THE WAR GASES, CHEMISTRY AND ANALYSIS.Dr. Mario Sartori, chemist of the Italian Chemical Warfare Service. Preface by Profenor G. Bargellini of Rome University. Translated from the second enlarged edition by L. W. Morrison, B.Sc., A.I.C. D. Van Nostrand Co.. Inc., New York City, 1939. xii 360 pp. 20 figs. 15 tables. 15 X 23 cm. $7.50 net. This is a hook on the munitions of chemical warfare, not on chemical warfare in general. The author says in his preface, "It is with the confidence of being able to contribute modestly to a wider knowledge of the war gases and in the hope of satisfying requests for a book which should contain all the purely chemical data, a t present published in the various manuals of chemical warfare in fragmentary or summary form, that I have collected in this volume all the best and most recent work published up to the present on the chemistry of the war gases." The author has done satisfactorily what he set out to do. Part I comprising thirty-two pages is general, considering the physiopatholoigcal, physical, and chemical properties which a substance must have to he of use as a war gas. These requirements are illustrated by many tables of toxicities, vapor pressures and other properties of actual war gases. The relation between chemical structure and aggressive action is discussed with reference to halogen, sulfur and arsenic atoms and cyan, nitro and other groups and the effects that these have in various structures on the effectiveness of the compounds. War gases are classified in several different ways, according to their physical properties, their tactical uses, or chemical properties. Part 11, comprising two hundred ninety pages takes up the war gases in detail, devoting a chapter to each of the following groups: halogens, divalent carbon compounds. acyl halogen compounds, halogenated ethers, halogenated esters, halogenated aromatics, aldehydes, halogenated ketones, halogenated.nitro compounds, cyanogen compounds, sulfur compounds, and arsenic compounds. In each group each compound is described, the amount of space given t o it depending upon its importance. For each there is a statement of its discovery and applications and then of the reactions by which i t can he prepared. The laboratory preparation is given, followed by the industrial manufacture, its physical properties, chemical reactions, and physiological effects. Each statement is hacked by a reference to the literature. There are about fifteen hundred references to articles by about six hundred authors. The hook is recommended to those who want to know what gases were used, how they were made, and what their effects are. E EMMET Rsm 203 EASTTnrnrv-T-D S-er
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The dictionary has been compiled with the aid of thirty-four collaborators in various fields of science. Their names are given. The author fully realizes that the 48,000 entries in the book do not make it a complete dictionary covering all these fields but has attempted to make the best selection possible to cover all of them and yet have a handy sized dictionary that is very usable and not complicated by too great a multiplicity of translations for each word. A useful list of five pages of ahhreviations is placed a t the end of the dictionary. This dictionary cannot replace such specialized GermanEnglish dictionaries for chemists as Patterson's with its 42.000 entries and more complete list of translations for each word, but i t can be a very useful and helpful additional source for the chemist interested in problems that overlap into other fields not chemical, and this is the condition with many problems today. The reviewer has found the dictionary useful in abstracting work for Chemical A brtracts in chemical fields that overlap into mycology and believes that this dictionary will he especially useful t o the biologist and to the chemist whose work reaches into the biological field. The book is well manufactured and bound and the printing clear. ODENE. SHEPPARD MONTANA ST~TB COLEOB BOZB~(AN. MONTANA
ExPERmENTs IN PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY.Herschel Hzmt. Revised Edition. John S. Swift Company. Cincinnati, Ohio, 1939. v 95 pp. 67 figs. 21 X 27 cm. $1.90. This is a planographed manual containing directions for performing forty-five experiments. As the author states in the preface, the abject is t o provide an outline to guide the student in the laboratory and not a text an technic. The experiments are designed to be used with any class book. Data sheets and graph paper are included so that the records may be kept in the book or a separate report written up outside of the laboratory. The first five pages are devoted t o glas-blowing technic and good diagrams are given to illustrate the methods of performing various operations. Each experiment-is set up under the headings: information; questions; apparatus and chemicals: procedure. The information is sometimes presented too briefly to he of full value and in some cases the questions go beyond the scope of the experiments, hut the procedures are well written. The drawings are good, and many cuts were made from actual pictures of apparatus.
