The reviewer regrets that he cannot recommend this book for use as a text. It is not systematically arranged, well-balanced, nor teachable. Indeed, the author says: "The student specializing in chemistry should, of course, read in conjunction with this book mauv others." He also savs: "This will not be found to be a 'teachable' book; a teach;ble book is a learnable hook. and that is a most dangerous educational weapon. Chemistry is not a teachable suhjcct; it is a thing to be struggled with."
CHEMISTRY. J. S. Long. Ph.D., E X P E ~ N TINS INORGANIC Professor of Inorganic Chemistry, and R. D. BiUinger, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Lehigh University. Times 298 pp. Publishing Co., Bethlehem, Penna., 1932. viii 26 Figs. 13.5 X 21.5 cm. $1.75.
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The number of pages given in the above description is same what misleading. The printed pages number only 149; one side of each sheet is left blank. This laboratory book is designed for one semester's work but a sufficient number of experiments is given to require almost one and onehalf semesters for the average student. It is intended that beginners might omit some of the more difficult experiments and the student from a good high-school course might omit the simpler dnes. Hence this manual will snit both types of students. All of the work usually included in an elementary course is covered here with the exception of that on the metals. Some of the experiments found here and not often in other manuals are: velocity of chemical change illustrated by the HzSO. HIOa time reaction; chamber process for HSO.; preparation of AsH8; a measure of catalysis by the decomposition of HZ%; preparation of Hg(CNS)%. The book is well written and in s~fficientdetail so that it should he easy to follow. It might be better if a few more illustrations were given. Each experiment is followed by an excellent series of questions. C. E. WHITE
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umms1ru 0s M*FSL*ND COGLEG& P A R K , M D .
E X P E R I ~ N T ACHEMISTRY L FOR COLLEGES.J . Allen Harris and William Ure, Assistant Professors of Chemistry in the University of British Columbia. McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., New York and London, 1932. x 192 pp. 21 Figs. and 9 tables. 20.5 X 26.5 cm. $1.25.
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The exercises are drawn up for fust-year chemistry students. "The necessity of getting away from the methods of laboratory instruction in elementary chemistry in which the student is asked to perform a large number of short and chiefly qualitative experiments, ending in the sink, is becoming apparent to most laboratory instructors. Such experiments are better suited to the lecture table, and it has heen our experience that the interest of the student can hest be aroused and maintained by giving him a definite objective to attain during each laboratory period, whether it be the quantitative testing of some chemical principle or the careful preparation of some interesting compound. The experiments have also been carefully chosen so that during their execution the student absorbs a considerable knowledge of the chemistry of the process along with valuable experience in technic (such as fractional crystallization and distillation), without the need of separate experiments purporting to illustrate these operations but giving no indication of their importance or value in general chemistry." To the best of the reviewer's knowledge, the hwk is probably the 6rst of its kind lo appear on the market for all first-year chemistry students. He does know of two other manuals with the same numose in mind. hut intended -- for sophomore stndents or students who have had one year of high-school chemistry. Nevertheless there is a need for this kind of manual. The boak contains 22 exercises, each "preceded by an iotrodnctory section which discusses the field illustrated by the experiment, together with the theoretical considerations involved."
