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JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
ences to standard texts and laboratory manuals is given,. as well as seventeen tables of data required in calculations. Those who are familiar with the previous edition will welcome the improvements and enlargements in the present edition. This book will appeal to many teachers as containing a greater number of experiments that are workable, than is frequently the case with hooks on this subject. D. C. LICHTENWALNER Dasxar. I~srrrurn PHIL*DBLPS.T*.
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An Introduction to Organic Chemistry. JOHNREAD.M.A. (Cambridge), Ph.D. (Ziirich), BSc. (London); Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Chemical Research Laboratory in the United Colleges of St. Salvator and St. Leonard in the University of St. Andrews; formerly Professor of Organic Chemistry in the University of Sydney. G. Bell & Sons, Ltd., London, 1931. viii 365 pp. 12.75 X 19.5 cm. 6s. 6d. The author begins and ends this book with two apposite quotations from Mrs. Marcet's "Conversations on Chemistry" (1825), which give a hint o f his interest in the history of chemistry, as is shown also in his larger textbook of organic chemistry, of which the present is a "shortened and modified form." "As in the parent work, the treatment of aliphatic chemistry is written about the important groups of fats, carbohydrates, and proteins, and a broad s u m y of the subject is completed by a sketch in outline of the chemistry of aromatic, alicyclic, and heterocyclic compounds." I t is partly intended for one-course students interested in such fields as biology, agricultwe, medicine, pharmacy, economics, domestic science, etc. The first 265 pages are devoted t o the aliphatic series, including a short chapter giving a brief summay of aliphatic types. The remainder is a discussion of ring compounds with chapters on heterwclic compounds and a final one on organic dyes and medicinal chemicals.
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DECEM~ER, 1931
Some seventy-eight well chosen and relatively simple experiments are included which can be used either for lecture demonstration or practical laboratory work for students. At the end of each chapter are lists of questions suitable for review and study. The text is written in a very clear and simple style, well adapted to the class of students for which i t is intended, and contains sufficient material for a one semester course without overloading, a fault characteristic of some of the books designed for an introductory course. No brief text can be written that will include all the things that various instructors regard as essential; fortunately, every one can make such additions as seem desirable. It would seem of advantage, however, to include figures showing the stereoisameric relations of the important simple hexoses, s i n e such a representation would throw light on their biochemical hehavior; and for premedical students the brief treatment of the pnrin bases could have been expanded with profit. The author says that the book contains the subject matter of a series of thirty lectures. Within those limits i t is a remarkably clear and well-balanced presentation of the essentials of organic chemistry, and should be very suitahle for a brief introduction to the field.
Popular Science Talks. Vol. 8. I V ~ R GRIFPITH,Editor. Published by the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science, under the auspices of the American Journal of Pharmacy, Philadelphia, Penna., 1930. 287 pp. 15.25 X 23 cm. $1.00. As the name indicates. this book mnsists of a series of fourteen talks on science. given by members of the faculty of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science. I n this brief review, only those talks will be discussed which pertain ts chemical subjects.
