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Inorganic Chemistry. By FRITZEPHRAIM.Third English edition, translated and revised by P. C. L. Thorne and A. hl. Ward. xii 911 pp. New York: Nordeman Publishing Company, Inc., 1939. Although earlier editions, both of the German and of the English versions of this excellent and comprehensive text, have been reviewed in this and other American journals, i t seemed desirable t o make some general comments rather than to limit the review merely t o changes and new features. Ephraim set himself the task of presenting in a single volume a comprehensive survey of inorganic chemistry, and t o do so in a form which does not make too great a “demand on the patience of the reader.’’ To accomplish such a result requires good judgment in the selection of subject matter, a coherent plan of presentation, and an easy and interesting style. In all of these respects, the author and the translators have been successful, and this text is without much question the best book available in the English language, intermediate between what are essentially general chemistry texts and very large comprehensive works. The plan of the book is essentially the following: Section I is devoted t o a discussion of the structure of matter, the Periodic System, radioactivity and isotopes, and the properties, preparation, and modifications of the elements. Section I1 deals with the compounds of the halogens. Section 111 takes up oxides of hydrogen and of the metals. The remaining sections describe the compounds of the fourth, fifth, and sixth groups of the Periodic System. I t will be noted that there are no sections devoted t o the first three groups nor to the subgroups of the Periodic System; description of the members of these groups is integrated with the sections on the elements, the oxides, the halides, and so on. There is, however, no neglect of the periodic classification, for the larger sections are aubdivided on this bask. Topics of theoretical character, such as Werner’s theory, are taken up in connection with the descriptive material, thus producing what is, by and large, a well-integrated whole. Occasionally the systematization is carried too far. Thus i t would have been more satisfactory to have treated Werner’s theory in a single unified section, rather than to scatter the discussion through several of the chapters devoted to the halides. Similarly, the classification of all methods of preparation of the elements as either “displacement” or “decomposition” methods is occasionally highly artificial. As a matter of fact, the text is very weak in its discussion of preparative methods, because no distinction is made between the many reactions in which a substance appears as a reaction product and those reactions useful for preparative purposes. Another defect of the text is its paucity of references to source material. The omission in the case of the older literature is reasonable; i t is more serious in the case of newer observations and points of view. What in most objectionable, however, is that even when references are given they are far from complete. The almost complete neglect of articles in other than German journals, characteristic of the first edition, is partly remedied in the last English version, although even in that, reference material is woefully inadequate and is largely confined to English and German investigations. For example, in the discussion of the acid-base reaction, only the work of Hantzsch is mentioned, without even a reference to that of Bronsted, Lewis, and the many others who have made important contributions t o this topic. In the latest English edition the style has been improved by the omission of many unnecessary words and sentences; the tone of the book has been improved by the omission of unnecessary explanations of elementary concepts with which any user of an advanced text must already be familiar. There are also many improvements in the arrangement of subject matter. The major changes, however, consist of additions of recent developments, both in the facts and in the interpretation of
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inorganic chemistry. I t is impossible t o point out all of the changes introduced, for these are scattered throughout the book; only a few can be mentioned. In the introductory section, although the “cubical atom” of Lewis is retained, sections on quantum theory and on valency have been expanded. I t is questionable, however, whether the discussion of the former is adequate to prepare the reader for the newer sections on spectra, and whether the use of the Sugden and Sidgwick modes of notation, used in many places throughout the book? add much t o the clarity of presentation. The concept of resonance is mentioned and used, but it is improbable t h a t a student whose only contact with this concept comes from this text will have an understanding of either its meaning or usefulness. Other important changes in the first section are in the topics of nuclear reactions and artificial radioactivity, isotopes, allotropy, x-ray and electron diffraction. and in the introduction of modern forms of thc Periodic System. In the second section the most striking change is the greatly expanded and iniproved discussion of coordination compounds, which includes much modern work and a more thorough description and analysis of important aspects of this topic than were found in earlier editions. Other additions deal with the use of deuterium in studies on the chain reaction between hydrogen and chlorine, with unusual valence stages, with the work of Keggins and Miles on Prussian and Turnbull’s blue, and with the hydrogen bond. Although electronic interpretations of the coordinate bond are given, there is no reference t o Pauling’s discussion of this problem in terms of quantum mechanics. I n sections I11 and IV the more significant changes are the additional material on deuterium and exchange reactions, the modernization of the discussion of is0 and heteropoly acids, a rather incomplete treatment of the acid-base concept in solvents other than water, and an extensively revised discussion of the polythionic acids. I t is rather surprising that, although the properties of sulfur monoxide are described, there is no mention of the bearing its discovery has had on some of the hypotheses discussed in connection with the reactions of the polythionates. There are numerous additions and changes in section V, some of which are as follows: new material on nitrososulfonium salts, discussion of the relation of ionic dimensions t o coordination number, addition t o the chemistry of the boron hydrides (although some of the more modern work which has considerable bearing on the interpretation of their structure is omitted), a great improvement in the discussion of the carbonyls, an improvement in the use of new figures in the discussion of silicates (in the discussion of which Pauling’s work is omitted), introduction of newer work on polyatomic metallic ions (again the hmerican work by Kraus is not included), the addition of the Hume-Rothery rules concerning the formation of intermetallic compounds, and a discussion of the work of Gillespie and Hall on palladium hydrides. The appendix contains new schematic representations of the more common types of crystal lattices. A few unfortunate errors and misleading statements have not been corrected,examples are the use of the expression
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for the solubility product constant, Mg [OHlz the failure t o mention the fact t h a t the ether extraction method for the preparation of 100 per cent hydrogen peroxide is a very dangerous one, and the comment t h a t manganese heptoxide is “explosive but not excessively so.” 40 one who has ever worked with the latter compound would agree with the statement. There are other similar cases, and many points on which there may be differences of opinion. But it would be unreasonable to dwell on these matters in discussing a book which contains so much t h a t is useful and excellent, and has been brought up t o date so successfully. H. I. SCHLESINGER.
