ATOMS,ROCKS,AND GALAXIES.John Stuart Allen and Sidney James French, John Grad Woodruff, Clement Long Henshaw, David Woolrey Trainer, Jr. Revised Edition. Harper and Brothers Publishers, New York, 1942. x 719 pp. 13 X 21.5 cm. $3.75.
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read "The two minerals" instead of "Two minerals." Page 413, next to bottom line, should read "only of" not "of only." This book should be required reading for all liberal arts students who are planning to fulfil the science requirements for their degree by taking a biological science only, and is highly recommended to the attention of anyone giving a survey course including any of the four fields which it covers. EwrNo C. SCOTT
This very solid book has been developed over the last dozen years to serve as the text in the survey course in physical science at Colgate University. Eighty per cent of it, including all the chemistry, is the work of the senior author, an astronomer. (Curiously enough, the chemist of the group contributed only the chapters on sound and heat.) In spite of its omission from the title, physics is given approximately equal space with chemistry, geology, and astronomy. A survey course may he anything from a set of popular lectures to a group of short courses in the subjects covered. This one approximates the latter extreme. An enormous amount of factual material is presented and well tied together with sound theory. The chemistry is well selected and its treatment is authentically modern. The physics includes all the material from that science which teachers of elementary chemistry find it necessary to inflict upon their students, and there is very little of it that is not useful to a chemist. I t is excellently presented. The other two sciences appear to be adequately handled, but another than this reviewer would be better fitted to give a critical evaluation there. A student who actually knew and understood the physics and chemistry here presented would be extraordinarily well equipped to enter a standard elementary chemistry course; far better equipped than if he had taken any high-schwl chemistry course with which this writer is familiar. I t is impossible, however, to avoid wondering to what extent the student masters the compact masses of chemical theory and to what extent he depends for passing the course upon assiduous memorizing of the extremely careful and complete summaries a t the end of each chapter. A few details in the text may be adversely criticized. In the section on minerals (p. 86) twice the space is given to gold and silver ores that is given to the much more important copper. The only source of copper mentioned is the native copper of Michigan, to the complete neglect of the far greater quantities obtained from the sulfide ores of the Rocky Mountain states. I t could well be stated that most silver is a by-product from copper and lead mines. The fact that a gas cools upon being expanded and heats on being compressed is said to be equivalent to Charles' law (p. 128) and to be that law (p. 134). In the discussion of the efficiency of the heat engine (p. 289) the simple statement that (T* - Tl)/Tl = Eficiency is never actually made or definitely explained, and a quite unnecessarily inaccurate value of 25% is given for the efficiency in a case where the figures lead to the value 22%. On page 374 the M-shell of an atom is said to befilled by eight electrons. The action of baking powder is described as due to the thermal decomposition of NaHCOs, no mention being made of any acid (p. 444). CaC2is diagrammed as a three-membered ring, the Ca sharing an electron pair with each C atom (p. 463), thus:
THE RECOVERY OP VAPORS. C h k Shwe Robinson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. First Edition. Reinhold Publishing Corporation, New York. 1942. vii 265 pp. 117 figs. 15 X 23 cm. $4.75.
In the discussion of the sun (p. 648) the facts concerning critical pressure, elsewhere merely omitted, are actively flouted by the statement that when all the empty space is squeezed out of a gas it becomes a liquid. The book is attractively bound and well printed, and contains a multitude of well-chosen diagrams and good photographic illustrations. Only three typographical errors were noted, but as these affected the meaning of sentences, they should be noted. Page 81, sixth line from bottom, reads "compounds" where "components" appears to be meant. Page%, at top of Fig. 3.5, should
According to the author the purpose of the book is to present "a course of study in the basic theory of the recovery of vapor for the benefit of engineers and others who find that they need elementary information on the subject It is obviously not meant for the expert in the field, but rather for the beginner who wants to enter it." Approximately the first quarter of the book is devoted to a discussion of physical-chemical and engineering topics pertinent to the field. he rest of the book describes~theprinciples of vapor recovery by condensation, absorption, vaporization with inert gases, compression, scrubbing, and solvent extraction. The author has purposely omitted a discussion of the evaporation of the solvent from the material in which it has been used and also the treatment of recovered solvent by distillation or purification since these subjects are covered in other books.