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These discussions are of excellent quality and make possible the use of this hook with any standard textbook for first-year chemistryalthough it should be pointed out that there are no textbook references in the hook. The reviewer's estimate of the amount of laboratory time required for the completion of these exercises is about 90 hours. A list of 38 typical chemical prohlems is also included. In these days of economies, it is of interest to note that the authors "have found it quite feasible t o subdivide a laboratory section into four groups of 20 each, each group working on an entirely different experiment." The principle involved is sound, hut the opinion of other experienced teachers is that a group of as many as 20 students working together with one set of apparatus is anything hut wholesome. The leaves are perforated far ready removal from the book and triple-pnnclied for re-filling in any standard notehwk rovera convenient feature. Same of the diagrams are extremely formal in appearance. For example, the student may find a second look a t Figure 17 necessary in order to assure himself that one item in the set-up is t o be of rubber tubing and not glass tubing. The diagram of the common gas burner appears to have been made by fallowing the cut-out design found in s celluloid Harcourt stencil. The beakers have an unusual angularity at the top. The amount of glass tubing required in Figure 14 is uneconomical. The instructions in the diagrams are excellent with a few exceptions, such as found in Figure 17 which calls for sulfuric add whereas the descriptive matter requires hydrochloric acid. The exercises are divided into three groups illustrating: (a) "principles of chemistry"; (b) "preparation of elements and compounds"; and (c) "reactions of electrolytes." In the main the exercises are well chosen. From the discussion it is a little dEcult to understand why there are two adjacent "high-temperature reactions," preparation of potassium permaganate and chromates and dichmmates. Quite a few statements are misleading to the discerning student. On p. 3, "By concentration, we mean the amount of substance present per unit volume." "Two kinds of apparatus are to be used far weighing," yet the two kinds described are merely balances of different sensitivity. "Check your weight by counting the weights." The concept of mlal as found on pp. 3 and 160 in particular is certainly not that of mast chemists. The reader might easily believe that a mrmal solution is the only kind of standard solution. The symbol E representing an electron is first used on p. 92 and the legend is given on p. 100. The use of Arabic instead of Roman numerals for representing valence is to he commended, although there is a reversion on p. 76. In several instances the valence is placed a t the side of the symbol. It is quite comfortine - to 6nd the concentration of acetic acid as the illustration of frmtional distillation instrod of the time-honorrd nlcohol. The use of Na9C02 instead of NaCHOa fur standardization work is perhaps not so good, considering the fact that the remaiudcr of the exercise is to be done with considerable accuracy. The hook should be on the desk of evetv teacher havine laree groups o' students who hove had at least onc year of high-school chcmistrv, e t e n though a number of the pracedurcs arc doubtlers quite familiar to many teachers of first-year students.
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ELEMENTARY QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS. J. H.Reedy, Associate Professor of Chemistry in the University of Illinois. Second edition, McGraw-Hill Bwk Co.. Inc., New York City, 163 pp. 13 Figs. 20.5 X 14 cm. $1.50. 1932. x
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The purpose of the author in the second edition of this boak appears to be to place in the hands of the student a set of reliable laboratory directions and, a t the same time, leave ample opportunity for interpretation of results. Part I takes up the analysis of the cations. Directions far preliminary tests are first given which are followed by directions
and schemes far the analysis of unknowns. Following each set of directions for preliminary tests is a list of questions and exercises on the material covered. Part I1 takes up the detection of the ions of the non-metals and Part I11 systematic analysis. The last twenty pages of the book are taken up with a convenient and useful appendix. The special features of the haak may he said t o be the use of several new orocedin the cation analvsis and the use of a new scheme for detecting anions. Perchlortc acid is used as a solvent for thc sulfide9 of the tin sub-group; sodium is precipitated by means of zinc-uranyl acctate reagent and potassium is precipitated by a concentrated solution of zinc perchlorate. This b k , though following the same general lines as the first edition, represents a distinct improvement over it. It is written dearly, printed on excellent paper and bound in an attractive binding. The author is t o be congratulated upon the good judgment he uses in an elementary discussion of qualitative analysis when he talks of "regulating the acidity" instead of "controlling the H + concentration" and when he refrains from explaining all precipitations in terms of solubility product. The hwk should he well within the reach of the second or third semester college student and fills a definite need in the field of qualitative chemistry. LYMANJ. WOOD ST.LOUCS UNIVBRS~TY ST. LOrn.9, Mlssomu
,ORGANICCBEMISTRY. G. Albert Hill, Professor of Organic Chemistry, Wesleyan University, and Louise Kelley, Professor of Organic Chemistry. Goucher College. P. Blakistou's San and Co., Inc., Philadelphia, Penna., 1932. viii 564 pp. 22 Figs. 14 X 21.5 em. $3.00.
