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MAY, 1952 derivatives. Same of the general methods for nitration, bromination. and sulfonatian. etc.. are eiven: these are followed bv naee
point of at least three derivatives. Original references are given in most cases where specific derivatives are mentioned. The general referenees on page 20 will not prove to be too helpful in Some cases. This laboratory manual in itself may not be sufficientfor a full semester or quarter course in qualitative organic analysis. HowPVPP. in,coniunct,ion with one of the standard texts in the field - ~ -~o~~ it can be considered an excellent supplement. The information given is clear, precise, and can easily be followed by all students. ~~
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INORGANIC SEMIMICRO QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS
Carroll Wardlaw Griffin, Pmfessor of Chemistry, Vassar College, and Mary A l y s Plunkett, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, 299 Vassar College. The Blakiston Co., New Yark, 1951. x pp. 14figs. 31 tables. 15.5 X 23.5 om. $4.75.
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THEauthors' aim, as stated in the preface, is twofold: "to teach the underlying principles of analysis" and "to develop in the student a method of execution . . . .based upon precepts which are clearly undentood and techniques which are cleanly performed." To further these aims, the book is divided into two parts. Part I consisting of eight chapters (170 pages), includes atomic and molecular structure, chemical equilibrium, and axidatian-reduction theory. At the end of each chapter is an excellent set of problems (and answers) which will help the student to understand and use the material in the text. Part I1 (82 pages), containing the laboratory instructions, introduces the student to the techniques of semimicro methods. The procedure is to study a, few characteristic properties of some 25 cations and 19 anions followed by carrying out reactions used in analysis and 6ually in doing the group analysis. Diagrams and a discussion of laboratory techniques including methods of dissolving an unknown solid are given. The various concepts introduced review Bohr's ellipitcal atom, elementary Werner theory, the Dehye-Hiickel theory of eleotrolytes and the Brprnsted theory of acids and bases. Equilibrium is derived from kinetic considerations and includes problems related to the formation of precipitates, weak acids and bases, buffers, indicators, hydrolysis, complex formetian, and oxidationreduction reactions. Particularly important are sections dealing with problems of analysis; po~~ppreeipitatian, occlusion,, partial and selective preoipitation, and colloid formation. Ox~dationreduction reactions are balanced by the useful ion-electron method. It is unfortunate that the authors chose to relate electrode potentials to reduction rather oxidation reactions. A more serious criticism is the apparent lack in understanding of the nature of metallic coordination entities in particular snd of inorganic chemistry in general. This is important as the majority of materials encountered in analytical chemistry fall into this category. On page 125, for example, the authors say that the coordination number "usually is twice the primary valenoe of the simple ion." On the preceding page, however, a copper oomplex haying the formula C u ( C N ) $ is mentioned. Not only is the discrepancy not discussed, but the ion does not exist. In applying the rule to hydrated aluminum the formula AI(HaO)a+++ is obtained (page 136). Here the authors ignore the fact that it is not possible to pack six water molecules around the aluminum inn
which lead to inconsistencies, it should be discountined. Thus, for example, on pages 134 and 203, arsenite is written as AsOl-, while on pages 211 and 212, As08--- is used. Again, whereas hydration and amphoterism appear to be somewhat related to complex formation (pages 134-8), the identical problem of the hydrolysis of metallio ions (pages 95-6) appears to he completely unrelated to either complex formation or hydration. Another inconsistency involving hydration is the proper use of NH3, hut the improper use of H2COx. More familiarity with the reactions themselves is shown in the experimental part of the book. Particularly good is the simplification in the handling of the second group by the oxidation of stannous ion by hydrogen peroxide and the reduction of pentavalent mtrsenic by iodide ion. Other salient features include the use of zirconium for removing phosphate ion, the use of the thiacyanate test for cobalt as an alternate to the awkward and not very good cobdti-nitrite test, the formation of a lake with p-nitrobenzene aaoresorcinol in the confirmatory test for magnesium, and the formation of antimony oxysulfide in the confirmatory test for antimony. Ten tables are placed in the appendix. These include reagents needed, properties of compounds, and various equilibrium ronnt,nnt,R. The book will meet the requirements of most courses designed to teach the student the principles of qualitative analysis and the techniques and chemistry most often employed in problems involving inorganic chemistry, RICHARD G. YALMAN A ~ ~ r o oCOL'ECIE n Y E ~ O BPRINYB. W O A ~
