1104
NEW BOOK8
tribution, and elements of chemical kinetics. There is a chapter of one hundred pages on the technique of handling gases, such as the use of vacuum pumps, gauges, vacuum points, control and measurement of pressure and of temperature; the preparation and analysis of gases, including some isotopes; photochemical technique including sources, control, and measurement of radiation; methods and devices for measuring rates of reactions and factors of influence such as catalysis, illumination, and electric activation; and finally a section on explosive reactions. Naturally a manual on such a comprehensive field can not pretend to be exhaustive, but the authors have exercised excellent judgment in their selections and have produced a manual that should be as useful to experimental kineticists as the wellknown Ostwald-Luther manual was earlier to all physical chemists. S. C. LIND. Discovery of the Elements. By MARYELVIRAWEEKS. Fourth edition. Easton, Pennsylvania: The Journal of Chemical Education, 1939. Price: $3.00. The fourth and enlarged edition of this splendid account of the discovery of the elements will be welcomed by every lover of the history of chemistry. The reviewer can second the statement of the Scientific American: “A rich mine of elementary chemical lore informatively but most readably written,” if “and” be substituted for the word “but”. There is no necessary antithesis between informative and readable, as Miss Weeks has convincingly proved. In dealing with the elements the author has wisely not confined herself to atomic numbers but has also presented the discovery of some of the more important isotopes. The addition of a summarizing table of the elements, of their discoverers, and the dates of discovery, such as Professor W. iwuhlemann of Hemline University brought out through the Fisher Scientific Company in 1936,would be a very useful addition in future editions of the present work. S. C. LIND. Semi-conductors and Metals. By A. H. WILSON. 120 pp. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1939. Cambridge: University Press, 1939. Price : unbound, $2.00. This is one of the series of Cambridge Physical Tracts. The author needs no introduction to physicists and physical chemists. The present tract is a most timely treatment of the electronic theory, metals, and semi-conduction. Katurally i t deals with the various properties that can be described in terms of electronic behavior, such as thermal and magnetic properties and conductivity. This treatment is simple and non-mathematical, Full references are made to the literature of this field. The work is indispensable to one who wishes an introduction to the most modern work on the physical properties of metals. S. C . LIND. The Elements of FTactionul Distillation. By CLARKS. R O B I N S ~AND N EDWINRICH267 pp.; 97 figures. New York: McGraw-Hill A R D GILLILAND.8 x 6 in.; xii Book Company, 1939. Price: S3.00. With the recent advances in the treatment of the more complex distillation problems of industry, there was need of extension and revision of the two earlier editions of this book (1922 and 1930). The present revision is in collaboration with E. R. Gilliland. As stated in the preface of the earlier editions, the authors attempt to give an introauction to the study of fractional distillation according t o the best ideas of physical chemistry and chemical engineering. They specifically state that it is not
+
