than a t the foot of each page. References ar late as 1966 are cited. The book has been made more sttractive and easier to read. The sentence for Dr. Fsrber died of lung cancer on structure has been tightened, and long July 15, 1969. Inasmuch its the first paragraphs have been divided into shorter edition was not reviewed in THIS IOUKN,\L, ones. Quotations, formulas, and equaa brief description of its scope and contents tions are now set off from. t,he main body may bein order. of the text. The excessive use of the "A survey of the historical development passive voice that eharacterised and of chemistry, from its origins to the presdeadened t.he first edition has been elimient time," this volume utilizes s. fresh nated by recasting verbs in the active approach; it is intended "to provrde a voice. Dates previonsly set off in parendeeper and fuller understanding of the theses are now incorporated into the ideas and methods of t,he science by sentence structure. Biographical data integrahg the evolnt,ion of chemistry are still scanty, but full names and into the context of history in general." life spans with place of birth or Despite the inclusion of detail, the emphaactivity are provided for most of the sis is always upon relationships and generpersons mentioned; these have all heen disations-historical, philosophicd, and brought up to date, ex., the dates of scientific. As much as possible, Dr. death (1968) for Otto Hahn and Lise Farber tells his fascinating story by Meitner are duly not,ed. Industrial procarefully and selectively quoting from duction figures have been updated, and material that is not readily accessible, the number of known elements is given such as early books and journals, lectures, as 103. and letters. Progress in other sciences, One might wish that Farber had inin particular, medicine, mineralogy, botcluded some of the big scientific stories any, zoology, physics, and engineering, of the past two decades such as the utilas they relate to the development of iaation of nuclear fusion, the discovery chemistry are drawn into the argument. of compounds of the "inert" gases, or the As might be expected of a chemist with unraveling of the structure of DNA, but such a varied and extensive industrial in all fairness to the author, these topics background, Farber, who holds more than do not readily fit into any sections of the 50 U.S. patents, gives dose and critical story as he hits ohosen to tell it. attention to industrial developments as Because of its abbreviated nature and well as to theoretical and experiment,al lack of detail on specific topics, Faberber's advances. book will probably not find widespread In contrast to three other methods of usage as a text for history of chemistry presenting the history of science, which courses. It will, however, be foond useful he designates as analytical, csit,ieal, and for supplementary reading in such courses. absolutistic, Fmber selects for t,his volume I t s survey approach, moreover, will s treatment which he calls realisbic hisalso make i t of interest not only to stutory-"the attempt to see past events as dents of chemistrv or ~racticinechemists the result of human readions, as human in the but also to reshers 'intereste; efforts to observe and understand, to advancement of scientific knowledge. produce and use materials and farces." GEORGEB. KAUFFMAN His humanistic approach seeks to discover California State College and interrelate the motives and feelings Fresno that are involved in creating science. The book is divided into three periods. The first, The Emergence of Chemistry (92 pp.) as a science out of the experiences of workers and artisans and out of the thoughts of philosophers, dates from A Biologist's Physical Chemistry oldest, records t,o the third quarter of the J . Gareth Monis, University of Leieighteenth century. The second, The cester. Addison-Wesley Publishing Development of Chemical Systems (167 Co., Reading, ~Massachusetts, 1968. pp.), describes events from the late xii 367 pp. Figs. and tables. 14 X eighteenth to the late nineteenth cen21.5 cm. Softbound. 56.50. turies. The final period, Expansion of Synthesis and Analysis (138 pp.), is Despite the merits of this book I was marked by specialhition and industrialideeply disappointed when I reviewed it. zation and includes events from the latter My disappointment may have resulted part of the nineteenth century to the from high expectations which were unmet, present time. Each period is prefaced or from the partieulrtr bias of a physical by s.brief survey chapter. chemist who is asked to comment on a The new edition represents an expansion hook for biologists. However, I believe of 25% over the first edition. The inthat there are mare fundamental problems, crease results from inclusion of addit,ional and I will use several examples to illusdetail and new t,opies as well an updating trate them. of old material. Although a few chapters During the past year I began teaching remain relatively unchanged, most show a course in physical chemistry for the varying degrees of revision, the most Life Sciences which was populated priextensive additions oceorrine in the last marily by junior and senior biology majors. two chapters (Organic Chemistry and The prerequisites for the course are a. year Biochemist,ry). each of calculus and physics. There is The format rem~insvirtually unchanged a paucity of good books for such s, course, except that references, which have inand I had hoped that "A Biologist's creased by 607' (from 276 to 440), are now (Continued on page A58) listed a t the end of each chapter rather
