VOL.9. NO. 4
RECENT BOOKS
advanced and specialized discussion which is presented. Organic compounds of biological importance are treated in considerably greater detail than in most beginning organic tents, thus laying a good foundation for the later discussion of their significance in living organisms. The second part covers such topics as seed germination, the soil, soil acidity, farm manure, fertilizers, the atmosphere, insecticides and fungicides, absorption of mineral material by planti, assimilation of mineral material by plants, plant carbohydrates, plant lipids. vegetable proteins and related eompounds, and respiration. The third part covers such topics as foods and feeding stuffs, digestion of foods, the body tissues, n~etabolicchanges in tissues, energy metabolism, biological response to foods, protein quality, vitamin A, vitamin B complex, vitamin C, vitamin D and ultra-violet light, and vitamin E The attention of the reader is called to the importance of research work by frequent reference to the work of research workers and the methods used in typical research problems. This has been done, the authors indicate in the preface, to "emphasize the importance of scientific research" in order t o develop the interest of the students. The fact that many problems in biochemistry are yet t o be solved is emphasized by frequently presenting the differing opinions of various investigators. The text is well supplemented by tables of typical data selected from the literature. References to general reading are appended to each chapter. Ninety-eight well-selected illustrations, including many portraits of prominent research men. add much to the attractiveness and value of the hook. The mechanical make-up of the book is good except for a few short pages caused by having t o carry over structural formulas to the following pages. It would seem preferable in a chemistry text such as this to use the form "sdium nitrate" rather than "nitrate of
789
soda" even though the latter nomenclature may be common in the fertilizer industry. This criticism applies to various other compounds mentioned in the chapter on fertilizers. The text in general is very well written and the book should not only be an excellent text but valuable as a reference book both t o those engaged in agricultural chemical work and those in other fields who must occasionally refer t o material in this field. L. K. ARNOLD srr'"e co,.,.eon Axes, IOWA
IOWA
Von Libau his Liebig: Chemikerkapfe und -Laboratorien (From Libavius to Liebig: Chemical Apparatus and Laboratories). F n r n FERCHL,Druck und Verlag von Arthur Nemayer, Mittenwald (Bayern), Germany, 1930. 17 X 21.5 cm. 48 leaves, unnumbered. Unbound, R.M. 5.5; Bound. R.M. 7. This book has a preface of two printed pages, or one leaf, and the rest of it is devoted to pictures. There are pictures of apparatus and laboratories, many of them depicting important chemical processes as vrried out in the past or experiments famous in the history of chemistry. There are reproductions of celebrated paintings of alchemists and of rare portraits of chemists. There are pictures of apothecary shops and of tables of alchemical symbols. The pictures are accompanied by brief accounts of their history or significance, and the portraits by brief biographies. The classic histories of chemistry contain few or no pictures. Recent ones are illustrated hut none of them contain all or nearly all of theinteresting pictures which are found in this fascinating little book. Ferchl's book ought to be in every library of the history of chemistry, and in every school or college library of chemistry which pretends to be more than a mere repository of information. I t will be of value to teachers who wish to stimulate the interest of students. I t will be of value t o teachers and to chem-
i90
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
ists in general because they can spend a m~mbcrof pleasant cvenings with it.
APRIL,1832
to these individuals for thcir judgment the authors prepared lists for each science based on all items that appeared twenty TaNNm L DAVIS per cent. or more times in a master list compiled from "(I) requirements set up by the state department of education, List of Essential Apparatus for Use in (2) from laboratory manuals for a selected High-School Sciences. T. C. HOLY, list of textbooks in cach scientific field, Rcsearch Associate, and D. H. SUTTON, and (3) from occasional bulletins disResearch Assistant, Bureau of I?duca- tributed by the United States Office of tional Research, The Ohio State Uni- Education." These check lists were sent versity, Columbus, Ohio. Monograph to a selected list of teachers and superNo. 12, Bureau of Educational Re- visors of science in various states. Each search Monographs. The Ohio Statc individual was requested to indicate the University, Columbus, Ohio, 1931. items considered essential, desirable, or vii 32 pp. lG.5 X 24 cm. $07.5 unnecessary. He was also requested to The purpose of t h ~ smonograph is to add such items which had been omitted, prepare a list of essential apparatus for but which he thought necessary, and also general science, biology, physics, and to change the number of pieces of a given item of apparatus if nccessary. chemistry. These sciences arc selected On the basis of the returns received because thesc are the dominant science courses now offered in the secondary from individuals in thirty-three states, each item in each list was rated in order schools. I n preparina. these lists the authors of importance. Each list of science apparatus is divided into two groups; attempted: "(1) to develop a list ol the first, containing items for use of the apparatus essential in teaching a class oi twenty-four pupils in cach of the m a j o ~ individual pupil, and the second, general apparatus for rhe use of the instructor high-school scicnces with the individual or a group of students, in demonstrating items arranged upon the basis of their 1. erpenments not designed as individual relative importance; (2) to furnish some experiments. index of the cost of providing the essential Lists of individual and general apitems of laboratory apparatus in each of four major sciences; (3) to show instances paratus are given for each of the four dominant sciences. Each list shows the of overlapping among the items or apparatus necessary to conduct a class number of each item necessary for a class of the indicated size in general science, of twenty-four -pupils arranged in order af importance. Average total price, biology, physics, and chemistry." The authors indicate that "the more cumulative total price, and overlapping logical method of securing lists of ap- with items in other lists are also given. paratus would be to determine first the The scope of this study may be illusexperimenti ncccssary to attain the trated by the two lists prepared for chemobjectives in each science, but since istry. T h e lists are based on the judgscience instructors d o not as yet agree ments of 224 individuals from 33 states. upon the objectives, this method could Of this number, I40 were high-school not be followed. The next method, instructors, 68 heads of departments or which seemed feasible, was to secure the supervisors in high school, and 16 college judgments of teachers and supervisors instructors. The list of individual apon the apparatus necessary for each paratus contains 80 items with a total science." cost of 8397.44 while the general list I n order to secure the data necessary contains 75 items with a total cost of for the check lists which were submitted $588.96. The lists have been carefully
+
~~
