provoc~tiveopinion 14:ditor's Nnte:'l'he following .'book review." writtm asiftheauthor were working in 1894 whrm the hook was published, was sent to the J~URNAL in the hope that it "might provide some interesting insights into some of the current modes of chemical education."
Introduction to Chemical Science R. P. Williams. Ginn and Company, Boston, 1894, 214 pp. $0.80. This refreshine addition to the textbook literature is especially welcome because of its relentless and proper emphasis upon experiment rather than exegesis. Well over 100 lahoratory studies are insisted upon within the text itself. Most of the chapters heain where chemistrv itself beeins: in the lahoratory rsther than in the classroom. For exampie, nine experiments introduce the chapter on chlorine; these are followed by 14 lines of discussion of the properties of chlorine and its compounds that were observed in the experiments. Almost all of the other chapters follow this same splendid pattern: experiment first, talk later. The laboratory work is provocative, challenging, and fundamental to an understanding of chemistry. I,audahly, the author makes few suggestions as to iust what the student "should" or "is exnected" to observe. The general atmosphere of Mr. Williams's laboratory a t Boston's English High School must have a lot of excitement
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in it along with the hydrogen sulfide. For example, one of the more intriguing of Williams's laboratory instructions is, "Explain the explosion which follows." Most of the hook is devoted to inorganic chemistry, but suhstantial attention is paid to organic, analytical, industrial, and mineralogical chemistry, as well as to biochemistry. (Oreanic chemistrv alone is eiven over five ~ages.)Atomic and ~ ttreated s with a keeLiusight as to the molecular c ~ n c ~are possible future of these interesting ideas. Appropriate attention is drawn to chemical theory, with over half a page being devoted to this important subject. The author clearly feels that the comprehension of chemistry will eventually have to include some understandine of ohvsin and that energy considerations will sometime in'the future be a necessary component of chemical understanding. This splendid and relatively inexpensive book should find a place in the minds and laboratories of all good teachers of chemistry. With Williams, we may now look forward with confidence to the great majority of chemists receiving most of their scientific education doing good experiments rather than performing manipulative calisthenics, with trying to understand phenomena rather than merely memorizing textbooks and badly transcribed notes of frequently lessthan-splendid lectures.
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504
Journal of Chemical Education
RALPH STEINHARDT Hollins College Hallins College. VA 24020