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BRITISH SCIENTISTS
E. I. Holmyard. The Philosophical Library, Inc., New Yak, 88 pp. Illustrated. 12.5 X 19 cm. $2.75. 1951. viii
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" T m fame of British seamen, British colonizers, British inventors, and British sportsmen has long been worldwide. The same is true of British commmercial enterprise, British phlegm, and of the British genius for constitutiond government. I t is therefore a little surprising to observe the comparative lack of recognition accorded to the achievements of British scientists." With these sentiments as the introductory remarks to the first chapter of this little book one would expect to find mention of credit and praise that should be accorded to certain great British scientists who have been passed over almost in silence by continental writers. But the reader with such expectations will be disappointed, for with very few exceptions the 25 chapters give short accounts of the men generally recognized throughout the world as great ccantrihutors to the development of science. I t seems to this reviewer that the book is organized to show the partrsjtrr of 23 great men. Most of the portraits are those with which we are fmdias-opies of portraits in possession of the Royal Society or the British Museum. The exceptions are those of Priestley and Faraday. Priestley must have been rather nice looking in the period of his work on electricity when he became a Fellow of the Royal Society. One wishes that instead of the pictures of Darwin, Lord Kelvin, Sir William Perkin, Sir J. J. Thomson, and Lord Rutherford which show them as they looked in their later years, there had been substituted pietures of them as they appeared in the period of their greatest intellectual activity. The first chapters indicate Dr. Holmyard's knowledge and appreciation of early science in Britain, and the transitions from chapter to chapter are excellent. There are some serious amissians among the later figures, among them Robert Hooke and Thomas Graham. Graham's fundamental work, it is true, baa received due recognition outside of Britain, but the same cannot be said for the contributions of Rohert Hooke, certainly one of the most ingenious and prolific inventors Britain ha8 ever produced and certainly also one of the greatest geniuses of that century of geniuses, the seventeenth century. There is no por-
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JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
trait of Hooke, but this does not wholly account for the omission for there is none of Robert of Chester, the great translator of the twelfth century, nor one of Bartholomew who wrote tho most popular science textbook of the thirteenth century, "On the Properties of Things." The accounts are very short, usually not more than two or three pages, but the selection of material is discriminating. There sre a few errors: page 22, Boyle did not construct the air pump, this is the work of Hooke; page 24, Newton did not originate the idea of the calculus, this is most probably the contribution of another Englishman, Issae Barrow; p a g 74, ~ cathode my8 were discovered by Pluecker, not by Hittorf. There is no index. The Select Biographical Bibliography contains 23 titles, only a few of which will be new t o the reader in the literature of science. This is a relatively long review of a, very small book almost exorbitant in price. I t s appeal will be limited. The accounts are too brief to be of any real value to those interested in British contributions t o the development of the fundammtal work on which modern scientific achievements are based. Rut they may serve to whet the appetite of the general reader to pursue the subject further and in this event the book will have ~ccomplished its purpose. CLARA D E MILT NEWCOMB COILEOE.TOLANE UNIYERB~TY NEWO ~ I ~ N LOU~STONA B.
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RTMlAMENTALS OF ATOMIC PHYSICS
Saul Dushman, Research Consultant, Research Laboratory, General Electric Ca., Schenedady, N. Y. McGraw-Hill Book 294 pp. 66 figs. 16 X 24 Co., Inc., New York, 1951. a cm. 55.50.
