The bookis a goodall-round treatment of its subject; i t touches on most of the principal points. A student of the history of chemistry or of sociology, or of any one of the special sciences, will probably find that it contains little or nothing an his subject which is new to him. He will discover gaps in the treatment of his science hut will see it exposed in its-relations t o others in a manner which would he impossible in a book devoted to a single one of them. The chapter on chemistry contains accounts of iatrochemistry and the beginnings of chemical science, of Lihavius, van Helmont, Glauher, Rey, Boyle, Hooke, Lower, Mayow, and of the discovery of phosphorus. Several of the chemists appear in other connections in other chapters. The account of Bayle fails to make i t clear that "The Sceptical Chymist" is devoted primarily to a search for a criterion by which it may he determined experimentally whether a given substance conforms t o the definition of element or not. The words, atom and corpuscle, do not appear in the index. We have found no mention of the fact that Boyle in "The Sceptical Chymist" and elsewhere argues for a corpuscular theory of matter, and none of Boyle's discovery of methyl alcohol and of acetone. I n the chapter on philosophy, excellent summaries are given of the methodology of Bacon and of Newton. The book is handsomely printed on cream-colored paper, and abundantly illustrated. TENNEY L. DAVIS MASSACAOJBTTS INSTITOT& OF TBCHNOLOC~ C A ~ R I D O BMASSACBUSBTTS .
CRYSTALCBEMISTRY.Dr. 0.Hasrel, Lecturer in Physical Chemistry in the University of Oslo. Translated from the Guman by R. C. Evans, B.A., Ph.D., B.Sc., Demonstrator in Mineralogy and Petrology in the University of Cambridge. William Heinemann Ltd., London, 1935. Chemical Publishing Co. of New York, 175 Fifth Ave., New York City, exclusive agents in North and South America. ix f 94 pp. 9 figs. 13 X 21 cm. $3.50. Chemical education in the past has to a large extent heen concerned with relationships between the properties of substances and the kinds and relative numbers of the atoms of which these substances are composed. In organic chemistry, i t is true, the dependence of the properties of substances an the relative arrangements of the atoms and the dependence of these arrangements on the kinds of atoms are also studied, hut in inorganic chemistry the structural side of the subject has been almost entirely neglected. The reason, of course, is that until recent years a sufficient body of knowledge of inorganic structures hasnot been available. Now that the structures of hundreds of crystalline substances are known, however, it would seem that the structural relationshiDs should occuuv . . as imoortant a d a c e in inor,qmic chemical education as the rrlatiundlip~bctwwn formulas and proprrties, a tnle *nderrfandiq of chemistry i i othemisc impossible. The chief difficulty in the way of remolding our chemistry courses to include this new knowledge is the fact that none of the textbooks now published are suitable. Although a few descriptions of various structure types are usually given, real structural chemistry is almost entirely neglected. Sometime in the future this lack may be remedied, but for the present any teacher wishing t o incorporate this new viewpoint in his teaching-r in his thinking-must turn to journal articles or t o such hooks as the one under review. Although by no means ideal for this purpose, it is one of the few not-too-technical works on the subject. This book is primarily concerned with the principles determining the types of structure assumed by elements and compounds rather than with relationships between structure type and properties. (For the latter there is no good treatment available.) For the most part i t deals with relationships between the sizes and charges of ions and the types of arrangement found in compounds containing these ions. On the whale the subject is well treated, although (in common with most other writers in this field) the author attempts t o treat as ionic many substances in which the atoms are undoubtedly held together by bonds of a
(more-or-less polar) covalent character. The rMe of the covalent bond in crystal structures is treated, very inadequately, in only one short chapter. Among the most valuable chapters for the chemistry teacher is that on "The Crystal Chemistry of the Silicates." Previous t o the X-ray work on these compounds, this field, in spite of its industrial importance, was about the least understood in all inorganic chemistry. Now i t is among those best understwd. Except for the neglect of electron-pair sharing, the subject is well presented here. The hook is clearly written, easily understandable to the nonspecialist. I n a few places, however, the reader is apparently expected t o be familiar with certain crystal structure types which are neither illustrated nor described. A few figures illustrating these structures would help. Some of the diagrams which are given are also insta3cient without accompanying description t o convey t o a layman a true conception of the structures they represent. MaunrcE L. HuGGINs Tas Joms H o p a ~ Uwrvaasrr~ ~s BALTIMORB. MARYLAND
O m o s ~ sOF SCIENCE. Bmzard Jaffe. Simon and Schuster, New York City, 1935. xxvi 547 pp. 15.5 X 23.5 an. Freely illustrated with halftones and line cuts. $3.75.
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I n the reviewer's opinion this hook gives marked evidence of the growth and ripening of the author's literary and scholarly since the appearance of "Crucibles." ~ n d be , it understood, this comment should not he interpreted as derogatory to the earlier work. The plan fullowed in thr attempt to present a bird'seye view of prcsmt-day scientific research is hrst revealed Ly extracts from thc author's introductory staternfnt. "First I was to follow through au inrcnsivc reading program which would make i t pursihle for mQto pick out the m m who had done the mast crucial work in each fiild. This readina - rrroiect . . was t o he reinforced hv conversations with numerous scientific rnm whom I k n w in Xew York. For vnrivus reomns, such a, the intrinsic ditliculty of the subject, thc lack of gcncral intcrmt, and the paucity of rcivntific experimentation I nbmdoncd such fields as relativity, geology, and psychology and finally selected the topics which comprise the contents of this hook.. . . "Having listed the men I wanted t o see, I mapped out an itinerarywide circle around the United States which would bring me t o about B t y of the most important research lahoratories in the country. In September, 1932, I started from New York on a scientific pilgrimage t o the firesteps and outposts of the present battlefronts of science in America. I was armed with little mare than an impertinent belief that eminent men busy in scientific workshops might stop for a while t o tell me what they were doing and hoping so that the general public might catch a glimpse of the many new discoveries. "It had been planned that the leaders in each field of science whom I had met were t o correct those portions of the manuscript dealing with their own work. This would, of course, insure a greater measure of authenticity far the book. This plan was carried through with hut one exception. The chapter on Physical Disease reached Baltimore the day on which Dr. William H. Welch died in his eighty-fourth year. Dr. Fielding H. Garrison, the eminent historian of the Institute of the History of Medicine of The Johns Hopkins University, and a close friend of Welch, was kind enough t o edit the historical material of this chapter and Dr. Coleman B. Rabin of Mt. Sinai Hospital, the clinical data." Chapter I, on Genetics, deals in large part with the researches of Thomas Hunt Morgan. Chapter 11, Anthropology, emphasizes the work and opinions of Ale5 HrdliCka. Chapter 111, Physical Disease, is written around the life and work of the late William H. Welch, hut appropriately enough, showsconsiderahle breadth of historical outlook. The mouse-breeding experiments of Maud Slye constitute the principal theme of the chapter on Cancer (IV). Chapter V, Glands, is a summary of hormone research, with ~~~
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