BOOK REVIEWS "In a, science a paradigm is rarely an object of replication. Instead, like an accepted judicial decision in the common law, it is an object for further articulation and specification under new and more stringent conditions." The collection of essays is stimulating to the scientific liberal and should he given 8. high piiority on the reading list of the ooueervatiie or d l of us who do not understand the meaning, the value or the inhihitions of paradigmbin short, we can all profit by these ideas. I do wish the publisher had used some side headings to help us slow readers ease the osmotic effect of this interesting material-hut after all many publishers are victims of this failure in format-that is too often a publisher's paradigm! And, too, more care in topic sentences, better clipped, less wordy and verbose sentences, and more clearly drawn summaries on the part of the author would have improved the readability of this important manuscript. These failures are often s. professor's paradigm in writing. This is a goad book.
A. R. GARRETT
Ohio State University Columbus
Nonsloichiometric Compounds
Roland Ward, Symposium Chairman. Advances in Chemistry Series, No. 39. ACS, Washington, D. C., 1963. vii f 253 pp. Fige. and tables. 15.5 X 23.5 cm. paperbound. $7.
For anyone teaching crystal chemistry of inorganic materials, this volume provides a wealth of information on one of the most rapidly growing and most exciting sides of the subject. Moreover, so far as the reviewer is aware, no other volume presenta so much information in this field of study in so concise a. manner, there being 23 topics in 253 pages, about l l pages per item. The book is based on a Symposium sponsored by the Division of Inorganic Chemistry of the ACS held in March 1962, with Roland Ward as symposium chairman, From the standpoint of university studies, the hook will he a most valuable source of material for the professor, and useful as supplementary reading for graduate students and perhaps for some seniors. The book is also likely to he interesting and stimulating to those with research problems in this area. The level of presentation is not in itself difficult but generally authors presuppose some acquaintance with the subject; in the space available, there is clearly no place for elementary introductions, and for the most part readers must be able to plunge straight into the subject under review. The subjects dealt with fallinto the following groups: oxides ( 5 chapters), hydrides ( 6 ) , intermetdlics ( 2 ) , sulfides, tellurides, etc. ( 5 ) , tungsten and vanadium bronzes ( 3 ) ,clathrates (I),and a general introduction (1)-tntal23. (Continued on page A2141
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Journal bf Chernicol~Educofion
BOOK REVIEWS The book is copiously illustrated with diagrams showing numerical data, hut structural diagrams tend to be rather fewer than one might expect on such a subject; for example, there are no diagrams illustrating clathrate structures. There is no general index and this also would he useful; so-called Magneli phases turn up in many places and an index showing where the structures and the properties are discussed would be helpful. The book is very well produced, the printing is clear and pleasant to read, and the paper cover is substantial and likely to stand up well to all reasonable treatment. Themes which recur throughout the book are the nature of defects, their influence on structures and properties, and the thermodynamics of defect structures. Distinctions are drawn between structures with small numbers of defects and grossly defective structures. One of the most fascinating developments in recent years has been the recognition of metal-oxide phases with (one might say) almost innumerable metal: oxygen ratios such as the sequence Tirol, Tibop,Ti601,,. . . up to Ti,oO,o, with general formula. Ti,Ozn-1. These are said to he strictly stoichiametric phases. The geometrical explanation is in terms of the fitting together of blocks of structure. Other oxide series of the same general type are k n o m and one wonders what further discoveries along these lines will emerge. Order-disorder is another topic which occurs in many places and again one regrets
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Journal of Chemical Fducofion
the absence of a general index. In conclusion, i t should be noted that this volume has appeared in little more than a year since the symposium was held and one must congratulate all concerned with its production on making i t quickly available to a much wider audience.
G. W. BRINDLEY Pansylvania State University Univwsit~lPark
Modern Polarographic Methods Helmut Schmidt and Mavk oon Stack& berg, Institute for Physical Chemistry, University of Bonn, Bonn, West Germany. Academic Press, Inc., New York, 1963. v 99 pp. Figures. 16 X 23.5 cm. $5.50.
+
This Little book succeeds in a difficult but worth-while task. It presents most of the recent variations that have been devised for increasing the power and versatility of polruography and discusses the merits of each for analytical and other applications. The authors have been ~articulerlvsuccessful in exnlainine the
equations, approximations, and more equations. The discussion of alternating current polrtrogrrtphy is refreshingly good in this respect. Mastery of the material in this hook would not make one a n expert in the field, and it is doubtful that anyone completely unfamiliar with classical polarog-
raphy would benefit from this book. However, for the large and growing body of electroanalytical chemists this hook comprises one of the best brief discussions wailahle of modern polsrographic methods.
FRED ANSOX California Institute of Technology Pasadena Experimental Gas Chromatography James M Miller, Drew University, Madison, New Jersey. Gow-Mac Instrument Co., Madison, New Jersey, 1963. 103 pp. Figs. and tables. 21.5 X 28 cm. Paverbound.
This book is basically a. laboratory manual for a series of gas chromatographic experiments. At the beginning a brief review is presented of the elementary principles of the method. Next, rather detailed instructions are given for the construction of a simple gas chromatograph. Actually, this instrument is to be assembled from a kit supplied by the Gow-Mac Instrument Company (the publishers of the book). The three following chapters offer advice on preparing columns, technique, and the testing of the assembled gas chromatograph. The main body of the manual consists of 12 gas chromtographic experiments, which make use of the assembled instrument. The first two illustrate the effect of carrier gas velocity upon column effi(Continued on page A218)
