Recent Books Curs Metodic de Chimie si Minerdogie. C. 1. ISTRA'Cl. Professor de Chimia
facts and industrial but the selection and treatment of the theories Organica la Universitatea din Bucure- has been made with such that the st:. si G. G. Lowinescu. profesor de students are enabled to a~quirra very Chimie Neorganica la Universitatea din accurate general notion of chemical pheBuc~esti. (14 X 20 cm.). 477 PP., nomena and to understand their impor235 figs.. and 20 portraits. 10th edi- tance and generality. tion. 1926, Bucarest, Editura "Cartea It is one of the teat merits of such a Romaneasca!' hook to implant and inspire a real and The loth edition of this book, just sincere interest in chemistry, instead of issued, follows close on the steps of its being, as books used to be in times not so predecessor. It is a classical tmtise in far off, a mere collection of prescriptions ~~~~~i~ and was twice translated into and "a catechism to be learned by heart." Thin is best illustrated in the pages deFrench before the war. The section dealing with organic chem- voted to the organic chemistry. The chief aim of the authors all through istry has been completely rewritten, bringtheir work has been thatwhich is the aim ing it up to date with respect to the most of any wlightened teaching, namely, to recent advances and putting it in -rdance with the new programs of teaching foster thescientific spirit. The last pages of the book are occupied in Roumania. The plan and method have is indue- by wnsiderations on the circulationand m a i n e d the same; the tive and experimental. The up of transf~rmationof matter on the earth or in 328 experiments is indicated, chosen the universe, and what constitutes a charamongthe easiest and most instructive and acteristic of it, biographical notes on the great chemistsand their work: Bayer, Balrequiring only a very limited apparaws. When it has been considered that lard, Berthelot, Berzelius, Bunsen, Chevknowledge already gained by the students 'e~l, Dalton, Davy, Dumas, Fischer. permits, and it is felt net-ry, general fiedel, Gay-Lussac, Hofman. Kekul6, Latheories have been developed, as w~ as voider, "the Reformer of the Chemistry," problems particularly interesting from the Liebig, Mendele&, M o k n , Pasteur, industrial point of view, especiauy to the Ramsay, Saint Claire aville, SehnteenRoumanian students. Physical and nat-
ural phenomena are also qlained. Thus the authors have expounded or described: the fundamental chemical laws, the atomic theories, thermocbemistry, aystdographic systems, the petroleum industry, the great chemical industries of Romania, the part played by physics and chemistry in deve~apment other sciences, etc. Naturally, in the restricted space of a book intended for teaching and embracing the whole of chemistry and mineralogy, the authors could not hut deal with a $p@ number of elements, compounds,
bewe=, wohler, Wurtz. The new edition, like its forerunners, is dedicated to the memory of one of the authors, Istrati, who died in 1918, and who was not only a great chemist, pupil of Friedel, Moissan, and Henry, but also played a conspicuous part in the politics of his c w t r y . A biographical note on him is signed by his coUahorator, Prof, G. G. Louginescu of the University of
E U GLEMAIRB ~ A First Book in Chemistry. ROBERTH. BRADBURY, A.M., Ph.D.. Head of Department of Science, South Philadelphia
