VOL.7. No. 10
RECENT BOOKS
poem, though it can hsrdly be regarded as a correct interpretation of the real Paradsus, whose biographers have ofttimes found i t diacult t o distinguish between fact and fancy. Had industrial chemistry been considered in the volume, the life of either Beringucdo, Agricola, or Palissy would have given a very interesting story of the technical advancementsof the seventeenth century. With the many-sided Becher appears the dodrine of phlogiston, the first real chemical theory, that held sway for nearly two hundred years. The chemical revolution and the new atomic theory are well described in the chapters on Priestley. Cavendish, Lavoisier, and Dalton, while a very readable account is given of the old symbols of chemistry and of Berzelius' great reformation in chemical namendature and epoch-madeterminations of atomic weights, though the other services of this great Swede receive scant mention. With this foundation the author devotes the rest of the volume (excepting a chapter on W6hler) t o the history of the development of molar volumes, the periodic system, the nature of solutions, as shown by their ions and the ultimate conception of the structure of the atom. Little is said of the other accomplishments of physical chemistry. The narrative, which is built upon the lives of Avogadro, a professor of mathematical physics, Mendel6&, Arrhenius, Mme. Curie, J. J. Thompson, another physicist. Moseley, and Langmuir makes an interesting and relatively comprehensive account of this special phase of chemistry, and occupies almost one-half of the text. The author has carried out what seems to be his purpose in an unusual and original manner with a wealth of incident and story that shows wide reading. As a "history of chemistry" it is notable not only by what it includes but by its omissions. No chemists horn in the last one hundred years are featured save those
2529
that had to do with chemical theories and the nature of the atom. The chapter on W6hler (b. 1800) tells of the urea synthesis and of his friendship and relations with Liebig. It contains, also brought in ui ct armis, in a half-dozen pages some of the accomplishments of organic and biochemistry. Baeyer is mentioned in connection with indigo; Willstitter, the greatest synthetic organic chemist today, is not listed; while Emil Fischer is refexred t o as "this young Jew," which would mightily astonish his two hundred years of Protestant ancestors. Despite its too strained style, the hook is a noteworthy account of "certain great chemists and physicists and of certain phases in the history of our science." Undoubtedly the stimulus of this volume will arouse the curiosity of some readers as t o other fields for the history of chemistry. F. B. DAINS UNrVBXSIT7 OP KANSAS
LIWRBNCB.KANSAS
Stuff. The Story of Materials in the G. BEERY, Service of Man. PAULIN& Assistant Professor of Chemistry in Pennsylvania State College. D. Appleton & Co., New York City, 1930. xiii 504 pp. 124 illustrations. 14.5 X 21.5 em. $5.00.
+
Chemistry is naturally a cryptic science. The alchemists made it more so. Chemistry and the world a t large have sufiered delay of progress by reason of the -togrammic language of modern chemists. The author has reversed the emphasis in favor of the beginner and the layman. The language is understandable even by the tyro in chemistry, and the forceful style even dares to use the slang phrase t o catch and hold the attention. There is no suggestion of the "ballyhoo." The viewpoint is that of the user of "stu5." and it is chemistry in term of lifc which the N. E. A. Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education requested of textbook writers as e d y as 1918. Since they have quite generally
JOURNAL OF CHEIdICAL EDUCATION
2530
disregarded this advice we welmme this meeting the need in another way. While it deals with fundamentals, its aim is not the exemplification of chemical principles. It presents the practice of chemistry in terms of human need. The history of the use of materials is very prominent. We can find good authority for this prominence of the time factor, for America's most practical saint, Franklin, says, "Time is the st& which life is made of." A good share of the illustrations present earlier practices which serve to make plain the progrw in the chemical arts. Twelve prominent earlier workers in chemistry are portrayed for our appreciative value. It is possible to suggest improvements in emphasis and organization, hut a work of this kind is not subject to the canons of textbook writing; it is morelike" beauty is its own excuse for being." The chemistry teacher has been too much obsessed with the idea that the pupils' "ambition should be made of sterner stuB" of chemical principles. If the perusal of this "Stuff catches the interest of the reader, then will he be willing t o continue with the "sterner stuff" and the teacher will accomplish his objectives.
Ocro~en.1930
Laplace in 1782 in the discovery that the potential function of every bite body satisfies a certain partis1 differential equation of the second order which is now known as Laplace's equation." As the author says in the preface from which the above is quoted, this branch of mechanics. which deals with fields of force emanating from bodies, is very beautiful from the point of view of the mathematician snd very useful from the point of view of the astronomer, physicist, and, we may add, madern chemist. "The book is not intended as a treatise, but it is hoped that the bird's-eye view which is here mesented will serve as an introduction t o this very attractive field and stimulate somewhat its cultivation.'' The author has succeeded very well in fulfilling these aims. Followkg a brief but clear introductory chapter, the Newtonian potential function is presented a t length together with a concise discusion of the more important properties of vector fields. The application to particular types of fields is then taken up, for example, those produced by surface charges of electricity. The book closes with two chapters of special mathematical interest on spherical and ellipsoidal harmonics. This book meets a long-felt need in this branch of physics and will be particularly appreciated by the chemists who are working in the field of atomic and molecuThe Theory of the Potential. W n ~ m a a lar structure and in certain special fields, DUNCANMACMRWLN,A.M., PH.D., suchasdiffusion phenomena. which involve Sc.D., Professor of Astronomy, The potential theory. While i t will prove University of Chicago. First edition. most interesting and valuable to this as Second VoIumc in the author's series on yet rather specialized group, it may be Thcmetiazl Mechanics. McGraw-Hill conf,dently recommended as interesting Book Co., Inc., New York City. 1930. and stimulating reading t o any one with xiii 469 pages. 112 figures. 15 X a good grounding in calculus who wishes t o acquire some familiarity with the 23 cm. $5.00. methods of using~. higher mathematics for This book covers a field which might dealing with physical phenomena. I n possibly be termed the most "classical" this connection the sets of problems a t the in all science. It is rooted in the work end of each chapter are a good feature. of Sir Isaac Newton on the influence one The explanation of chemical behavior in body may have an another through the terms of physical relation appears as such action of gravitational force and may he an important factor in the chemistry of said to have been properly founded "by the near future that one feels no hesitation
+
