BOOK REVIEWS Comprehensive Analyfical Chemistry. Volume 1B. Clasricd Analysis
Cecil L. Wilson, Queen's University of Belfast, Ireland, and David W. Wilson, Sir John Cass College, London. Elaevier Publishing Co. Distributed in the United States by D. Van Nofitrand Co., lnc., Princeton, New J e r ~ e y , 1960. xxii 878 pp. Figs. and t,ahles. 16.5 X 23 em. $30.
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This is the~econdpart of Volume 1, Classical Analysis. As was part one (THIS JOURNAL, 37, A 384 (1960)) thin contrihution to the literature of analytical ehemistry was eagerly awaited. Superlatives are insufficient to describe the excellent scope and value of this new chemical
series. The editors, their advisory board, and the contributors to each part are to he highly commended for their combined efforts. Volume IA, Classicitl Analysis, consists of six chapters including chapters on: Inorganic Qualitative Analysis, Organic Qualitative Analysis, and Inorganic Gravimetric Analysis. Volume ll3 includes chapter 7, "Inorgmic Titrimetric Analysis" (398 pages) and chapter 8, "Organio Quantitative Analysin" (429 pages). As in 1A there is good balance h~tweenthe theoretical and practical aspects of the topics. The laboratory directions and accompanying nobes for each snalytical procedure are detailed and clear. Chepter 7 is eompo~edof 10 parts including passages on bheory and principles, apparatus, acidimetry and alkalimetry, argentometric methods, 11 commonly used oxidants and reductants, s
98 page section devoted to titrations with EDTA, and a brief section on miseellaneous reagents. To illustrate the breadth of coverage presented in this chapter attention i~ drawn to the EI)TA passage. Here are included such topics ss stability of complexes, visual and instnlmental end-point detection, list of elements determinable, procedures involving both direct and back titrations, and general statements on precautions and calculation of results. Chapter 8 includes 1 hltsio subdivisions: Treatment and Weighing of Samples, Determination of Elemenbs, Determination of Functional Groups, and Titrations in Non-aqueous Solvents. The elements covered are carhon, hydrogen, nitrogen, the halogens, sulfur, oxygen, and many metals. The analyses for all common functional groups are covered in detail. I t is especially valuable to have this up-to-date compilation of these elemental and functional group methods. The passage on "on-aqueous titrations is brief (59 pages), hut the reference list for this passage is very extensive. Figures and tables are adequate. A more adequsk index could have been prepared. I t is diffioult in a, comprehensive text of this type for each reader to be in complete agreement with all aspects of the manner of presentation. Any criticisms, however, become minor when it is realized that these volumes are peerless. Volume 1B is a first clam work containing more than 2000 references t o the original literature. Enough said!
J. M. PAPPBNEAGEN Kenwm College Gambier. Ohio
A Textbook of Chemidry Stella Goostray, Philadelphia General Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and J . Rae Schwenck, Sacramento City College, Sacramento, California. 8th ed. The Macmillian Co., New York, 196.1. xiii 502 pp. Figs. and tables. 14.5 X 21.5 cm. $6.95.
