A Dictionary of Applied Chemistry

Abstract

IT will be remembered that the first edition of Thorpe's “Dictionary of Applied Chemistry” appeared in 1890, when the great “Watts” was at the same time abridged and edited by Dr. Foster Morley and Mr. Pattison Muir. Since that time it has served as a standard reference book, and has had a most useful life. But in a subject so progressive as applied chemistry, twenty-two years are a very long period, and the call for this new edition has been imperative. It is very characteristic of Sir Edward Thorpe's inexhaustible energy and enterprise, that on the eve of his retirement from his official position-a time when most men would be looking for some leisurely occupation—he should undertake a task which might daunt the most vigorous of his juniors. We have reason to know that his editorship has been of the most active and real kind. We have heard from many sides of an almost inexhaustible flow of autograph letters of courteous but insistent character, addressed to gentlemen who, in some cases, were looking with unstable resolutions on approaching holidays; and we have seen on proof-sheets the track of the same pen constraining the exuberance of a contributor's verbosity. We feel sure that all chemists will unite in their admiration of Sir Edward Thorpe's achievement, and in acknowledgment of the latest of many great services which he has rendered to his time and generation. We may be permitted to anticipate that on his retirement he will return to the field of scientific biography, where he has accustomed us to look to him for work of such rare excellence.

A Dictionary of Applied Chemistry.

By Sir Edward Thorpe Assisted by Eminent Contributors. In five volumes. Vol. i. Revised and enlarged edition. Pp. viii + 758. (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1912.) Price 45s. net.