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GERMAN-ENGLISH SCIENCE D I ~ I O N A RFY OR IN THE Acnrcm~mA~ BIOLOGICAL, , AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES. LO& De Vries, Professor of Modern Languages, Iowa State College. McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., New York City, 1939. x 473 pp. 12.5 X 18 cm. $3.00. The introduction of this hook points out that "Research within the various departments of science has gradually developed during these years into complicated interdepartmental problems. No entomological vocabulary, for example, can today dissociate itself from the many aspects of biology in general; even the physical sciences are embraced. Terms must be included covering not only entomology and the sciences into which it enters, such as embryology, cytology, physiology, morphology, genetics, ecology, hut also chemistry, physics, botany, and medicine, all of which enter into modem treatises on insects." The purpose of this dictionary is, therefore, t o 6l1 the need of many students and investigators in the fields of science for a dictionary that does not attempt to limit itself t o just one of these fields. The reviewer's experience for nearly the past ten yesrs as a member of the committee on German reading knowledge examinations for advanced degrees has fully confirmed the need for such a dictionary. Most particularly students in the biological sciences have shown their need for such a dictionary as judged by their performance on these reading knowledge examinations.
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VISUALOUTLINEOF GENERAL CHEMISTRY.Ralpk E. Dunbar, Ph.D.. Professor of Chemistrv.. North Dakota Amicultural " College. Longmans, Green and Co., New York City, 1939. 348 pp. 32 figs. 13.5 X 21 cm. $0.75. iv The author has attempted t o summarize in brief statements all of the information given in general chemistry. Twenty-one of t h e better known general texts are listed in the bibliography along with forty hooks on other phases of chemistry. The statements are grouped in forty-eight chapters, arranged in ahout the same order as they would appear in a text. For each substance, the outline is, approximately: Introduction, Occurrence, Preparation (laboratory, commercial), Physical Properties, Chemical Properties, Uses, Analytical Tests. The information includes some obsolete material and methods and very rarely omits an important item. For instance, the method for preparing b from N ~ I O J2NaI01-k , 5 N a H S O 3 4 3 N a H S O 4 2NaBOh In H20,used in Chile is not mentioned. The total amount of information is enormous, but it is condensed so much that this book should he used for the purpose for which it was written: outline, review, organization of information, and a supplementary text hut never as a principal source for an understanding of chemistry. Many of the statements would be utterly meaningless if not amplified by a teacher or a text. Structural formulas are shown for organic compounds. Model ~~~
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problems of all kinds met by freshmen in chemistry are solved, usually by substitution in appropriate formulas. Chemical equations are given to illustrate each principle or process as it is stated or described. I n most features the review is more nearly up-to-date than the freshman texts. For instance, under Artificial Radioactivity, twenty artificially radioactive elements are named. Some incongruities must necessarily be included if review material for twenty-one texts is to be furnished. The classical definitions for acid and base appear, but Hs+O also is mentioned; "Complete Ionization (Debye and Hiickel)" and "Degree of Ionization of an Electrolyte". are adjacent paragraphs, and the calculations are for strong electrolytes. Nearly all equations are molecular equations. Some misstatements have slipped in. On page 1 appears, " B o i l i i point is the transition point of liquid to gas" and on page 3 "Displacement is when.. These and the other similar unavoidable errors which creep into first printings will undoubtedly be corrected in the next printing. The appendix includes useful tables and a glossary of more than two hundred chemical terms frequently misunderstood by freshmen. I n the opinion of the reviewer this hook will be an aid to mod students for organization and review and -~~a temptation toiazy students to lea; groups of words which they hope will serve as a substitute for knowledge a t examinations.
