Recent Books Chemistry for Secondan Schools. Gnmsr L. D~NSLIORB, Boys' High School, Brooklyn. N. Y. F . M. Ambrose Co., Boston, 1925. VIII 574 pp. $1.68. Forty interesting chapters; 545 pages of text; 207 illustrations, about half line drawings: 10 useful tables in the appendix; 16 pages of index. Printed on good paper, in dear type, and well bound.
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This b r a d n e w text is one which every teacher of chemist^ in the preparatory schools should ~ertainlylook over very carefully: it will repap such inrpeetbn. Many strong points are to be noted. The book is copiously illustrated with reproduetions of well-chosen photosraphs and with about ss many clean cut line drawings of apparatus, much of which is that used by the author. These drawings are especially noteworthy. Labelled arrows pointing t o the different parts of the apparatus pictured. or t o the materials used, make i t apparently impo~sihlefor the dullest pupil to fail t o get the correct idea of how the process described is carried out. The book is rhorouphly up-tn-ddtr s shown by rdferenccq hrrr and thcrr t o rtcms which have hecome cunmt onlv nithm a rom~arafivclrahort time. For example: the ure of chlorine i n the treatment of cold?: the transmutation of mercury into gold as indicated by the work of Miethe; the preparation of war and industrial chemicals a t MurcleShoal~and Edgewoad Arrenal: t h use ~ of duraluminum in the framework of the Shenandoah: a simple but adequate presentation of the electron theory and its applieatioo t o valence. I know of only one other recent hook mbich gives so satisfactorT a treatment of the electron from the high-school viewpoint. Definitions of chemical terms are inserted in italics in connection with the term when it is erst u3ed. Where necessary, cautions to the student are given in italics, to guard against danger in experimentation. While the m a t recent applieatiann of chemistry are discussed ss indicated above, the author has not neglected t o emphnrize fundamental prioeiplcr. This is a strong point. For example, the preparnfion of acids in preceded by the statement of the general method; so with the preparation of ammonia; other instances might be cited. The theoretical chapters begin t o appear quite early. The Gas Laws are introduced in Chap. IV. Multiple Proportions in Chap. V, GsyLurrac's and Avogadro's Laws in Chap. XII. Determination of Molecular Weights, including the use of 22.4 liters, in Chap. XIV. One is sorry, however, t o see the electromotive series
deferred until quite late in the book. The order of the descriptive chapters in about the same ss in the average text, thegases being first taken up and then the metal.. Qualitative Analysis is, happily, not included. The treatment of Organic Chemistry is limited to one ehapter following those on Carbon; there is also one chapter on Foods. The descriptive matter in general is couched in language which the student can easily understand. The explanation of hydrolysis is an exampie of this: it is very weii done. In a first edition one may often expect to find a good many errors. So far a? 1 have obrerved only two such have been found; an unnecessary coefficient on page 1Q2;also one error of statement on page 174; cuprie sul6de is stated to be formed when capper and sulfur are heated together; it should read cuprous sulfide. One regrets, also, that the old form of proportion, abandoned by the mathematies teacherr, is retained for the solution of staiehiometric pmblems; but the author is in good company here since many recent terth still make use of the older farm. e e r s i o n s l crass-references suggest t o the student other paragraphs hearing upon the topics treated in the paragraph just studied. Brief summaries follow each ehapter. Ererekes follow the summaries and are designrd to te.t the student's ability t o reand to apply the knowledge previouely acquired. Ten useful tables in the amendia indude: lists of names, common and chemical, of every~
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. . cral tables of tests for positive and negative ions. Tsken as a whole, the book is certainly a s t m n g ehndidate fop popular favor and can unhesitatingly be recommended to teachers who arc contemplating a change of text. C ~ R L BH. S STON?$ Chemical Encyclopaedia. C. T. Kmozarr. D. Van Nostrand Company, New York. 1924. v ~ n 606 pp. 15 x 22 a *d. price 88.00.
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A very useful hook is this third edition of the Chemical Encyrlopaedia. I t states the present knowledge on perhaps two thousand chemical subjeetr, in precise and condensed but, withal, aaurate and conservative fashion. In useful information, it covers ahout what might he found in several separate work. on inorgaoie, orgnnic, elementary, physical snd industrial chemistry.