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This hook is written for a one year oourse for nurses. The author8 are extremely optimistic that student nurses may assimilate inorganic, organic, and biological chemistry in a single course. Especially is this true with the more difficult biochemistry based on a meager foundation of fundamental chemistry presented as a hodgepodge of facts with very few correlating principles. The concepts of the male, periodic table, equilibrium, atomic structure, and moloculsr bonding are mentioned briefly but rarely used. The Arrhenius concept of acids and hams is used throughout. Eketron transfer is not used with oaidationreduction rcaotions. Words and terms are used without definition, although a glossary is provided in the appendix. On page 23 atomic weight is used but not defined until page 35. Exponential numbers are used as early as page 34 with an inadequate explanation of such numbers on page 204. (Continued mz page A768)
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Journal of Chemical Education
BOOK REVIEWS On pages 204-5,pH is defined in terms of logarithms, hut logarithms are neither defined nor tabulated in the hook. On page 217 there is a suggested difference hetween vdence and undefined oxidation number, and this is the only time the latter term secms t o appear in the book, including the glossary. There are statements whieh varv from the fallacious t o the half-true to the misIrading. These are the kinds of statemants which stndents will grasp and remember. The following are examples: "Acids, bases, m ~ dsalts are ionic compounds.. ." (p. 172); "All bases in water solutions arc alkalies hut not all nlkalies
are haues" (p. 181,; I n discussing methods for expressing hydrogen ion concentration, "One is by use of the cH notation, whieh reoresents the numher of emms of hvdrogeh that are srtunlly ionized within a liter of solution" (p. 204). For thaw familiar with the seventh edition, the format is similar. The n e s edition is more clearly divided into three parts: I. Besic Concepts of Chemistry (Chapter.; 1-12); 11. The Chemistry of Carhon Comoaunds ( C h a ~ t e r s 13-161: 111. Appliei ~ i o l d g i e a i chemist& (Chapters li-29). As before, each chapter begins with a survey and outline and ends n i t h s. summary and qnestions and exercises. The entire book has been revised, but the text in Parts I and I1 is very similar t o chapters 1-17 in edition seven, except t h a t the old chapter 13 on the hala-
gens and alkali metala has been condensed and incorporated into the new chaptcr 2. The questions and exerrises are moshly the same Part I1 has been most extensively revised and expanded from five t o 13 chaptors t o give n more complete treatment t o foods, enzymes, digestion, metabolism, vitamins, inorganic selhs, hormones and blood. The appendices include a bihliography, glossary and a section on the removal of stains. The section on basic mathematics has been omitted in line with the almost complete omission of arithmetic. If i t is true, as the authors state, that more and more student nurses are coming wit,h a background of high nchool ehemistry, books of this type nhieh are inferior to the modern high school texts in chemical background material, will certainly discourage more prospective nurses than they will encourage. The chemistry course for nurses still awaits a modern, mthoritntive, and imaginative textbook. MILTOXK.SNYDER The Colomdo Colleye Colorado Sprinqs, Colorado Analytical Chemistry of the Rare Earths
R. C. V i c k e ~ y , Malihu, California. Pergamon Press, Inc., New York, 1961. Volume 3 of the International Series of Monographs on Analytical Chemistry. viii 139 pp. Figs. and tables. 14.5 X 22 rm. $6.50.
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The-Radiochemistry of the Rare Earths, Scandium, Yttrium and Actinium
P. C. Stevenson and W. E. Xervik, both of the Lawrence Radiation Laborator)., University of California, Livermore. National Academy of Sriences, Nationxl Refiearch Council, Noclear Sricnce Series, NAS-SS-3020, 1961. Available from the Office of Twhnical Services, Department of Commerce, Kashingtnn, 11. C. x 282 pp. Figs. and tables. 17 X 24em. Paperbound. $3.
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The increased interest in the chemistry of the lanthanide elements is reflected in the simultaneous appearance of these two monographs. I n the first, Dr. Virkery has provided a review of the different techniques used in rare earth analysis. Deserintions are eiven for samnle deeomnon-instrumental quantitative techniques. Perhaps the most valuahle aspect is the critical evaluation throughout of the various procedures with precautions against thc various pitfalls whieh can frustrate the uninitiated. In perticular thc chapters concerning absorption and emission spectrometry-visible, U.V., and S-ray-should be of intprrst to evwy chemist interested in instrumental analysis of the lanthanides. In general, the hook is easy t,o read and well-referenced with only an orrasional mistake ( e g , the omission of Tahlr I in Chapter 3). Too descriptive and too limited in scope to be of broad general interest, this monogmph should be of interest t o strdents of s n a l y t i d chemistry who desire t o broaden (Continued on pnye A770)