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ACCORDING to the preface, this book owes its origin to the Fellowships granted annually by the General Electric Company to high-school teachers of science for the purpose of "enlarging each Fellow's grasp of new developments in the physical sciences." To achieve this end, six weeks' courses in physics and chemistry were given during the summer, and Dr. Dushman states that he eoopers,ted in the preparation of a series of notes which might be of assistance in connection with the lectures in physies. "These notes were gradually developed into a. mare systematic survey of the fundamentals of atomic physics, which is the subject of this volume. It wm thought that this review might prove useful not only to teachersaf science.. .,but also to students of engineering." The hook opens with a brief history of physics, from 2000 B.C. to the present day, after which there is a short mathematical introduction in which the reader is taken from the binomial theorem t o tho solution of simple differential equations. Then follow chapters dealing with the kinctic theory of gases, properties and behavior of electrons, X-rays, atomic spectra, electronic configuration of the elements, and matter waves. I n the presentation of this material the author has drawn frequently upon his previously published works. The remainder of the volume, consisting of some 86 pages, is devoted to the nuclear aspects of atomio physics, such as radioactivity, isotopes, nuclear reaotions, fission, and nucleav forcestopic8 which are of interest to the chemist as well as to the physioist. However, almost cxaotly half of this consists of a chapter on Generators for Acceleration of High-Energy Partiolen. Thus, other important subjects, such as nuclear fision, tho ~eparatian of isotopes, nuclear binding energies, and the release of atomic energy, receive very brief treatment. I n his book, Dr. Dushman frequently quotes from other authors. These quotations are printed in small type, giving the erroneous impression that they are less important than the main text. Incidentally, the present reviewer feels that while quotations from primary contributors to the field of atomic physics add to the interest of a baok, direct quotations from texthooks and other secondary authorities, whioh abound in the book under review, have merit only in special circumstances.
As has been implied in the foregoing remarks, this book will appeal more t o teachers of physics, for whom it was intended, than to those who wish to learn how the newer developments in atomic physics should influence their teaching of chemistry. SAMUEL GLASSTONE Loa A ~ r a o s Nsw MEXWO
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THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES
Emmett James Cable, Iowa State Teachers College; Robert Ward GetcheU, Iowa State Teachers College; William Henry Kadesch, Adams State College of Colomdo; chapters on astronomy by Harry E. Crull, Butler University. PrenticeSall, Inc., 496 pp. 345 figs. 22 tables. 18 X New York, 1951. xvii 25cm. $5.50.
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THISis the third edition of a popular, well-written physical science text. The baok is written particularly for two types of students; the one preparing for teaching as a career and the one
and'tables. some of them new is a lame numher bf'i~~ustratians t o this edition. The authors have manseed'to mrtinhin a soorl and figures. I n the words of the authors: "The text has been revised a t many points in the interest of greater clarity, or for the purpose of including more recent develapments. Typical examples of the first kind of revision are found in the treatment of B~wwnian movement, the telephone, ionization, chemical equilibrium, and cent,ral forces. E x s m ~ l e of s the latter kind are modern nraet,iees ing atomic structure." Probably the greatest change lies in the Astronomy section. The number of chapters had been increased from five to eight. The chapters are well written from s n obviously broad background. For the moment they are up to date giving Kuiper's data on Pluto, a second moan for Neptune, and a fifth one for Uranus. CLAUDE FELL MERZBACHER SAN DIEGOSTATECOLLEGE S m Dmao. CAmronmn
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METALLURGICAL THERMOCHEMISTRY
0. Kubaschewski and E. L1. Evans, National Physical Labora. tory, England. Academic Press, Inc., New York, 1951. xi 368 PP. 103 figs. 14 X 22.5 cm. 56.
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VERYappropriately, this book is Volume I in a new series of monographs on Metal Physics and Physical Mehllurgy. I t assumes aame previous contact with chemical thermodynamics and is aimed p~imarilyto make the methods and data more readily available to process and physical metallurgists. The notation, given in a three-page introduction, is in general in accord with that adopted by the British Standards Institute in 1038. Exothermic reaotions are regarded as those in whioh AH is negative. To avoid misleading inferences, a study of the notation system is a necessary prerequisite t o perusal of the book. I n the first section the theoretical background is reviewed, using as a typical example the preparation of a pure metal by the reduction of one of its compounds. Solutions m e illustrated h y mixtures of metals and metal-slap systems. The next hundred pages are devoted to a discussion of experimental methods used to determine thermodynamic quantities in systems of interest t o metallurgists. An important contribution is the detailed discussion of methods to estimate values for thermochemieal vari-