book reviews
+
-
A56
/
Journal of Chemical Educofion
book reviews Physical Chemistry" might meet my criteria for adoption which are: clarit,y of presentation a t a. relatively elementary Level; sufficiently careful development of principles in thermodynamics and ohemicd kinetics so t,hat a student will understand the basic concept,s and appreciate both the power of the theory and the limitations of approximations and eqwtions which are used; and a lmge number of problems, some of which are challenging, which illustrate the applicat,ion of iheory to real situations. The last of these criteria is partially satisfied in this boak by 5 large number of problems which are worked in the text as illustrative examples and unworked a t the end of chapters. Answers to the problems are provided in the appendix. IIowever, many of the problems are merely exercises in suhstitnting numbers into equations and they do not provide much challenge or insight. I would prefer problems which have been abstracted from the biochemical lit,erature wit,h appropriate references so that the student could refer to the original source and see the small problem in the larger context of real experimental research in biochemistry. Nevertheless, the large number and wide variety of problems is commendable since they do present the student. with an opportunity to see some important and interesting applications of thermodynamics and chemical kinetics in biochemistry. I n my opinion the fimt two criteria, are not met very adequately. At the outset the author attempts to calm the student whom he assumes to be frightened of even the most elementary mathematics. The first chapter of the book is entitled Mathematics Revision and it includes elementsry and secondary school mathematics. I do not object to a careful review of mathematics in a preliminary chapter (even such elementary concepts as common fractions and decimals), but I think that i t is s. serious error to coddle hiology students and to he overly concerned with "scaring off" students to whom even simple mathematics is anathema. The condescending tone of this boak which is established in the first chapter and propagated throughout disturbs me. I found the chapter on thermodynamics to he particularly objectionable. Equations appear myste~iouslyand the theory is all hut non-existent. Ilifferential notation is used with no explsnat,ion, and s t one point a differential equation is integrated by the-hagie sbatement "When this equation is int,egrated, we obtain the following relationship," without m y explanation of the meaning or the significance of the mathematical operation of integration. I suggest that a student who is not perplexed by this sleight of hand should not be dabblingin thermodynamics. I do not mean to imply that a. knowledge of calculus is essential to an understanding and application of same of thegritnd theory of thermodynamics, but I do believe that some of the simole emmetrical ideas of and equations even if one wishes to cir-
A58
/
Journal o f Chemical Educafion
cumvent explicit use of such terms as differentiation and integration. In the discussion of osmotic pressure, the author asserts the osmotic pressure equation without derivaiion and then states "The most satisfactory answer to the question 'Why does osmosis occur?' involves thermodynamic concepts which we shall not examine indetail until later (chapters 7 and 8). Briefly, i t concludes that a solute decreases the chemical potential (partial molar free energy or activity) of a solvent, and that the osmotic pressure of a solution is that pressure which must he exerted a n the solution to raise the chemical potential of it,s solvent so that it equals that of pure solvent a t the same temperature." All this comes a t a time when the incredulous student has not the slightest notion what chemical potential or partial molar free energies are. Fmthermore, contrary to expect,ation chapters 7 and 8 are not helpful in clarifying this confusion. The author seems to confuse a mixture of verbosity and liberal use of terms which sre unfamiliar to the student with a lucid or satisfactory explanat,ion. The discussion of activities and standard states is not very helpful. I do not see how a student can avoid confusion and the feeling that it is all irrelevant unless he turns to a. much more careful and thorough explanation such as the one which appears in Profeswr Klotz's book on "Chemical Thermodynamics." Numerous other examples of the inadequacy of the development of thermodynamics could he cited, but perhaps only one other is necessary. At the end of a 28 page chapter (7) on Background Thermodynamics there is a. paragraph headed Conclusion in which i t is stated: "Furthermore, we have discovered that i n an isothermal system a t constant pressure, what impels a spontilneous reaction is the tendency of the intrinsically unstable system