of treatment aimed at are worthy of the German, but devoid of that hair-splitting exactness which so often leads to obscurity; while the general style and breadth of treatment are essentially English, and at the same time are saved from the superficiality too common in native technical treatises, by the industry and original ability of the energetic American. At the same time, the present work is not devoid of a certain diffuseness, which we think is referable to the author's enthusiasm leading him into disquisitions too long for the proper purpose of the book, but which is possibly the more marked to us because he is writing about American waters in particular, and about conditions not known in England.

The Microscopy of Drinking-Water.

By G. C. Whipple, Biologist and Director of Mount Prospect Laboratory. Pp. xii + 300, and plates. (Brooklyn, N.Y.: Wiley and Sons. London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1899.)

Examination of Water (Chemical and Bacteriological).

By W. P. Mason, Professor of Chemistry, Rensselaer Polytechnic. Pp. 135. (New York: Wiley and Sons. London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1899.)