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CHEMICALSPECTROSCOPY. Wallnce R. Brode, Professor of Chemistry in the Ohio State University. John Wiley and Sons. Inc., New York City, 1939. xi 495 pp. 293 figs. 15 X 23 cm. $5.00. ~h~ purpose of the book as stated by the author in duction is "to supply spectroscopic information to chemical workers, as well as to serve as a textbook for a course in chemical spectroscopy,u It would seem from an of the volume that the author has attempted to prepare a book which would refer to all of the spectroscopic information of interest to a chemist and would contain a workine " manual with directinn for carrying out a number of spectroscopic procedures useful to chemical analysts. Methods for qualitative and quantitative analyses by emission and by absorption spectra are described. Tables of the wave-lengths of the principal spectral lines of the elements and spectrum charts are included in the book, and these are extensive enough to be adequate for much oP the analytical work that a chemist would likely be interested in do$g. I n addition, the book contains directions for twelve laboratory experiments designed for the training of students in spectroscopic technic and analytical procedures. A brief chapter on the theory and description of color is included and, finally, a discussion of the theory and practice of photography and suggestions for the arrangement and equipment of a spectrographic laboratory. Because of the rapid increase during recent years in the use by chemists, chemical engineers, metallurgists, and mannfacturers of spectroscopic methods and data in research, analytical, and developmental work and in the control of the production of chemicals, metallic alloys, and other products, the appearance of this book is timely. I t will he a valuable aid to those who wish to enter the field of applied spectroscopy as a profession and t o those who want to learn what can he done by spectroscopic methods and how spectroscopic data may be interpreted. The wide range of applicability of spectroscopy t o problems in chemistry is indicated and the attempt is made in brief discussions of the theories of atomic and molecular structure and atomic and molecular spectra t o show how one may obtain from spectroscopic data such important information as the constitution of a sample of material, the structure and dimensions of molecules, the strengths of bonds between atoms and atomic groups in molecules, the heats of dissociation of molecules, and so forth. The number of topics discussed or mentioned in the book is
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very large, and the reader becomes conscious of a conflict between the desirability of making the book a complete compendium of spectroscopic information and the necessity t o limit its size. As a result, some of the topics are treated so briefly as t o make their appreciation and understanding from a study of this book alone quite impossible. Some suhjects as. for example, the structure of the atom, are discussed in such elementary terms in order to save space that the ideas are hardly in conformity witb the present views of experts in the field. Even the directions for analytical procedures, particularly those for quantitative analysis by emission spectra, are briefer than one could wish, and the correlation between the fundamental theories and the analytical procedures is weak because of the limitations imposed by the size of the book. It will be necessary both for the student and the analyst to consult other works and original papers to get a full understanding of the subjects discussed and to get detailed working directions for analyses. An adequate bibliography is given in the book for this purpose. The book is profusely illustrated, and the illustrations will be found to be valuable as aids to an understanding of the subjects discussed and as guides for work along similar lines. The pictures of instruments available for spectroscopic work and the references to them and to their manufacturers will he helpful to those who wish to purchase such equipment. The listing on the spectrum charts of the principal lines of many elements in their approximate positions in the spectrum will be found to be a great convenience to spectroscopic analysts. 0.S. DUFPENDACK UNIVBRSITY OP MICHIGAN ANN Aaaoa, M ~ A T O A N
THIRDDIOESTOF INVESTIGATIONS IN THE TEACHINO OF SCIENCE. Francis D. Curtis, Ph.D.. Professor of Secondary Education and of the Teaching of Science, University of ~ i c h i ~ a nP. . Blakiston'sSon&Co.,Philadelphia, 1939. xviii 419pp. 14 .. .--
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AS the title implies, this is the third volume in a series. The first was published in 1926, the second in 1931. The current volume together with the prec;$ing ones furnish a record of the efforts of science teachers to use research methods in the study of their teaching problems. The record as given in these three volumes may be regarded as practically complete through 1937. As in the Second Digest, the members of the National Associetion for Research in Science Teaching codperated with the author in selecting the investigations to be digested. The technics employed allowed the inclusion of some few highly opinionated reports which might not have been included as investigations by a more rigid criterion. However, the merits of the method aployed in making the selection outweigh its demerits. The grouping of investigations, together with the number of digested studies in each group, will indicate something of the scope of the work and possibly give a hint as to the extent of professional activity on the part of teachers. There are five dealing witb teaching science in the elementary school; ten witb teachidg general science; seven with teaching biology; eleven with teaching physics; six with teaching chemistry; forty with science teaching in secondary schools, without reference to a particular subject; and fifteen dealing with some phase of college teaching, mostly with survey courses and with problems of teacher education. The book reviews ninety-four investigations. Of these t h i r t y - 6 ~are dissertations offered for degrees of Doctor of Philosophy in fifteen universities. I t is the intention of the author and publisher "to issue afourth volume a few years hence, bringing the presentation of important research work in this field of education again up-to-date." Professor Curtis is doing a valued service for students of science teaching and of secondary education. He may be assured that his fourth and succeeding volumes in this series will be eagerly welcomed. S. R. Powsns T&ACBBI(S COLLBGB NEW YORIC'TY
