RECENT BOOKS Scorr's STANDARD METHODS 01. CHEMICAL ANALYSIS. W. W. Scott. Edited by N. H. Furman, Princeton University. Fifth Edition. D. Van Nostrand and Company, Inc., New York 1234 97 pp. Volume 11. City, 1939. Volume I, xxxi xxi 1316 97 pp. 15 X 23 cm. $17.00. This book, standard as an analytical reference work since 1917, has been greatly enlarged and modernized in the new edition. The size has been increased by some eight hundred pages. A new format improves the appearance and new headings add ease of reading. All the sections have been rewritten, and many new names have been added to the list of cobperating experts. New chapters have been added on Rhenium, Ferrous Alloys, Electrometric pH Measurement, Colorimetric pH Measurement, Conductimetric Titrations, Chemical Microscopy, Quantitative Microanalysis, Analysis of Rubber Compounding Ingredients, and Quantitative Spectrographic Analysis. Volume I is, as in past editions, chiefly devoted t o a systematic treatment of the analytical methods for the various elements. alphabetically arranged. Procedures are modernized, and many colorimetric methods have been added. Directions are generally given in sufficient detail for laboratory use. Original references are freely cited. Volume 11, Part I , deals with applied analysis, covering many fields. The standard methods of the American Society for Testing Materials and the Technical Association of Pulp and Paper Industries are given in many sections. Part I1 of this volume, entitled "Special Techniques. .." contains brief articles on many of the important special technics and instrumental methods. Many of these sections are necessarily too brief for use as a laboratory manual, hut they are of value in providing the analyst with an introduction t o these methods and their applications. The broad scope of this hook, and the complete and anthoritative treatment of each topic, combine to give it a unique position in the literature of analytical chemistry. Here is concentrated in one book a very complete analytical library, useful both t o the school and industrial laboratory. The analyst will find the hook sufficiently up-to-date for almost every determination that may be encountered. The reviewer feels that the editor, the collaborating experts, and the publishers are to h e congratulated on the excellence of this new edition. W. C. PIERCE
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viewpoint of quantum mechanics. For chemists wishing access to a broader viewpoint of the general theory, the book will provide a useful supplement to the study of the applications of quantum mechanics to their own field, now available in several excellent texts. JOHN G. KIRKWOOD COX-NBLI. UWIYBBS~Y 1ra*c*, N s w YORE
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE PRINCIPLES OF PHYSICAL CHE~STRY. 0. Mearr, Macdonald Professor of Physical chemistry, and E. W . R. Steecie, Associate Professor of Chemistry, McGill University. Second Edition. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York City, 1939. ix 395 pp. 102 figs. 15 X 23 cm. $3.00. The authors have attempted a Herculean task. To write an elementary text suited t o the needs of chemists, chemical engineers, premedical and biological students is very difficult. Usually the &st two classes can assimilate much stronger meat than the last two. The choice of subjects for emphasis will almost inevitably fail t o satisfy some users. But t o those who must handle classes composed of students with such varied interests. this book presents an excellent choice. It is truly elementary. The use of calculus is avoided and other mathematical treaiment is very modest. However, Drs. Maass and Steacie have presented most of the physical chemical concepts in a beautifully simple and inspiring manner. I t must be a very dull student who cannot grasp their teaching. Where they must necessarily be somewhat inexact, the fact is pointed out. I t will pay even experienced teachers to read their discussion. The introductory chapter, including a discussion of the scientific method, is noteworthy. The treatment of gases, fundamental chemical laws, and transition phenomena is good. However, the calculation of fractional dissociation and adiabatic effects is ignored, although the section on specific heats is unusually full. The interrelations of critical data and Van der Waals constants are not discussed. Throughout the b w k the experimental approach is emphasized. The chapter on liquids is good, but qualitative anly, which is unfortunate. Solids are not accorded much space and anly the idear of thermodynamics are given, but the chapter on the structure of matter is very good. Solutions are discussed briefly, but distillation is ignored. Colloids are treated quite adequately. Dilute solutions are considered in detail. hut the reviewer Drotests aeainst defininr osmotic Dressure as "the pressure exerted by the particles of the solute, when the tensile strength of the liquid has been overcome by some method of compensation" (page 201). True, theauthors mention that others do not agree with this viewpoint (page 199) but it would seem more consistent with the rest of the hook t o stick t o measurables. i. c., vapor pressures of solvent and solution, rather than tointroduce a debatable mechanistic explanation. The treatment of the phase rule is excellent and of equilibrium very good. Most commendable is the mechanical analog of reversihility. Reaction rates, electrolytic dissociation, and thermachemistry are quite adequate. The Debye-Hiickel concept is discussed suitably. The section on indicators could stand expansion. Electromotive force is disappointingly brief and elementary. The authors' style is excellent, the type unusually large and format very gwd. To each chapter is attached a set of questions and problems with answers. There are forty-five tables of useful data, an appendix of atomic weights, and one giving the derivation of first and second order rate equations. There are no literature referenrrs. The book wu be reromrncnded for classes similar to the a u thors' and to all tearher.; and studentc who seek a clear preserrta-
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vbdimir Rojansky. Prentice-Hall, Inc., New York City, 1938. x 544 pp. 15 X 23 em. $5.50. The h w k is designed to provide the reader of limited mathematical training with an introduction t o the principles and mathematical methods of quantum mechanics. I n contrast with other elementarji treatises on the subject, the hook is primarily concerned with the basic physical ideas and the logic of quantum mechanics, rather than with its applications to specific physical problems. A survey of classical mechanics follows a preliminary chapter on mathematical methods. Quantum mechanics is introduced and discussed from the standpoint of the SchrBdinger method. After a second mathematical chapter on linear operators and matrices, the Heisenberg method and the Dirac symbolic method are presented. The treatment is limited to one dimension in order to emphasize the physical principles with a minimum of mathematical complexity. Finally, three dimensional motion is treated from the standpoint of the Schrtidinger equation with a detailed solution for the hydrogen atom. The final chapters are devoted to the Pauli theory of electron spin and the Dirac relativistic theory of the electron. The author has achieved admirable clarity and simplicity in the oresentation of the basic physical ideas and the general ~ N T R O D ~ C T ~ RQUANTUM Y MECHANICS.
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