RECENT BOOKS ORTEOEYDROGEN, PARAHYDROGEN AND HEAVYHYDROGEN.knowledge of Muslim chemistry and has made clear the most Adnlbert Farkas, Dr. Phil. nat. (Frankfurt), Dr.-Ing. (Vienna). important sources of the mediaeval Latin chemistry which was The Cambridge Series of Physical Chemistry. Cambridge: derived from it. at the University Press; New York: The Maanillan ComThe Book of Alums and Salts is an Arahic compilation based 215 pp. 47 figs. 13.5 X 21 cm. $3.50. on the writings of al-Raei and Jabir and upon Alexandrian sources. pany, 1935. xiv In 1926 very few people would have believed that the next six It underwent various changes and additions by the Muslim or eight years would produce enough new and radically diflerent chemists and existed in a number of versions before it came to the L a t i n s t o whom it supplied what was perhaps their most initheoretical and experimental information about hydrogen-supposedly the best understood of all elementsto fill a volume such portant source of chemistry. It was known to Gerard of Cremona as the one here reviewed. In fact, if the author had included all who translated it into Latin and supposed it to be the work of there was to be said of heavy hydrogen this hook would have been al-Rozi. Vincent of Beauvais ascribed it to al-Razi and quoted twice its present size. This work is a tribute to the rapid growth extensively from a Latin version of it. A number of anonymous manuscripts of the translation are also known. Ruska paints out of our physical sciences. The book is divided into two parts; Part I deals with ortho- that no Arabic original of the work exists among the known auand parahydrogen and Part I1 with heavy hydrogen. The suh- thentic works of al-Razi. He has made a careful study and comject matters of these two parts are not very closely related and parison of the Latin Paris Ms. 6514. which hears the name of each part is almost independent of the other. Part I begins with al-Razi, and the supplement, Dc Mineralibus Liber, of the Coma very brief chapter on the salient facts which led to the discovery fiendium Alchemia of John Garland which was printed at Basel in of ortho- and parahydrogen. This is followed by a chapter on 156(tTracfotus de Salium Aluminumpue uarietate, compositime the theory which led to the prediction that two forms of ordinary et usu Scriptoris incnti (Treatise of an unknown writer an the hydrogen existed and which allowed calculations to he made on Variety, Composition and Use of Salts and Alums). He seems the equilibrium between these two modifications. This theoreti- to have been the fist to note the resemblance of the latter to the Book of Alums and Salts. In part the two are identical, and in cal oortion deals with the relationshio between nuclear soin and ~rotational qu.mtum numher (quantum mechanic\) and aka drd9 part each contains material wbich is not contained in the other. with the statis~icaltrcntmcnt used in calculaling the equilibrium They differ in the Arabic words which have been retained in the involved. This section i, followed by an ol,srrvation of thc ther- Latin, in the additions which have evidently been made to modynamics, physical, and kinetic properties of these two modi- them, and in the characteristically Muslim and Christian referfications and a description of tbe experimental arrangement em- ences to God which have been retained or added as the case may ployed in the preparation and anslysis. There is also a brief dis- be. They appear to be derived from two differentearlier Arabic versions. Finally Ruska has discovered in the Berlin Ms., cussion of ortho and para systems of other molecules. Slightly less than half the book is devoted to heavy hydrogen Springer, 1904, an Arabic original wbich agrees in part and differs Somewhat the same orocedure in the oresentation of in part from the Latin versions. His book presents the evidence (Part 11). --, clearly and convincingly. It contains the original Arabic text r the snhjert is ndopted here as in.the ilrst pert ~ h thcrmudynamic trratmrnt is particularly emphasi7ed. This part is nut as and the two above-mentioned Latin versions together with a complctc as that on ortlro- nnd pnrahydrofien but omissions here German translation, which covers them all, with indications of are to he expected because of the continued rapid development the variants and identities. The Book of Alums and Salts is a sincere compilation of the of this subject and its already great content. In hoth sections, however, the important developments are all adequately pre- chemical knowledge of its time, without mystery and without sented and in addition there is much factual material that may be nonsense. It is hy no means limited to the materials indicated in its title but treats of the many substances which were used by used for reference (295 references are included). As with any well-founded scientific article this book is not open the Muslim chemists, arsenic sulfide, sulfur, mercury, the heavy to adverse criticism. The principal experimental facts and theo- metals, minerals, etc., vitriol, alkali, glass, and the imitation of ries are simply and adequately stated-there is no room for argu- precious stones. Its exposition, naturally, is based upon the ment. If one were forced to 6nd criticism it might he said that an very serviceable theory which prevailed a t the time, the sulfurunduly small proportion of the book is devoted to heavy hydro- mercury theory which is associated with the names of Zosimos and Jabir. The hwk makes one realize that there were meat gen. Two Nobel prizes attest to the importance of the material here chemists among the M~slims,and makes one suspect that there so well presented. The book is recommended to everyone de- were no truly -eat ones after them in Europe unril the time of sirine a more intimate knowledee af these latest develooments in Paracelsus. Our thanks again to Professor Ruska for his fundamental physical chemistry. However, the book is not recommended to contributions to the history of chemistry. anyone who does not have a solid foundation in this subject. T. R. HOGNESS
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DASB u m DER ALAmrr, SALZE. (The Book of Alums and Salts.) A Source of Late Latin Alchemy, Edited, Translated, and Annotated by Julius Ruska. Verlag Cbemie G.m.h.H., Coroeliusstrasse 3, Berlin W. 35, 1935. 127 pp. 16.5 X 25 em. Price bound, RM. 15. Professor Winderlieh's article (trans. Ralph E. Oesper) on "Al-Raai's Influence on Occidental Chemistty," projected for a future numher of THIS JOURNAL, will desuibe so well the general nature of the researches which Professor Ruska has been doing on al-Razi, and the place among them which is occupied by the Book of Alums and Salts, that it seems undesirable here to attemot to anticioate it. Ruska's work has ereatlv imnroved our
AND ORGANIC). QUALITATTVE CREMICAL ANALYSIS (INORGANIC F. Mollwo Pnkin, Late Head of the Chemistry Department. Borough Polytechnic Institute, London. Revised by. Ju1ius Grant. Fifth edition. Longmans, Green and Co., London and New York, 1935. x 377 pp. 13.5 X 21.5 em. $3.50. The first edition of this text appeared in 1901. Since that time the text has passed through several editions and printings. The present edition (13th) has been enlarged by including sections on microanalysis (hoth inorganic and organic), organic reagents and spot tests, and some of the less common elements; and by treating in more detail some of the rarer elements and alkaloids. The text is divided into two parts; the first considers inorganic substances, and the other, organic. The inorganic section is
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