ometry is no mere introdnction, but a critical treatment of the theory and a p plications with emphasis on interpretation through currunt-voltage curves. In addition to a n excellent presentation of the theory of eonlometric titrations a t constant current in Chapter 20, the chapter following contains perhaps the most complete and up-to-date discussion of applications yet available. Each couLometric titration is discussed in detail and evaluations of errors, scope of method, best operating techniques, etc., are to he found in many cases. The last ehspter is s. refreshing approach to the relatively new technique of chranopotentiometry. The development is pmtitularly well suited to student understanding and yet the non-mathematical treatment leaves nothing to he desired. While the reviewer would have preferred that Professor Lingane had drawn diagrams af chronopotentiograms with t h e axes in the opposite sense, a 90' crick in the neck is a small price indeed for t h e privilege of owning this hook. RALPHN. ADAMS L'niuersit!, of Kansas Lawrence
The Study of the Physical World
Nicholas D. Cheronis, Brooldyn College; JamesB. Pamons, University of Chicago; Conrad E. Ronnebwr,, Ilenison University. 3rd od. Houghton-Mifflin Co., Boston, Ma~s., 1058. vii 684 pp. Many figs. and tables. 18.5 X 25 em. $7.50.
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The third edition of this college physical science text reduces the scope of caverage of earlier editions and has been rearranged to give greater unity. The tre& ment of topics is in general on a high plane and the college student will find a considerable amount of challenge here. The materials on geology have been located together early in the text. This has the virtue of presenting fresh materids a t the start (only f e n students have taken geology in high school) and of pa& poning until later, the introduction of mat,hcmatics, often the shoal upon which many a beginner is shipwrecked. The illustrations in the section on geology are particularly good, though they are in general of commendable quality throughout. The attention given to eleetronio stnlcture and chemirsl bonding is more extensive than in most texts of this type and in keeping with a. modern trend in the teaching of ehemistry. There are also three excellent chapters entitled Things of This World. One of these, the chapter on polymers, for example, goes much beyond just a reciting of their properties and discusses some of the most important relations between properties and molecular structure. The material on radioactivity and nuclear energy has been modernized and extended. Each chapter doses with a summary, a. well-selected and quite varied list of study everrises and suggested readings. A good sense of proportion has been maintained in treating the social a p e c t s of ~sienrc. The student is made aware of the fact that
364 / Journal of Chemicol Education
science is not a separate compartment of knowledge but an integral part of man's striving for s, better world. The inevitable errors whieh creep into any textbook have been kept to a. minimum. On page 638, the statement, "The neutrons from a fission reaotian . . are too energetic to be captured b y UP56 nuclei and hence do not produce fission," would appear to preclude the possibility of an atomic bomb, which presumably depends on fast fission. All in all, this is a. well-written, intoresting and attractive volume.
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DONALD S. ALLEN Slate University Teache1.s College New Paltz, New York
Gmelins Handbvch der Anorganirehen Chemie. System 45. Germanium Supplement. Edited by the Gmelin Institute under the direction of E. H . E. Pietach. 8th ed. Verlag Chemie, GmbH., Weinheim/Bergstr., 1958. xliv 576 pp. 290 graphs. 17.5 X 25.5 em. $80.88.
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The granth in the importance of germanium in technology since the appearance of the original volume on germanium in 1931 is indicated by a comparison of their sizes (1931, 62 pp.; 1958, 576 pp.). The direction of the growth is shown by the fact that 414 pages of the present supplement are devoted to the physics of this element. Despite this emphasis, the chemistry of germanium has been eovercd very adequately. In addition to preparation of the element and its compounds, a survey of compounds with carbon which are analogous to the silico-organic compounds is included. The analytical chemistry of germanium is treated in detail. The literature ooverrtge is through 1953 far most of the work rtnd through 1954 for optical, eleotrienl, and photoelectric properties. The table of contents is given in both English and German which facilitates its use by American workers.
papers have been arranged into 27 chapters according to suhject. When the areas of research are broken down, i t is found that about half of the papers deal with t,he t,wo mrennial favmites. mmerconduotivity and the theory and physical properties of He', He' and their mixtures. Another quarter of the papers are concerned with magnetic properties of matter such as ferromagnetism, paramagnetism, susceptibilities, etc. Two important hut not so popular areas, nuclear orientation experiments and temperature scale and measurements, are covered in about ten papers each. About 30 papers are devoted to the specific heat, electrical rtnd thermal conductivity of elements, compounds, and alloys. The hook is lithoprinted with the result that a reduction of cost over usual print is achieved with some sacrifice in legibility. The graphs and figures in a numher of oases are so poorly drawn or so reduced in size as to impair their value to the reader. Also, in some papers in which symbols or mathematical expressions printed by hand have been reproduced, reading is difficult. The chief value of the book lies in the faot that here, in a group of concise papers containing all the important figures and tables, is a cross section of pmctically all the significant low temperature research in progress to the middle of t,he year 1957. It should prove extremely valurtble in acting as a guide to the direction of future research in the law temperature field. ~~
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E . L. PACE
Western Reserae Uniue~sily Cleveland, Ohio
Annual Review of Physical Chemistry. Volume 9 Edited by H. Eyrinp, University of Utah, C. J . Ch&ensen, University of Utah, and H. S. Johnston, University of California. Annual Reviews, Ine., Palo Alto, Calif., 1958. vii 511 pp. 16 X 23cm. $7.
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The present volume of the Annual Reviews covers the advances made in a number of important fields of physical chemistry. I t surveys the literature whieh aooeared in the vear 1957 and i t Low Temperature Physics a n d Chemistry Edited by John R. Dillinger. University of Wi~consin Press, Madison, i s . , 1958. xxv 676 pp. Many figs. and tables. 16.5 X 24.5 cm. $6.
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This hook is a summary of material presented a t the Fifth International Conference on Low Temperature Physics and Chemistry held a t tho University of Wisconsin in August, 1957. The summary consists of some 225 contributions in the form of papers, approximately 1000 words in length, which include important tablcs and figures. The contributions represent work carried out in most major low tempcrsture laboratories in the world excepting those of U.S.S.R. For the convenience of the user, the
tions of elcctralytes, solutions of nonelectrolytes, solid state, nuclear and electron spin resonance, radiation chemistry, ion exchange resins and membranes, mechanical properties of high polymers, reaction kinetics and mechanisms of gas phase reactions, reaction kinetics in solution, quantum theory of electronic structure of molecules, surface chemistry and contact catalysis, physical organic chemistry, molecular electronic speetm, spectroscopy, experimental molecular structure, statistical mechanics, high p r e s sure developments, optical rotatory power and colloid and surface chemistry. It seems that the policy adopted by the editors consists in devoting the large~t proportion of article8 each year to the review of the same fields, while a m a l l
