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anyone wishing to learn or teach chemical German with the greatest economy of effort and time. No previous knowledge of German required, no prerequisite courses. Start right in: Der Wasserstaff k t ein Gas, ein Salz ist eine Verbindung, die Lasung ist klar. Practice in grammar and in chemical vocabulary go hand in hand, and no time is spent in learning words which will occur rarely or not a t all in chemical literature. There is a good chapter on pronunciation. The grammar is built up well as chapter succeeds chapter, always with chemical terms predominating, but with general words not neglected. The vocabulary is carefully selected, being the result of considerable original research on word frequency in chemical articles; the thousand most frequently occurring words are starred. Other soecial features are: a lesson on the use of the dictian-
in the preface " an effort has been made to depart somewhat from the cold formality of a textbook; that is, along with the presentation of facts and theories an effort has been made to give the book a conversational touch, as though one person were speaking to another. . .. Those students who will not take another course in the subject will find that the carefully explained principles and colorful descriptions give them an understanding of many of the hitherto mysterious phenomena. They will also find the specialized topics dealing with the application of chemistry to agriculture, cooking, health, metallurgy, warfare, and so forth, both interesting and valuable. For the college preparatory student there are such topics as the gas laws, chemistry and electricity, the periodic system, the internal structure of the atom, and chemistry and energy." The baok is exceptionally well illustrated with excellent photographs and drawings. A number of humorous drawings and cartoons are used to make vivid certain points and drive home periodicals for sight translation, and lessons on such topics as the truths of principles. These illustrations are in accord with the periodic table, valence and atomic theory. There are also a recent trends in the survey type of book. The book is carefully summary of German verbs, German-English and English-Ger- indexed. I t contains a brief appendix on "the simplified units man vocabularies, and a full index. The grammar is the first of science"-units of measurementand a fifteen-page glossary of a series of graduated texts of which the third member. INTER- of scientific terms. The hook is liberally sprinkled with photoMEDIATE READINGS IN CAEMIOAL GERMAN," by Fotos and Shreve, graphs and one-page biographical sketches of chemists of the. has already appeared. present day as well as those of the past. There are brief sumThe plan works, to the reviewer's personal knowledge. Stu- maries a t the ends of chapters and many questions a t the close dents without knowledge of German have used this book for a of discussions within a chapter as well as a t the end of the chapyear or less and have then been able to read ordinary chemical ter. A number of these questions are similar in form to many German fairly well. found on psychological tests. The book also contains a liberal Of course, same sacrifice must be made; you can't eat your bibliography of excellent supplementary readings, together with cake and have it. We in this country are poorly exposed to other quite a few questions with direct page references on these parallel languages, which is all the more reason why we should give readings. attention t o them. For most North Americans German and The questions a t the close of the chapters and interspersed beFrench are the most important foreign tongues, and will con- tween discussions within the chapterdeserve some special comtinue to be for some time. They are not only useful tools, but ment. They are divided as follows and are so labeled in holddoors opening into other cultures, and one can't understand faced type: "Questions of Fact, Questions of Understanding, a people well unless he is more or less a t home in their language and Additional Exercises for Superior Students." If one can and literature. accept these headings, especially the latter one, as good psycholThe authors recognize that "where the science student has ogy and good pedagogy he will be interested in noting some the necessary time far this method of approach [i. e., the tra- of these auestions. The first one of the ouestions for the suoerior . ditional literary one] to scientific German there is no question of atudtnr which i i found on pauc 17 is a very simple nrithmruc the cultural and broadening value of such a sequence." They proldem whieh could hardly be classed a.; a chemistq' problem. point out, however, that countless students today must acquire There are no prol,lrms in ihr precrding questions for the stud en^ a reading knowledge of scientific German in less time. who cannot be classed as superior. The reviewer would gravely After all, there may he another side t o the matter. It i s m - question the wisdom of this introduction t o the arithmetic of ognized that interest is a prime requisile for learning. The chemistry. I n many instances these questions designated for science student who finds little interest in German poems and superior students seem simpler and less well done than many of stories, and therefore does indifferent work on them, will often the other questions. Three distressingly simple questions come t o life when presented with scientific material. This may labeled for superior students might be mentioned. Question be the best approach for such persons, even for cultural pur(I), page 84, is as follows: "Calculate the weight of hydrogen in poses. I n other words, if the chemistry student hasn't time t o water that will be stored behind Boulder Dam if the water will go around t o the front door of the German house, or is afraid of weigh 5,000,000,000 tons. (Water is one-ninth hydrogen.)" the formalities there, perhaps we'd better let him in a t a back Question (1). page 394, reads, "What is the regular valence of the door; the main thing is to get him inside. elements in family number 1." (Periodic Table.) Question (5) on page 563 reads, "Give the number of each kind of atom in AUSTINM. PATTHRS~N A ~ r r o c eC o ~ ~ e o e anphenamine, whose formula in shown an page 560.'' Of course. YBLLOW SPRINCB. OHIO not all of the questions for superior students are so elementary as these, but many of them are less well done than other features of the book. C H E M I S ~AND Y ITSWONDERS.Oscar L. Brauer, Professor of The material of this book, CHEMISTRY AND ITSWONDERS, Chemistrv and Phvsics. - . San Tose State Colleee. - . San -Tose.. is very well arranged and the book is quite readable. I t contains California. American Book Company, New Yark City, 1938. a vast store of information in regard to the facts of applied chemvi 760 pp. 14.5 X 22 cm. $2.00. istry and is relatively free from errors and loose usage of words. The more than seven hundred pages give such a wide range of inC~EMISTRY AND ITSW o m ~ n sis a high-school text of the newer type. The stress of the baok is upon descriptive facts formation that the book could be used to teach less and less about and the practical application of chemical principles to the pro- more and more. The student studying this book will certainly duction of the million-and-one products of applied chemistry. be left with the definite im~ressionthat chemistrv touches his The seven hundred and thirty pages of this book are replete with hfc rather direc~lyat almost every nmnent of his existence. Those who arc looking for a bank of thc surwy type and who beinterestingly written discussions of the many contributions of applied chemistry. Elementary discussions of the great prin- licvc . . in . t hc pedagogical mt.thods indicatrrl above will be intrrcstcd ln ciples of chemistry occupy a less conspicuous portion of the tent. The book is in keeping with the idea that there should be two HoLL,lrs CoLLeom kinds of first courses in chemistry. Mr. Brauer says of his hook HOLLIXS, VZBOINIII
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