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photography. The author introduces and uses throughout this section the vector density concept for expressing color and the color matrix and method of matrix algebra t o obtain quantitative criteria for color reproduction. The book is written as a text and should serve very well as such for a group of students who are acquainted with elementary physics and algebra and have a speaking acquaintance with chemistry. A set of seventy well-chosen problems with answers should increase the usefulness of the book. I t should prove interesting and useful t o amateur and professional photographers of more than average inquisitiveness and of considerably more than average technical background. The book is attractively printed on good paper and is well illustrated, including several excellent color plates. I t is very well and carefully written. A table of definitions of symbols might have been included for the convenience of the casual reader. The author and printers should be complimented on the practically complete absence of the usual trivial type of errors. LLOYDB. THOMAS.
Discovery of the Elements. 5th edition, revised and enlarged. By MARYELVIRAWEEKS. 578 pp.; 347 illustrations. Easton, Pennsylvania: Mack Printing Company, 1945. Price: $4.00. Each successive edition of this admirable history of the discovery of the elements brings a new wealth of material. Miss Weeks is not content with stating bare facts, dates, and methods. She has truly sensed the importance of giving the entire scientific and biographical setting of each discovery. I n her portrayal of this background she displays a n eager enthusiasm t h a t captures and holds the reader's interest. This edition seizes the opportunity of describing the discovery of some of the new transuranium elements. Part of this account will be subject t o revision i n the light of further evidence which was not available at the time of writing and all of which is not yet available. Incidentally, a fine point of judgment may be involved i n how far to go i n describing the discovery of new isotopes of previously known elements. Every chemist is indebted t o Miss Weeks for her painstaking work, and most chemists will want t o add this volume to their libraries. The discovery of a new element always has a degree of importance and glamor not attaching t o new compounds, although we now know t h a t i n a sense the elements are compounds of only three components, two of which were not known fifty years ago. 9. C. L I N D .
Toward Improving Ph.D. Programs. By ERNESTV . HOLLIS. 204 pp. Prepared for the Commission on Teacher Education. Washington, D. C.: American Council on '
Education, 1945. Price: $2.50. The science of physical chemistry is so deeply interwoven with graduate research and graduate degrees t h a t there is a n obvious interest and propriety in considering recommendations toward improving the Ph.D. programs. The author begins with a brief historical review of the development of Ph.D. degrees in the United States apd its relation t o the German and English systems of higher education. The influence of the American Association of Universities, of the American Association of University Professors, of the Association of Land Grant Colleges and Universities, and of the Association of State Universities is traced i n the development of several of the earlier graduate schools i n the United States. The failure of independent graduate institutions divorced from undergraduate work has led naturally t o the system of graduate courses superimposed on and t o some evtent in instruction and faculty overlapping with undergraduate courses as they exist today in America. A large part of the book is devoted t o statistical tables and their analysis, covering some twenty-two thousand doctorates conferred by institutions i n the United States between 1930 and 1940 and broken down into the principal geographical regions of the country.
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Unfortunately, Harvard University and the University of Illinois did not collaborate, a f a c t which leaves the d a t a for their regions incomplete and slightly inaccurate. The tables give a most interesting insight into the origin, distribution, and occupation of Ph.D.’s over the most active period of graduate work i n this country. The final chapter, giving its title to the book, offers many sound principles for the improvement of the organization and functions of graduate schools. The suggestions are aimed t o help the weaker and less centrally administered graduate schools and have a strong slant in the direction of the social sciences and education. The concluding admonition t h a t “doctoral programs must be adjusted t o the uses t o which recipients can put the degree i n the scheme of American life today” would perhaps be agreed t o by all if each institution or department is left free t o interpret what is most useful. The prediction that “After w a r shortages in doctoral personnel are made up, i t is likely t h a t for the next score of years society will demand a relatively small number of soundly educated and functionally trained doctors of philosophy” would seem t o have little probability of application t o the field of chemistry, where the supply of doctorates has never fully met the demand. S. C. LIND. Frontiers in Chemistry. Vol. 5. Advances an Nuclear Chemistry and Theoretical Organic Chemistry. Edited by R . E . BURKAND OLIVERGRUMMITT.New York: Interscience Publishers, Inc., 1945. Price: $3.50. Collaborators who contributed t o this series of lectures under the auspices of Western Reserve University are : Albert S. Keston on “Isotopes and their Applications i n Biochemistry”; Hugh S. Taylor on “Applications of Isotopes in Catalytic Reactions at Surfaces”; H . R . Crane on“Techniques in Kuclear Physics”; Leslie G. S. Brooker on “Resonance and Organic Chemistry”; and W. H . Rodebush, “The Hydrogen Bond and its Significance t o Chemistry .” Under the title “Advances in Nuclear Chemistry” the reader may be surprised or disappointed t o find no reference to atomic power. This was no doubt due t o military censorship, but Dr. Crane’s cha,Jter furnishes a splendid theoretical and historical introdiiction and bacliground for t h a t now much publicized subjcct. S. C . LIND. Frontiers in Chemistry. Vol. 4. Major Instruments of Science and their Applications to Chemistry. Edited by R . E . BURKA N D OLIVERGRUMMITT.151 pp. New York: Interscience Publishers, Inc., 1945. Price: $3.50. This, the fourth i n the series of volumes sponsored by Western Reserve University, i s one of outstanding importance and timeliness. The five well-known contributors cover a field of greatest interest i n modern experimental chemistry: Dr. L . H . Germer on “Electron Diffraction and the Examination of Surfaces”; Dr. L. Marton on “The Electron Microscope and its Applications”; D r . Maurice L . Huggins on “X-ray Diffraction and i t s Applications”; Dr. Wallace R. Brode on “Chemical Spectroscopy” and “Application of Absorption Spectra t o Chemical Problems”; and Dr. R . Bowling Barnes on “The Infrared Spectrometer and its Application.” The volume is replete with excellent figures and photographic illustrations. A subject index adds greatly to the usefulness of the volume. S. C. LIND. Abridged ScientifLc Publications f r o m the Kodak Research Laboratories. Vol. XXVI. Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, New York. A compendium of forty-five scientific papers originally published i n full in seventeen American and English scientific journals, including subject and author indexes.
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