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"This t a t is planned for an elementary . one-year course in organic chemistry." It contains two introductory chapters; t h e &st (8 pages) presents briefly but clearly the historical hackground of organic chemistry. The second takes up the development of empirical, molecular and structural formulas, including graphical structures. The idea of the shared electron bond is introduced a t this point but rarely used in the later portions of the text. The phenomena of isomerism and polymerism as well as the broad classification of organic compounds into aliphatic, aromatic, and heterocyclic divisions are also given in this i n t m duction. Heginning with Chapter 111 "the subject matter is presented syrtcmatimlly and in a form xhich should facilitate thc student's grasp of thc fw~darnentals." The chapters on the alkanes, alkenes, and alkynes are followed by one on halogen compounds. The discussion of the dihydric, polyhydric, and unsaturated alcohols is moved forward from their usual place in the text and placed a t the end of the chapter on monohydric alcohols. All three systems of nomenclature are given for the alcohols with the emphasis laid upon the Geneva system. The phenomenon of optical isomerism is introduced under active amyl alcohol. The ethers are given a brief but separate chapter followed by one on the aldehydes and ketones and this in turn by the carboxylic acids, including the acid chlorides and anhydrides. The chapter on esters includes both those of inorganic and organic acids together with the fats and fatty oils. The amiues and amides are "laced in the same chaoter which also contains the nitriles and urea. Sulfur cumpuundr, like the ethers, rcceive separate treatment but metallo-organic compounds are not included except as they appear in the synthesis or reactions of other types. Separate chapters are given over to each of the several varieties of substituted carboxylic acids. The one on dicarboxylic acids includes also the malonic ester synthesis and the barbitals and the one on unsaturated acids develops the phenomena of geometric isomerism. The chapters an halogenated acids, hydroxy acids, and ketonic acids follow in the order given. Amino acids and proteins are discussed mare fully than usual and this chapter finds its place in the main body of the text. 'The discussion of carbohydrates takes up the more recent views of the structure of the simple sugars somewhat in detail. A brief
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chapter on the cyclopsraffins cluses the discussion of the aliphatic rcrics and bridges over the gap betacen this group and the ammatic compounds. The several types of aromatic derivatives are taken up in the usual order. The reviewer upon examining a number of recent organic texts was surprised t o find pbenzaquinone, that classical example of the color-hearing quinoidal structure, "heine" bandied from oillar t o oost." I n the older texts i t had its place along with aromatic aldehydes and kctones. More rrcently it ha%somctirnc.i appeared in thc chapter on phenols and now, because i t is prepared from aniline, it appears in the chapter on ammatic amines. The discussion of polynuclear compounds, including naphthalene and anthracene, is fallowed quite naturally by one on dyes and this in turn by the terpenes and camphors. The chapter on heterocyclic compounds is, with equal logic, fallowed by a discussion of the alkaloids and the book is closed hy a section dealing with plant and animal substances which includes the hormones, enzymes, sterols, vitamins, lignin, rubber and the natural pigments; chlorophyll, carotene, and hemin. Those teachers who are seeking a text stripped of all the unessential details will find here a clear and forceful presentation of the fundamental orincioles of oreanic chemistrv. Manv carnlmmis of commcrcinl, biulogieal, or medical significancehave been worked into the main stream of the dweluprnent so that their presentation does not require a digression. The authors have enlivened the text by including, as footnotes, brief biographical sketches of many of the outstanding investigators in the field of organic chemistry. This number could well have been increased and the addition of the pictures of these pioneers would have made the sketches more effective. The text contains many brief presentations of the industrial applications of organic chemistry. These, too. in the opinion of the reviewer, would have been improved by photographic reproductions of plant installations. A number of questions and exercises are added a t the end of each chapter which will enable the student t o test his grasp of the fundamentals involved. The book is printed in large type on a good quality of paper and the typography, editing and proof-reading are unusually well done. CECIL E. B o o m Taa Oam STATBUNIVERSITY Co~oaaeus,0-0
LABORATORY METHODS OF OROANICCHEMX~TRY. L. Gettermenn. Revised by Heinrich Wieland. Translated from the twenty-second German edition by W.Mdartney, Assistant in the Department of Medical Chemistry, University of Edinburgh. The Macmillan Co., New York City, 1932. rviii 416 pp. 55 Figs. 15 X 22 cm. $3.50.
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The new translation of Gattermann is from the German edition of 1930. The plan of the work is the same as that found in earlier editions. Part A is devoted to "Some General Laboratory Rules"; part B t o "Organic Analytical Methods"; part C t o "Preparations." The theoretical discussions which follow the preparations have always been a very valuable feature of this book. They have been extended in the 1930 edition t o take into acmunt important new developments such as Diel's diene synthesis, researches with polyenes and with hemin. Included for the first time are descriptions of two enzymic processes. Alkaloids are also included for the 6rst time and are represented by nicotine. The number of preparations described is large, eighty-six in all, with the intention of providing an opportunity for selection t o fit individual needs. The translation is well done, and the book should be available t o all students of organic chemistry. Print and paper are of good quality, and the binding is a great improvement over earlier editions. NATHAN L. DRAKE U-RSTY 01 MARWAND COLLBOB PAX, M A a n A w o
