RECENT BOOKS AN INTRODUCTION TO CHEWISTRY.John Arrend Timm, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Yale University. Third Edition. McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York City, 1938. xx 568 pp. 14 X 20 cm. 8 . 5 0
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The first and second editions of this well-written book [reviewed in J. CHEM.EDuC., 8,411-12 (Feb., 1931)andibid., 9,1839(0&., 1932)l hear upon the title page an announcement. "A Pandemic Text." that is omitted from the third edition. Nevertheless, it is the same b w k in the eeneral manner of treatment.. the orincipal changes being the introduction of brief but very good chapters a n nuclear chemistry and on the generalired detinirions of actds and bases. Thc discussion of atomic stmilure and valence is also brought more nearly up-to-date. In the preface the author states, "It is no easy task for the teacher of elementary chemistry to decide when to discard the outworn and welcome the new. Inevitably a period of years must elapse between the time that the use of a new concept becomes frequent in research literature in a specialized field and its introduction to students in an elementary course." Most certainly each teacher has a right t o his own convictions about the extent of the inevitable lag between the adoption of new concepts by research pioneers and the introduction of those concepts into elementary instruction. No doubt many teachen will feel that the author has combined in a happy manner the conservation of time-honored viewpoints with an indication of the direction in which chemistry is developing. The reviewer sympathizes with the de..ire to avoid discarding concepts of value, but, a t the same time, he is keenly aware that we may sometimes mistake familiarity for value. And the attempt t o retain old viewpoints that are flatly contradicted by new ones can but lead to confusion. To illustrate, the author both states and implies in a number of instances (pages 65, 238,313, 372, 375) that sodium chloride and salts in general are composed of ions. and yet he uses the term "salt molecule" (page 313) a n inconsistency that is softened somewhat, perhaps, by a footnote stating that he really means an ion-pair. This follows upon the background of two definitions of "molecule" (pages E-5 l) both of which emphasize its particular nature. Daes one have the pedagogicai right to use the term "molecule" to mean a discrete particle of matter and also to mean an ion-pair? The reviewer questions whether one does. This criticism is directed principally a t the current state of our definitions. I t is to be hoped that the committee on nomenclature and definitions of the Division of Chemical Education will point the way in its report toward clarifying such difficulties and many others. Leaving aside questions of this kind, the answering of which is the responsibility of all chemists rather than of any one author, Dr. Timm's hook is a stimulating and valuable contribution. E. A. WILDMAN EA~LRAY Cou.~ca RIG-OND, INDIAN*
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OWLINBSOP BIOCHEMISTRY: THE ORGANIC CHEMISTRY AND TRE PHYSICOCHEMICAL REACTIONS OP BIOLOGIULLY IMPORTANT COMPOUNDS AND SYSTEMS. ROSSAiken Gortner, Member National Academy of Sciences, Professor of Agricultural Biochemistry in the University of Minnesota, and Chief of the Division of Agricultural Biochemistry, University of Minnesota and the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station. Second Edition. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York City, 1938. xx 1017 pp. 165 figs. 14.5 X 23 un. $6.00.
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Nearly twenty years ago, when the reviewer was a graduate student of chemistry, he was surprised t o hear his teacher of colloid chemistry advise the class to read about this subject in a work on general physiology, that of Bayliss. Since the appearance of
Professor Gortner's book* in 1929, many students of colloid chemistry must have experienced similar surprise on being advised to study this subject in that work on biochemistry. In the new edition, which has been extensively revised. the f i s t third of the hook is still devoted to the colloidal state. A section on proteins occupies one-fourth of the text, which is completed by shorter sections on carbohydrates, lignin and the tannins, plant and animal pigments, the lipids and essential oils, and the biocatalysts. New subjects include material on oxidation-reduction (contributed by Dr. H. B. Bull), lignin, flavins, and hormones. The hook difiers from most biochemical texts in that it is intended, not for medical students, but far graduate students interested in biological problems. I t lacks, therefore, s systematic treatment of the chemistry of the hllman body and of physiological processes. On the other hand, it contains a wealth of idormation, not found in other textbooks of biochemistry, an all of the subjects mentioned, as well as numerous references to the original literature. Although the reviewer feels that surface forces and adsorption have been over-emphasized, he believes that the hook will be of great use t o research workers in many branches of biological science, and that it may also be recommended as a reference hook for medical students. Dnvm I. HITCRCOCK Scmor. OF M m r c r m
Y*LB U N ~ V B ~ ~ ~ T Y
NSW H m m .
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THE CHEMISTS'YE^ BOOK1938. Edited by E. Hope and compiled by a staff of British collaborators. Special American Edition (printed in Great Britain). Chemical Publishing Company of New York, Inc., New York City, 1938. iii 1257 pp. I9 figs. 9 X 15.5 cm. $6.00. This book is intended to be a compendium of chemical information for the chemist including besides the usual data in a book of tables of physico-chemical constants brief r h m & of analytical, organic, industrial, physiological, and agricultural chemistry. In short, the hook contains a t least a few pages about all the branches of chemistry. The hook was edited in Great Britain and has a distinctly British terminology as shown by on'dise, neutral& sation, odour, mgrm., B.Tk.U., end Indie rubber, while the term tap funnel (separatory funnel) puzzled me for a minute. I thumbed through all the pages, reading a t random and comparing data with other sources occasionally. A casual checking of some of the melting points, boiling points, and so forth, showed some errors, slight for the mast part. Same of the specific gravity tables were very old (1843, 1855, 1869) and should he replaced by more modern data. The gravimetric factors were not based on the latest atomic weights, and hence are valueless for accurate work. A larger page size would permit the use of larger type which is needed for many of the tables of data. and ruling of the tables would facilitate their use. The most serious fault in the book is the unsatisfactory printing and format. A number of the pages are clipped ofi so as to cut offdata, tables are crooked, the printing is not clear on a number of the pages, and sometimes important numbers, parts of formulas, are illegible. Interesting features of the book are the material on (1)alkaloids, (2) buffersolutions, (3) electrametric pH measurement, (4) water and sewage analysis, (5) rrystallography, (6) dyestufis and intermediates. The authors have crammed an amazing amount of material into a compact volume while the index permits the user to find information sought with facility. The book is valuable as apresentationof British chemical thought and viewpoint. 0.BROOKS WILLIAM
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TBC~NICIL Hroa Scnoor. SPR~NGFXBLO, MISSAUIUSBTIS -
he first edition we.8 reviered by T.B. Johnson. J. Cwlr. Eooc., 7. 484 (1930). r
