bold-faced headings stand out and the 10-point Scotch-Roman solid type is extremely easy on the eyes. (This review is printed in &point type. The main body of the JOURNAL is in 10-point type.) However, one does not usually do extensive reading in a dictionary and it would seem that an 8-point type would have done as well. The frequent indentations and spacings (again kind t o the eyes) lead to a considerable proportion of broken lines and a high percentage of blank space per page, which is huther increased by generous margins. An area of 14.8 X 20 cm. circumscribes all the printed matter on an 18.5 X 26.4-cm. page, including index headings and page number, as well as intercolumnar spacing. Some space could also have been saved by a mare selective use of structural formulas. Any chemist would be mateful for the full presentation of formulaslike those of berberine, bi~ianicacid, and bisabolene, but few need t o have anthracene, benzene, and ochlorobenzaldehyde diagrammed for them. The reviewez's criticism deals. of course. with a matter of taste. -~~~~~ or 3t lcast of individual prefercnce It5 validity for t h e reader musr d?p:nd iunm whcthcr the highrr value ic set upon rompactners, e c m x n y and sheer orility, or txponah~olutecot~sistency and handsome appearance. In a dictionary the reviewer would rate the former virtues higher than the latter. Orm R ~ m u m ~
J d ~ sJACOB BERZELIUS.Autobiographical notes, published by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences through H. G. SBderbaum. Translated from the Swedish by Olzf Larsell, Professor of Anatomy, University of Oregon Medical School, Portland. The Williams & Wilkins Company. Baltimore. 1934. xi 194 pp. 3 illustrations. 13.5 X 20.3 cm. $2.50.
der Marcet (the eminent chemist who was the husband of Jane Marcet, author of "Conversations on Chemistry"), Vauquelin. Biot, Alexander v. Humboldt, Wohler, and Goethe. T o many American chemists this little book should he of special interest. Wohler, one of Berzelius' most famous students, was one of the teachers of Ira Remsen who, in turn, through his position a t The Johns Hopkins University, became the teacher of a generation of the leaders of chemistry in the colleges and industries of this country. I n other words, hundreds of Americans now trace their chemical lineage hack t o Berzelius. The printing is very clear and on good paper. The style is that of the translator and may be characterized as somewhat matter-of-fact. The scholar will find the many explanatory notes of value, as he will the parallel passages from the three manuscripts which constitute the original sources. Two of these.manuscripts are in the handwriting of Berzelius. The third was written by Mme. Berzelius. A list of the most famous pupils of Berzelius is included. AVERYA. A s m o m MASSACWSBTTS IwSrr~me.01 TBCANOLOOY CINBRIDCB, MASSACHUSBITS
Pwsrcar. CHEMISTRY FOR STUDENTS OR BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE. David I. Hitchcock, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Physiology in the Yale University School of Medicine. Second edition. Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, Illinois, and Baltimore, Maryland. 1934. xi 214 pp. 28 figs. 14.25 X 23 cm. $2.75 postpaid.
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This is essentially identical with the first edition [reviewed J. CHEM.EDUC.,10, 256 (19331 except that a supplement of "laboratory directions" has been added. These twelve experiments deal with osmotic pressure, hemalysis, determination of These autobiographical notes cover sixty-two of the sixty-nine the freezine-mint de~ression.hvdroeen-ion concentration. sur". . . years of the life of Berzelius. They were written s t two different face tension, and adsorption, the osmotic pressure of colloids, periods of his life. The first section wasprepared in 1823 when H + and proteins, the isoelectric point of proteins, H t and enzyme he was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Bciences. action and reaction velocities. (The Academy requested, for its files, biographical notes of all I t is unfortunate that the curriculum of medical students and members.) The second part. dated January. 1842, supplements students of biology is often so restricted that they are unable to the first. It was expected that every ten years members would' program the "long course" in physical chemistry as offered t o bring their biographies up to date. chemistry majors. I t is equally unfortunate that most of the Berzelius wrote much more extensive nates than required by long courses in physical chemistry qfferedin our schools of chemthe "Proceedings of the Academy." He did this with prophetic istry contain few or no illustrations of the application of this insight, as the foreword reveals. science to problems of biology. The interest of the biological "1 have not been able." he wrote. "to conceal from mvself and medical student would certainly be stimulated if a few such .-~~~ that the success I have had the fortune to experience as a scientist applications could be included in the course, so that they could will fasten some attention upon the events of my life after my see where the road was leading them. More and more it is being coune is finished." shown that the important physiological phenomena are b a e d Chiefly, the book relates the outward facts of the eventful upon physical and physico-chemical laws and reactions and the life of Berzelius. His honors, greater than those of mast scien- physiological investigator of the future who does not have a tists, included twelve Royal Orders and membership in ninety- mastery of physics, physical chemistry,andmathematics will find four learned societies. I n the translation,dhe accounts of these himself sorely handicapped. awards and the nates on the Academy of Sciences are omitted This volume is excellent as an "introduction" to the fundaon the grounds of being of less interest to the general reader mentals of physical chemistry which have a particular applicathan the more personal notes. There are many details of his tion to physiological processes but i t is too brief and too limited early struggles for an education-he was an orphan a t the age t o give that mastery of the subject which the researcher should of eight. He worked his way through school, t o use the present- attain. On the basis that a half a loaf is superior t o no bread a t day expression. The story, often repeated, that Berzelius was all, it is highly recommended for adoption in medical schools. passed in the chemistry examination far his degree, only on J t contains a minimum of mathematics, and is pointed directly condition that he do well in physics, is set forth in its true back- a t physiological processes, enzyme action, membrane equilibria. ground of altercations between professors. If comfort had equilibria in blood, oxidation-reduction processes, etc. As colever been drawn from this story, that Berzelius had become lateral reading for a "long course" for chemists it should prove great without being an able student of chemistry in his younger valuable to stimulate interest in the biological applications of days, then that comfort must he denied. There are numerous the subject. side-lights on his experiments. Among these should be menOne delightful feature of the hook is a series of "biographical tioned the early work with voltaic cells which furnished the footnotes" following such names as Henry, Ostwald, Faraday, immediate background for his dualistic theory of chemical Helmholtz, Kohlrausch, etc., etc., telling the student about these compounds. leaders in the science, when they lived, where they worked, and Berzelius was a great traveler and accounts of his journeys what they did. Too often these names are abstract entities to furnish much of the material for the notes. At various periods, the student. The present arrangement makes them more real, he made extended visits to Denmark, England, France, Switzer- almost as though one had met them personally. I t is an excelland. Germany, and Norway. While in these countries, he lent pedagogical feature which should be adopted hy other met many of the scientists of the first half of the nineteenth Ross AIKEN GORTNER writers of textbwks. century. Throughout the hook, one catches glimpses of a host UNIYBBSXTY or MINNBSOTA ST. PAUL,MINNBSOTA of such leaders as Sir Joseph Banks, Sir Humphry Davy. Alexan-
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