C ~ M I S T Roa Y ENGINEERING MATERIALS.Robnt B. Lcighozr. Rewritten by J. C. Warner (Editor). Thorns P. Alezender, Paul Fugasri, D.S. McKinney, Harry Selle. Guido H. Stempel, Jr., and K. K. Stevens of the Carnegie Institute of Technology, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York. 1942. xxii 621 PP. 91 figs. 15 X 22.7 cm. $4.50.
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This is the fourth edition of "Chemistry of Engineering Materials," the first three editions having been mitten by the late Professor Leighou. As stated in the preface, the purpose is "that of providing information on the chemical properties of engineering materials so that these materials may be more intelligently selected and used." The emphasis is placed upon properties of materials, but where the authors consider a description of the manufacturing process to be important in understanding the properties, such a description is included. The range of subject matter can best be given by listing the chapter headings. They are: Water for Steam Generation; Fuels, Combustion, and Lubricants; Refractories; The Nonferrous Metals; Nonferrous Alloys; Production of Iron and Steel; Alloys of Iron; Technology of Shaping Metals and Alloys; Corrosion of Metals and Alloys; Protective Metallic and Inorganic Coatings; Building Stones; Lime and Gypsum Products; Portland Cement and Concrete; Clay and Clay Products; Abrasives; Glass; Organic Plastics; Rubber: Natural and Synthetic; Organic Protective Coatings; Glues and Adhesives; Insulating Materials. The new edition brings up to date a great deal of information valuable to the engineer and contains good, although sometime3 brief, theoretical discussions of various subjects, such as car* siou and phase diagrams. In its present form the hook can be considered to give a brief survey of industrial chemistry as well as a discussion of the properties of materials useful in engineering work. The text is very well written, figures and tables are excellent, and the format good. The bonk can be highly recommended to engineers and students of engineering as interesting and informative reading. ARTHUR A. VERNON
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The reviewer feels that the author has achieved his purpose extremely well. The book is very readable, gives a good picture of the field and would enable anyone interested t o delve deeper into the field. The illustrations. descriptions, and explanations hold the reader's interest throughout. I t can be recommended to those unfamiliar with the field hut who wish t o know about the methods of solvent recovery in use in industry today. A. A. VERNON
of the vitamins known today." and the book as a whole indicates strongly that he thinks of the vitamins rather as commodities than as natural food constituents. He includes no specific data on vitamin values of foods and his generalizations on this subject seem designed to make the reader entirely distrustful of foods as sauces of vitamins. More space is given to the occurrence and ~ossiblefunctions of vitamins in nature. and i t is doubtless this k e r i a l which is decmed to justify inriuding physiology in thc title of the book. But in the opinion of the prrwnt reviewers the nutritional and other physioloRical aspects are rrearcd unevenly and not in a way to inspire confidence that the knowledge available has been handled with a firm grasp, though the author's ap~ MODERNTREORIES OP ORGANICCHEMISTRY. H. B. W ~ I S Oparent greater familiarity with European writings than with D. Se. (Wales), F. I . C. Second Edition. The Clarendon American scientific literature permits him to enliven some of the Press, Oxford, England, 1941. viii f 267 pp. 14.5 X 23 cm. physiological dixussions with speculations relatively unfamiliar $4.00. to US. Both the qualitative and quantitative aspects of Dr. RoseuRecent mathematical and physical advances have found important applications in the general field of chemistry. "In this berg's discussions of human requirements for the different vitavolume an attemot is made t o oresent the modern viemoint in mins are, in our opinion, disappointing and a t some points cona concise and simple farm, and t o show how the new conceptions fusing or misleading. On the qualitative side, the scales do not have followed logically from the earlier views. A brief and very seem to us to he held even as between, for example, vitamin Ba and elementary account of the physical foundations of the subject is para-aminobenzoic acid; while the whole quantitative side of the followed by the development of the main