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JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
accompanying the text. Format is excellent, with double col- proaching macro size. No great attention is paid to completeumns and easily read type. Bold-type numbering of subtopics ness of reaction, serious purification, or calculation of yield. A facilitates assignment and cross reference. Judicious use is made large number of the experiments are qualitative tests. I n of good, modern photographs. The book is profusely illustrated America such a manual would most likely employ the blank-form with well-placed, meaningful, and easy to understand charts. pattern, but the present volume has no such suggestion. EquaData tables are easily understwd and their limited use avoids the tions are generally presented. Description of general technique appearance of a dictionary-type text. is brief, with no attempt made at systematic qualitative organic The authors have d r a m extensively from THIS JOURNAL'S analysis. To be sure, an abundance of raw mrtterial for sueh valuable store of chemical literature. Fifty per cent of the nearly analysis is presented. In general, this manual would probably 200 references m e from this one source. Practically all of the not be adopted far the main doctoral-training course characterreferences should be found in the average college library. Sum- istic of a European university, but rather in institutes of applied maries are sometimes lacking and at times may be mistaken for science and perhaps by the German equivalent of the junior additional subject content. Each chapter is, however, followed college. by an excellent set of questions and problems, which tend to sumG . ROSS ROBERTSON marize the important topics. Placing of organic and colloidalUNIVEXBLTY O R CALIPORNIA chemistry chapters a t the end of the text may he rriticized by Los A ~ a m e a ,C A L I F O ~ N I A those who assign work by successive chapters. In the first half of the text, theoretical and descriptive contents stand in a five to one ratio, while the reverse is true for the remainder of the book. This conforms to the procedure followed 0 GMELINS HANDBUCH DER ANORGANISCHEN in the usual first-year college course. The unconventional CHEMIE. SYSTEM 10: SELEN. PART A3 grouping of metallic compounds "according to their non-metallic constituents" may be questioned, although this has always been Edited by Erich Pietsch. Eighth edition. Verlag Chemie, the basis of the usual qualitative analysis procedure. This GMBH, Weinheim, West Germany. 1953. xvii 184pp. 17.5 X classifieatian should be placed earlier in the text in order to be 25.5 om. 158 figs. $26.64. (Available through Walter I. of maximum service to the laboratory work. For the engineer- Johnson, Inc., 125 E. 23rd St., New York 10, N. Y.) ing student, this method also lacks information concerning the WITH the appearance of this section, dealing with the ~elenium metals. The historical aspect has been held to a minimum and is only rectifier and photocell, Part A of System No. 10 has been oomused toenliven theoretical discussions. The authors' backgrounds pleted. The previous sections covered the historical aspects, in physical chemistry are reflected in their clear and canciae the occurrence, formation, and preparation of the element in its several modifications, including colloidal selenium; the physical, treatment of theorv. chemical, and electrochemicrtl properties, as well as the detection and determination of the element. The electrical properties, and especially the photoelectric characteristics of selenium, were discussed in part, and the present volume completes this discuswin favor with both instructors and students.
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",m"
0
EINFACHE VERSUCHE AUF DEM GEBIETE DER ORGANISCHEN CHEhfIE
A. F. Holleman. Revised by Leonhard Schuler. Seventh edition. Walter de Gruyter and Co., Berlin. .x 171pp. 14 X 22 cm. Pressboard covers. DM 7.20.
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TEE death only a few months ago, at advanced age, of the grand old man of chemistry in the Netherlands, is recalled by the appearance of this latest edition of one of Halleman's famous educational works, in a. sequence long since entrusted to younger hands. The "Versuche" is s. laboratory manual for beginners. Apparently three editions have now been handled by the junior author. Despite thegeneral availability of elegant new types of apparsi tus, the author makes a special point of retaining simplicity of equipment. He is evidently trying to cater to minor institutions of higher education, and also to individuals engaging in selfinstruction. Chromatography, standard-taper ground-glass devices, and fancy new reagents me out. Although economic restrictions in convalescent Germany may be significant, conservatism in avoiding modern luxuries seems to have been overdone. Almost the entire list of materials (pages xv to xix) could have been found in a pre-World-War-I storeroom. Far example, higher homologues sueh as inexpensive propyl and butyl alcohols, long used to advantage in America, are bypassed. One must concede. however, that this is a scholarlv work and that a lot of organic cbemititry has been packed into" the tersely written 171 oaees. The man; &thetic experiments might be described as semipreparative, on a scale varying from semimicro to values ap-
In recent years the rapidly increasing application of the selenium rectifier in various industries has been sn outgrowth of extensive research which has been devoted to the study of the semiconductor rectifiers. In the present work, about 60 per cent of the book is devoted to the rectifier; the remainder is concerned with the photocell. Chapters on general electrical properties, technology, manufacture, and technical application of the rectifier are followed by 40 pages dealing with the theory underlying its operation. In the remaining chapter on the selenium photocell, the electrical and o~ticalmoverties are discussed in detail, followed simildy by Hccounis 01the technology, applications, and theory of the cell. The literature coveraze for Seetion 3 of Part A is
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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MATHEMATICAL FIELD
INVENTION
IN
THE
Jacoues Hadamord. Remint. Dover Publications. Ino.. New 145 pp. 14 X 20.5 cm. paper bound, 1954. xiii $1.25. Cloth bound, $2.50.
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T H I is ~ a reprint of the first edition, which appeared in 1945. In the introduction the author says he really means "discovery" rather than invention. Thereafter the discourse is on various aspects of the "scientific method," some of which will be apparent from a. few of the chapter headings: Discussions on Unconsciousness; The Unconscious and Discovery; The Later Conscious Work; Discovery as a. Synthesis; Paradoxical Cases of Intuition. The scientific method is not always the nimple, straightforwsrd process that some people suppose.
