Recent gad& TABLES OF PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL CONSTANTS
H. Loby, C, Koye and edition, Longmans, Green and Co,, New York, 1956, vi + 233 pp, G, W.
Many tahles.
17.5 X 25.5 cm. $5.
AMERICANS unfamiliar with the famous English "Kaye and Laby" will do well to make friends with this complotely revised eleventh edition. Teachers of physical chemistry will havo to keep careful track of their copies once their students discover how much essential material is included in clear, concise, and uncluttered tables. As with provions editions, the "brief resum& containing references" which scattered through the general physics section are masterpieces of concise, authoritative definition. This is n valuable book for the teacher's personal library. W, F. K.
SPECIAL W C T I O N S OF MATHEhfATICAL PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY
Ion N. Sneddon, Professor of Mathernatics, University College of North Staffordshire. Interscience Publishers, New 1956, viii + 1e4 pp, 14 figs, ~ ~ h 13 l ~ 1~9 , $1.73. THIS little book &ta re&~on&hle price
c:~nserve as a. ready reference for chemists whose work or study involves the mnnipulstion of Legendre, Bessel, Hermite, or Laguerre functions. Prior acquaintance with tho theory of functions of a. complex variable is not required. Applications to surh areas of physical science as potential theory and wave mechanics are given in detail. Each of the five chapters is provided with a set of exercises. W.
F. K.
CHEMICAL APPLICATIONS OF S ~ E C ~ O S C O P Y VOLUME . IX: TECHNIQUE OF ORGANIC
CHEMISTRY
Edited hy W. West. Interscience Pub787 lishers, Inc., New York, 1956. xxix pp. Figs. and tahles. 15.5 X 2 3 cm. $15.
+
THIS volume presents a general background in spectra which should appeal not only to those being introduced to the field hut also to those who have been using spectra of a. particular region and have not, had the opportunity to consider the contributions from other areas. The volume is divided into six chapters of varying lengths. The first chapter of seventy pages is a general introduction to the origins of spectra. Thereafter the entire spectrum from microwaves to the "lt'"violet is sepsrately beginning with the long region. There are 'I4 pages to 'pectra, of which 20 take up electronic magnetic resonance. The major portion of the volume is given over to infrared and Raman spectra, with 56 pages used in
discussing the throry and 338 pages devoted to applications. In this chapter there is a particularly helpful section on errors and intensities. The selection of compounds makes a useful addition to those discussed by Bellamy in "The Infrared Spectra of Complex Molecules." A useful appendix to the chapter is the summary table of characteristic group frequencies. Of the 125 pages devoted t,o electronic spectra, 48 are given to the theory and the remaining pages consider applications of electronic spectra. This chapter is not an attempt to survey the published data of electronic spectra, hut rather a discussion of spectra and the effects of substituents as interpreted by the molecular orbital theory. The final chapter of 57 pages is divided between fluorescence spectra and phosphorescence. author and subThere are ject indexes for the entire series as well an adequate index for the present volume, The figures and of the volume have been well done and to illustrate the text, rather than llnving Rimply textual to a. noted collection of figures, ~h~ only a few t3.pogrsphicnl errors. The editor and authors have made a real to meeting the need ,,,,,i,g the artificial boundaries between various types of spectra. The volume is one well worth the time required for its careful perusal.
,,,,,
SISTER MIRIAM MICHAEL STIMSON, O.P. LENA
HE
aomr, M
cOLLEeE
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JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