theme of the book, yie., consideration of human requirements sufkrs greatly from failure the application of electronic theory to the reactions of organic to include the Recommended Allowances of the Committee on compounds, and by a description of some of the better known Food and Nutrition (now Food and Nutrition Board) of the phenomena (such as addition and substitution reactions, tauto- National Research Council, although these were published early meric changes, molecular rearrangements, and the stability of in 1941. I n addition to such unevenness as might naturally be expected free radicals) in terms of modern ideas. An account of some of when a single author endeavors to handle such a large and rapthe recent developments in stereochemistry is also included." idly growing literature, the reader must also be on guard against errors and inconsistencies. Thus nitiogen appears twice as biAND PnusromGY oa THE VITAMINS. H. R. ROSCII- valent: on page 123 where N has been put in the place of S in CHEMISTRY berg, ScD. Interscience Publishers, Inc., New York. New the structural formula of thiamin, and on page 180 through typographical omission of a bond. On page 100, one gram of thiamin York, 1942. xix 674 pp. 25 figs. 15 X 23 cm. $12.00. is said to equal over 3,000,000 International Units. The equivaThe very broad scope of the author's ambition for this volume lent in International Units for one gram of vitamin A is given as is indicated by the following condensation of its table of contents: 4,500,000 on pages 57 and 60, and as 3,320,000 an page 75. The The vitamins A, BI, "B," (ribokvin), Basnicotinic acid and uicostatement on page 92. repeated on page 93, that nightblindness is tinamide, pantothenic acid, inositol, para-aminohenzoic acid, the earliest symptom of vitamin A deficiency should, we think, be vitamin C, the vitamins D, the vitamins E, vitamin H (biotin), somewhat qualified or explained. Also, on page 190, the statethe vitamins K, and vitamin P, are discussed each in a separate ment: "Growth of young rats ceases as soon as the diet is vitachapter under the same general outline of topics: "nomenclamin BI-deficient." In some cases references cited do not couture and survey," chronology, occurrence, isolation, properties, tain the information attributed (examples on pages 198 and 199) chemical constitution, synthesis, industrial methods of preparaThis book is undoubtedly the fullest available summary of the tion, hiogenesis, specificity, determination, standards, physiology chemical development of synthetic vitamins as articles t o he patof plants and micro6rgauisms, animal physiology, avitaminosis ented, manufactured, and sold, hut its attempted pronounceand hypovitaminosis, hypervitaminosis, and requirements. ments outside of that field are, in the opinion of the present reFollowing, there is a chapter on some seventeen %on-identihed viewers, often disappointing and sometimes distinctly misleading. vitamins"; and an appendix dealing with the so-called "vitagem," The author exaggerates his distrust of foodsas sources of vitamins substances having in common with the vitamins that they "are to the verge of self-contradiction in the statement (page 34) that required for normal growth and maintenance of life of animals, "the normal food of the average man in most countries is devoid including man, who, as a rule are unable t o synthesize (them) of many vitamins." This can hardly be attributed solely to . ."; but which fail t o satisfy all of the stipulations included in language difficulty with the word "devoid." for there are too Rosenberg's 83-word definition of vitamins in that they either many other indications that Dr. Rosenberg would have his readact as suppliers of energy or s e m as structural building units. ers chronically distrust the vitamin values of f d s . Nearly one-tenth of the volume is occupied by the author index He aeneralizes broadlv and ~essimisticallvon natural variaand the subject index; and a section of equal length is devoted tions and lasses in cookine careful evalua, a t~~~~~~~~~" without anv attemot to an index of United States and foreign patents dealing with tion of the evidence as to the categories in which there variations vitamins. are relatively lnrgeand those in whirh they are relativrly anall. The structural chemistry of the vitamins and the synthetic steps leading t o industrial production a r e treated quite fully. The author introduces himself in the preface as having been "connected a t some time or other with the development of many
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