BOOK REVIEWS
atomic and molecolsr structure and spectroscopy 21.e given 100 pages. The a,~thor.;ttfmin in thei~.treatment of the~modynamirsfrom using r , the chemical potential. This seems curious and leads to a m e sit~~nl.ionx where the student, could possibly be conf\wed. Fol. example, the development of Gihh's phme rule is carried on1 by using a function called the molar free energy of a component and not. the rhemiral potential. In summary, the text could be used in sn introdnctmy course but considerable supplementing would be necessary in order to give the student a more balanced ovel; view of phyxieal chemistl.y, past and present.
he sufficient to handle the mathematics used. This would make it soitahle far a non-majors course where the level of mathematicalsophisticatiot~in the student is often insnflicient for the two texts mentioned above. The book is, on the whole, well w i t t e n but a few points detract more than a little in the opinion of this reviewer. A at.ate ment made by the authors in the preface is "The book seeks to show the devehpment and present ststus of the basic fields of physical chemistry." I n their endeavor to show the present stntus they have inot, been rnmpletely auccessfd. The chapter on chemical kinetic3 does not show the present status of this area. In fact vi~.tually everything in this chapter wm known prior to bhe Second World War. When one considers the immeuse developBasic Concepts in Quantum Mechanics ment in chemical kinetics since t,hnt time, it is difficult to understand why some of Alezander Kompanel,rts, Instibhe of these findings were not i n e l d e d . Other Chemical Physics of the Academy of topics covered in t , h i book show the same Sciences, U.S.S.R. Translat,ed by tendency to emphasize the clas~irala?Swipta Technics, Ine. Trans. ed. by pects relative to recent developments 1,eon F. Landovitz, Yeshiva University, thongh not to the extreme mentioned New York. I
