1670
JOURNAL OF CHElMICAL EDUCATION
It is a careful, scholarly work that should prove of the greatest usefulness to every one interested in this increasingly important subject. The fundamental theory is developed by a number of methods and the applications are reported in sufficient detail so as to make their understanding as simple as possible. If any criticism is to be made of this exceedingly worth-while hook, it is that it bears too closely the earmarks of a compilation. The author appeared to he a bit too near the original papers in preparing his manuscript. In other words, the impression is not given of the master who searchingly surveys the field and writes with a complete understanding, but rather of the careful reporter who displays diligence and scholarship. However, the reviewer finds the author pleasingly frank in not thrusting the Donnan Theory into realms where its application is questionable. In this respect the book performs a real service to the theory. The work is so replete with simple linear algebraic equations that the question arises whether this very normal method of treatment makes for clearness.' The reviewer cannot escape the thought that this fruitful and penetrating idea of Donnan's should be phrased in poignant and clarifying sentences rather than in dull algebraic equations. No one has yet thundered the message of the Dounan Theory; Jacques Loeb tried it, but he also befogged the sweep and beauty of the idea with a maze of dry equations. This is the main fault of the book. W. A. PATRICK Txs
JOHNS HOPYINS UNIYBRSITY BALTIMORE, M A R Y L A N D
SEPTEMBER,1932
in agriculture, biology, home economics, physical education, and pharmacy as well as for premedical and predental courses the book offers a well-rounded course in the fundamentals of organic chemistry. The subject organization is in general excellent and the matter well presented There are numerous tables of properties of compounds which are instructive and helpful. There is one full-page reaction chart, that of the unsaturated hydrocarbons, which is rather complete. In view of the nature of the course it would seem that more of these charts would be desirable. The text abounds in graphical formulas and reactions which serve to fix the structural relations of organic compounds more definitely in the mind of the elementarv student. Appropriate problems a t the end of each chapter serve to emphasize the importance and applications of the principles developed in the text. The chapters on protdns and amino acids, dyes, and carbohydrates are excellent. It is of doubtful value to place the chapter on cyclic and other compounds of nitrogen ahead of the carbocyclic campounds and it is also somewhat misleading to describe cocaine and atropine as pyrrolidin$ derivatives. A list of twenty-eight experiments is placed a t the end of the book. These,althoughcarefullyorganized and selected, seem somewhat brief and inadequate for a semester of organic chemistry which is designed for premedical students, but would meet the need in the other fields where the foundation is not so rigorous. The bwk is unusually free from errors and is well organized. On the whole it should fill nicely a place in the Keld for which it is desinned.
An Introduction to Organic Chemistry. GARARD, Ph.D., P T O ~ ~ Sof FO ChemT istry in the New Jersey College for Women, Rutgers University. John Wi296 pp. ley and Sons, Inc., 1932. ix 15 Figs. 15 X 23 em. $2.75. IRA
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Designed for the beginning student with but one semester t o devote t o organic chemistry in preparation for further study
Organic Syntheses, Volume XII. F. C. WHITMORE, Editor-in-Chief. John Wiley &Sons, Inc., New York City. 1932. iii 96 pp. 15 X 23 cm. $1.75.
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Volume XI1 of this "annual publication of satisfactory methods for the prepara-
