book reviews The Student Chemlst Explores Organic Compounds
Ted Charney, William Cullen Bryant High School. Richards Rosen Press, Inc., New York, 1976. viii 116 pp. Figs. and tables. $4.80.
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This book is one of a series of short teats covering a wide area of scientific topics written for secondary school students. The author, an educator with wide experience both within and beyond the science class-
presents a basic introduction to organic chemistrv and assumes a t least a minimal school chemistry. The book begins with a general intraduction to organic compounds and a discussion of electronic structure and bonding. This material is presented in a rigorous manner and vet is verv readable and well oresented. gresses to a consideration of organic functional groups and finally discusses some rather complex biological molecules and drugs. He next discusses various types of isomers, a topic which might better have been introduced earlier in the book. This is however a very minor criticism. He concludes with a discussion of polymers, both biological and industrial. A short bibliography lists sources for further reading. The author has a goad sense of humor which he injects from time to time to make the reading enjoyable. He also discusses drugs and organic chemicsls of environmental concern such as insecticides, making the reader quite awareof the role organic chemistry plays in our everyday lives. The illustrations by Nancy Lou Gahan are quite adequately done and contribute well to an understanding of the text. While this reviewer has had no experience in secondary school teaching, his son (a ninth-grader with perhaps a greater interest and background in chemistry than most students) has read this book and also finds it well written. This book is highly reeommended for secondary school students with aseriaus interest inchemistry, in highschool chemistry classes, and also for their independent study and enjoyment. H. Stewart Hendrickson St. Olaf College Northfield, Minnesota 55057
A History of Chemical Theories and Laws
M. M Pattison Muir. A r m Press, New Yark, 1975. xx + 555 pp. 15.5 X 22.5 cm. $32. Matthew Moncrieff Pattison Muir (1848-19311, Senior Fellow and Praeleetorin chemistry of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge University from 1877 to 1909, was
(Continued on page A54) A52 / Journal of Chemical Education
book reviews a Scotsman who was more successful as a writer than as a research worker. Mr. Muir (his graduate education a t UniversitSt Tiibinge" was interrupted by the Franco Prussian War, and he never obtained his advanced degree) earned the nickname of "Bismuth Muir" by his 18 articles on campounds of that element published in the Journal of the Chemical Society from 18761888, but in the 1880's he turned to historical studies, and it is in this field that he made his greatest contributions. His chef d'oeuure, "A History of Chemical Theories and Laws," originally published in 1907 by Chapman and Hall in London and John Wiley and Sons in New Yark is now once again available in a reprint edition issued by Arno Press as part of its History, Philmaphy, and Sociology of Science series. Broadly speaking, historical studies may be chronological, biographical, or topical. From the beginning of his career "Patty" Muir's chief interest in chemistry was philosophical, and the bookunder review here, in which he attempted-quite successfully in my opinion-to depict "the main lines along which the science of chemistry has advanced to its oresent oosition" without obscurine thpm u ~ t htot. much detail, ineorpornres the Iup~calappnnach ,\s thr nothor h~mrelfre. iterates s+vrral times, hi5 hook ra selertive and is in no way to be construed as a history of the entire field of chemistry. Yet it considers topics that are part of any general chemistry course (or, to a lesser extent, of any organic chemistry or physical chemistry course), and instructors of such courses may find it a useful source of supplementary material for introducing the historical dimension into their lectures. The book is somewhat similar to Ida Freund's "The Study of Chemical Composition'' (originallypublished in 1904 by Cambridge University Press and reprinted in 1968 by Dover Publications), but, since it covers a wider range of subject matter, it is less detailed. Muir was a great admirer of Miss Freund's work, and he refers several times to her book. Muir has carefully organized his book around what he considered "have always been the two main questions of chemistry, although the forms wherein these questions have been stated have differed much a t different times.'' The book is accordingly divided into two parts: I. "The History of the attempts to answer the question, What is a homogeneous substance?" (197 pp.) and 11. "The History of the attempts to answer the question, What happens when homogeneous substances interact?" (337 pp.). Although an introductory chapter (47 pp.) sketches the progress of chemical conceptions from the ancient Greeks to 1780, the book is mainly concerned with events from the time of Lavoisier to the beginning of the 20th century. The main ideas of the 16 chapters aregeneralized and linked by several excellent summaries. Among the topics that are discussed are the followine: atomic theorv. combustion. con-
colligative properties, isomerism, allotropy, noble gases, chemical nomenclature and notation (a separate appendix), acids, bases, A54 / Journal of ChemicalEducation
salts, radicals, types, valence, and the selflinking of carbon atoms, the structure of benzene, stereochemistry, optical isomerism, electrochemistry, the periodic law, affinity, mass action, equilibrium, Le CMtelier's principle, the phase rule, and thermochemistry. The list reads like a syllabus for an introductory chemistry course. Muir was one of the first to recoenize the imoortance of Ostwald'a rrsrnrch on the lawotmnsr nctmn, and he runrludrs hi* \.olume with a 71-page chapter idiridrd into tvio srction4 on the then relatively new branch of science known as physical chemistry. As far as possible, Muir has allowed the "greats" of chemistry to speak far themselves, and the hook abounds with quotations and tables of numerical data. It also contains many footnotes along with a 19-page index. The book originally sold a t $ L a tidy sum in those pre-World War I days-and when one considers the pace of inflation in the ensuing seven decades, the current price of $32 is not a t all unreasonable. Arno Press is to be cangratulated for reprinting "one of the earliest works to self-consciouslyanalyze a science as a growing and shifting body of ideas." ~
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George 0. Kauttman Csiifornia Slate University Fresno. California 93740
Science Observed: Science As a Social and Intellectual Actlvlty
F. R. Jeuons, University of Manehester. George Allen &Unwin Ltd., London. Distributed by Crane, Russak & Co., Ine., 1973. 186 pp. 14.5 X 23 em. $11.95. Liberation and the Alms of Science: An Essay on Obstacles to the Bullding of a Beautiful World
Brian Eosleo, University of Essex. Rawman and Littlefield, Totowa, New Jersey. 1973. xiv + 370 pp. Figs. 16 X 24 cm. $17.50.
To a great extent, both of these British observers of the current state of science, and of its contemporary social consequences, focus on the same issues. For example, in the Popper-Kuhn dialopue, Kuhn stresses the centrality of commitment and faith characteristic of 'normal science' whereas Popper discerns falsifmbility as the ultimate criterion for the progress of scientific knowledge. For Kuhn, there is a scientific revolution when a conversion from one paradigm to another occurs among a minority of scientists. The impetus for this is the intuition that a new paradigm is neeessary to resolve some outstanding puzzles rather than a disagreement of theory with experiment. Charisma and rhetorical persuasion play an important role. Easlea, a t some length, discusses how Lakatos has attempted to moderate the differences between Popper and Kuhn. In Easleakview, Lakatos has not been taosuccessful in his attempt to defend Popper against Kuhn. Easlea, as Kuhn, maintains that i t is aesthetic dissatisfaction with a prevailing (Continued on page A561
