RECENT BOOKS IN-~RODUCTORY C~LL~C CAEMISTRY. E Neil E. Gordon, Pro- alone, has escaped the ravages of time and a second edition as. fessor of Chemistry, Central College, formerly Professor of in an interesting candid camera shot, he stands in the same Chemical Education, The Johns Hopkins University, and laboratory holding aloft the same flask of phenolic condensate as William E. Trout, Jr., Professor of Chemistry, Mary Baldwin in 1925. College. Second Edition. John Wiley and Sons, Inc.. New No teacher of general chemistry should feel his education comYork City, 1940. ix 7% pp. 159 figs. 15 X 23 cm. d e t e until he has examined this text to see how skilfullv cxneri~ ~ r Net, $3.50. mental material can be blended inta facts and theories to a degree This text is a real contribution in its field. This is because it that can seldom be achieved by a separate manual and text. is based on the truly original plan of building experimental exercises into the body of the text. As a result, the text is a teaching tool, rather than a reference book. By way of illustration, a neophyte student turning t o his first assignment, water, is, after the first paragraph, sent into the laboratory to determine the percentage of water in milk, or to observe a lecture-demonINOR~ANIC ANALYSIS-THBORY stration of it. Now chemistry is a laboratory, not an armchair A TEXTBOOK oa QUANT~TATIVE AND P R A ~ I C E .Avthur I. V q d , D.Sc. (Lond.), D.I.C.. science, so that this experimental approach is basically sound in F.I.C., Head of Chemistry Department. Woolwich Polygiving the student the proper scientific attitude. I t is good technic: Lately Beit Scientific Research Fellow of the Impedagogy; and the authors are t o be congratulated for reemphaperial College. Longmans, Green and Co.. London and New sizing this novel approach in elementary chemistry. York City, 1939. nix 856 pp. 143 figs. 13.5 X 21.5 cm. Part I : Nonmetals; and Part 11: Metals, are subdivided $5.00. inta unit topics called Books; which in turn are separated into The author has aimed to provide a complete and up-to-date Sections; thus Part I, Book 11: Some Fundamentals of Chemistry includes Sections on Fundamental Laws, Gas Laws, Molecu- text of the theory and practice of quantitative analysis: simple lar and Atomic Weights, Formulas,'Equations and Calculations. and detsiled enough for the elementary student, yet compreThe treatment of the non-metals conforms with orthodox general hensive enough for the advanced student or practical analyst. chemistry sequence. The treatment of the metals, however, is I n his point of view, choice of material, and style he has succeeded unique. For example, Book IV: The Ammonium Sulfide admirably in this task. The first one hundred ninetyave pages are devoted to the Group, contains the Sections (I) The Aluminum Family; (U) eeneral treatment The Chromium Family; (111) The Manganese Family; (IV) theoretical basis of o u a n t i t a t i ~analvsis. A " The Iron-Platinum Family; (V) The Zinc Family; and (VI) of the ionization theory, solubility products, complex ions, and Qualitative Analysis of the Ammonium Sulfide Group. By this hydrolysis is followed by applications t o volumetric analysis. This section contains a good and up-to-date discussion of the device the teacher may discuss both the periodic and analytical theory of neutralization indicators, as well as the practical usefulrelationships of the metals. An abundance of questions and problems have been appended ness of the newer mixed indicators. The thory of reactions int o each section, together with references t o articles in the JOURNAL volving precipitation and complex formation also is discussed. The treatment of oxidation-reduction ibactions deals with chemiOF CHEMICAL EDUCATION. Forty pages of new material discuss, with clarity, atomic cal indicators as well as potentiometric methods of determining structure, isotopes, valence bonds, oxy-compoundsof the halogens the endpoint. The theory of gravimetric analysis includes (seven pages), and foodstuffs, together with a thorough treat- colloidal behavior, coprecipitation, and electro-deposition. The second section of eightyave pages takes up general exment of the Debye-Hiickel and the Brglnsted theories of solutions perimental t e c h n i c t h e use of the balance and the standardiza(eight pages). Several new tables have been added or brought tion of weights, reagents, sampling, volumetric apparatus and up-to-date. The remaining seven hundredpages are practically unchanged from the first edition. This is unfortunate in the case its standardization, and the technic of grivimetric analysis. of certain older industrial proceses, such as tffe arc and cy- This section contains specific information and good illustrations, anamide processes, which receive disproportionate attention a t which should enable the student to make a wash bottle, prepare the expense of newer industrial processes and advances in special a Gooch crucible. burn off a filter oaoer.. or use a olatinnm crucible with a inininturn amounl of supervision and of diarirrr. fields such as in photochemistry and kinetics. The ncvt two hundred pages dral with \.olnrnrlric analysis. One hundred seventy-seven experiments have been carried over, unaltered, from the first edition, two dropped, and eleven Thc choice of material is varied nnd the experlrnmrs are well added. These latter include the fixation of nitrogen by mag- described, both in theory and in practice. A dozen determinanesium, titration in glacial acetic acid, preparation of chlorine tions based on neutralization reactions are followed by twenty monoxide and hypochlorous acid, and cellulose, starch and food- involvid precipitation and complex formation. Three-quarters of the space is devoted to oxidationl.eduction reactions, including stuff experiments. There are nearly one hundred new diagrams and pictures. mrmaneanate. dichromate. ceric and maneanic sulfates.. DOThe publishers should have taken more pains with a few of the tnssium iwhtc, potarrium Orornate and chloramioc-T a s oxidants latter; at least half a dozen of the plates, apparently taken from and ritanw- sdra, rinc. and othrr amalyams as reductants. Thc many r:m+wa!iona of iodirnerry ard i
