NEW BOOKS
1277
XEW BOOKS Colloid Science. By JAMESW. MCBAIN.450 pp. Boston, Massachusetts: D. C. Heath and Company, 1950. Price: $6.00. Professor McBain, who is one of the outstanding authorities on colloid chemistry and a pioneer in the field, has fulfilled his aim t o give “a clear picture of colloid science, bringing out not only its immense scope but also the main regularities and generalizations that have been established within it.” In this authoritative book, Professor SIcBain has maintained a nice balance between theoretical and applied material, and betneen lyophobic and lyophilic systems. The experimental and applied sections are most interesting and stimulating in contrast t o the theoretical portions, which are for the most part qualitative. Very few equations are given, and derivations are not included. The author has been one of the foremost investigators in the colloid chemistry of soaps and other colloidal electrolytes, but has carefully refrained from overemphasizing these topics a t the expense of other subject matter. This hook exhibits a most excellent format, illustrating the orderly mind of the author. The illustrations are well chosen, and the subject and author indexing is extremely adequate. The several different definitions of colloid science found in this book illustrate that colloid chemistry is a young and growing science. The author’s first definition on page 3 suggests t h a t colloids are noncrystalline (amorphous), although a n entire chapter is devoted t o the x-ray diffraction examination of crystalline colloidal material. The author has included numerous new ideas in his book, many of which are from his original publications. This feature will make the book invaluable as supplementary reading for advanced students in colloid chemistry. W. 0 . MILLIGAN. Collotd Chemistry-Theoretical and Applied. Vol. VII. Edited by JEROMEALEXANDER. xi 736 pp. New York: Reinhold Publishing Corporation, 1950. Price: $15.00. The many readers who have followed the preceding six volumes of this well-known series will be pleased to know that the seventh volume also contains a wealth of information and ideas from the forty-five international authors whose separate chapters comprise this book. The variegated content of the volume is somewhat arbitrarily divided into three parts. The first part, concerned with theory and method, consists of eleven chapters on subjects ranging from the “intermediate-compound nucleus” t o the “paper chromatography of amino acids.” The second part, on biology and medicine, consists of eleven chapters, and the third part is concerned with technological applications (twenty-one chapters). In a review it is impossible even t o enumerate all of the topics considered in this book. The volume contains full author and subject indexes. It is unfortpnate that the high price of each volume in this series makes it difficult for individuals t o have this information available on their private bookshelves. This book is quite free of typographical errors. The reviewer was interested t o note that on page 5 the unit of cross section is twice spelled “horn.” One can only speculate as t o whether this is a typographical error, or is a suggestion t o rename the barn, perhaps ultimately t o be designated as the fermi, after a well-known physicist. Like the earlier volumes in this series, this latest volume is highly recommended t o all readers interested in colloid chemistry and all of its ramifications. W. 0 . MILLIGAN.
+
