BOOK REVIEWS summary of the worg of Fujimoto and colleagues on microchemical tests done in single resin beads. Other chapters treat the preparation and testing of ion-exchanging materials and their behaviour in nonaqueoos solvents, principles of ion-exchange kinetim and
study complexes. The chapter entitled Methods for Laboratory Operation of Ion Exchangers has a short but very useful section on the theory of chromatographic columns based largely on the work of Glueeksuf. This section might well have been expanded; also the symbols and quant,ities might have been more earefully defined. There is a n annoying little typographical error in an equation for theoretical plate height on p. 101. Other sections, by contrast, are unnecessarily detailed and uncritical. Some of the testing methods, for example, me vague and iU-defined, and the reader will probably prefer t o devise his own. It is impossible for s. hook in this field t o he up-to-date, and much has happened since 1962. Nevertheless this is a valuable reference work for those who use inn exchange in chemical analysis.
HAROLD F. WALTON University o j Colorado, Boulder
A1094
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Journal of Chemical Education
The Structure of Small Molecules
W . J . Oroille-Tkonm, University College of Wales, Aherystwyth, Great Britain. Vol. 1 of Principles of Modern Chemistly Series. American Elsevier Publishing Ca., Inc., New York, 1966. vii 189 pp. Figs. and tables. 14 X 22 cm. 89.50.
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"The Structure of Small Molecules" is an introductory monograph dealing with what one might consider the minimum m o u n t of knowledge necessary for an appreciation of those factors which cause atoms to take up particuler configurations in forming chemical bonds. The subject matter is absolutely basic to an understanding of modern chemistry. Cuiloudy, the author (British) states that his aim is t o pavide a, short text for a graduate course, whereas most of the material is quite well suited to a junior or senior level course in American universitie; indeed some of i t may be found in recent monographs intended for freshman and sophomore courses. I n 180 pages the author describes most of the important empirical concepts of honding in diatomic and small symmetrical polyatomic molecules. The introdoction of the wave equation and its variational solution by the method of molecular orbitals is treated in the usual extremely qualitative fashion. I n this sense the book follows the established tradition of refusing the student the op-
portunity to make use of even the simplest ~ s p e e tof s his mathemetical t~aining. The measureable physical properties of chemical bonds such as bond lengths, bond angles, vibrational frequencies and force constants, band energies, dipole moments, and electronegativities are introduced and ilh~stratedwi1.h well-chosen examples. One of the important plus features is the author's well-organized and lucid style. A second highlight is the fairly extensive discussion of the contribution of lone pair atomic dipoles to the molecula dipole moment and bonding configuration in polyatomic molecules. The conceptual structure of the theory is treated almost exclusively within the framework of the molecular orbital theory. This is certainly the approach that is in vogue but i t is, in the reviewer's opinion, just as serious s. limitation as the exclusive use of valance bond theory in some of the more classical texts such as Syrkin and Dyatkina. This book can he recommended as supplementary reading far undergraduate courses which require a n introduction to structure and bonding. It cannot compete, however, with more comprehensive texts such as Pauling, Syrkin and Dyatkina, or Coulsan far a. graduate course in bonding theory. V. D. NEFF Kent Stole University Kent, Ohio (Continued on page .11096)