to lase free energy and increase entmpy." This is either bad proofreading or had chemistry, but whichever is the case, I find it inexcusable. Similar objections are found in other parts of the book and the list is much too long to enumerate. However, a noteworthy failure is bhelack of a clear explanation of the systematic approach to the problem of determining concentrations of species and pH in solutions containing weak acids, bases, and buffers. Too many of these problems are solved by magic without an explanation that mass and charge balances are the essential featuns which must be combined with equilibrium constant expressions to match the number of equations which are required for e. unique solution to the number of unknowns. Unless the student understands this simple but often overlooked principle he will he hopelessly lost in dealing with even moderately complicated problems. On the other hand, when the systematic approach is used in conjunction with reasonable assumptions and the resulting approximations which can be easily verified the perceptive and curious student sees immediately the logic$ construction which leads to the magic e q u e tions. The real trouble with the magic equation approach is that i t requires that (Continued on page A60)
suddenly discovered a fertile field of exploration. I n the interests of making the study a. the problem solver know the answer hebrief one, the author has deliberately fore he starts. I n my experience students omitted most of the mathematics fonndations and experimental data. Hence, always find this to he puzzling. most of the hook is descriptive. While It is hard to see where this book would he appropriate as a. text. I n my opinion such a qualitative presentation is, in principle, not necessarily weak, i t would i t is too superficial to he of much use or appear that a greater use of principles real help to a serious student of biology. coupled with simple analogies might he RICHARD C. SCHOONMAKERpreferable in enlightening the novice as Oberlin College to the real nature of the study of the solid Oberlin, Ohio state. What has resulted, instead, is a potpouri of description that is fun to read hut probably not as instructive as i t might Properties of Solids and Their have been. Atomic Structures The chapters cover, almost as if they were truly separable topics, molecular H . J. M . Boloen, Uqiversity of Reading, solids, covalent solids, ionic solids, metals, England. McGraw-H111 Publishing Co., and semiconductors and defective solids. New York, 1967. viii 146 pp. There is an appendix devoted solely to Figs. and tables. 14 X 21.5 em. symmetry and crystal notation, far too Softbound. $3.95. briefly treated t,o be generally useful, and a list of further reading that is neither This small paperback may well serve sufficiently complete nor upto-date (for as an introduction to the subject for the publication date of the hook). I n second-year students, as the author notes addition, the Glossary (which is relrttively in his preface, or as an easy-to-read huge for a hook of this size) is very wesk; summary of solid state behavior. I t is, many of the definitions are either very of course, totally inadequate as text provincial, limited or actually inaccurate material for a college course or for in(e.g., the definitions for acid, alloy, madepth coverage needed by the reader to matic ring, atom, diffractia, element, broaden his knowledge of this fascinating mole, Raman spectrum, reducing agent, field. The book joins a rapidly expsnding and ualency, among others). The British list of others covering the various aspects pell ling and terminology may also confuse of solid state chemistry and physics, an occasions1 U S . student. written to meet the needs of academicians Lest the reader think that all is had, and industrial practitioners who have
book reviews
+
A60
/
journal o f Chemical Education
i t must he noted that the book daes pravide a stimulus to inquiry by r&ing many of the unanswered questions of the field. The semiquantitative discussion of binding energies in various types of solids, their comparison to thermal energies and the interpretation of this comparison in terms of properties are very well done and a t just the right level for the intended reader. I n addition, the treatment of the optical properties of solids is concise and sufficiently rigorous. The reader's interest will be captured while the groundwork is laid from which more sophisticated understanding can emerge. I n summing up, the book is spotty, but us* ful; i t contains inaccuracies of fact and currently-accepted interpretations, hut is easy to read and interest-catching. I have a. list of 17 major cavils, mostly dealing with theory; someone who is wellversed in modern concepts of chemical physics would be advised to buy the hook for the fun of locating these and possibly others. F o r the general reader, if he can spare the time and modest price, reading the hook will provide an interesting view of the field. I t csn be a profitable one, perhaps, if he daes so with some care to examine for accurscy and with a determination not to rely too greatly on all the theory.
J. JUSTER NORMAN Pasadena City College, Pasadena, California 91106 (Continued a page A68)
