JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
0
EXPERIMENTAL INORGANIC CHEMISTRY
W. G. Polmer, Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, England. Cambridge University Press, New York, 1954. xx f 578 pp. 141 figs. 8 9 tables. 14 X 22.5 cm. $9.
THISis a mmewhat old-fashioned book, profiting far more however, from the only too frequently neglected old-fashioned virtues than i t suffers from laek of the very latest point of view. It is no mere collection of procedures from the literature, since the author has "personally carried out in [his] own laboratory every preparation and a n d y ~ i in s the book," making changes and improvements so that many of the "methods recommended in the text depart substantially from the older [literature] procedure." That d l of these procedures have been examined in painstaking detail is evident both from the individual preparations and from the excellent discussion of general Isboboratory procedures in the introduction. The aim of the author is to combat the "dull, monotonous, .burdensome drudgery" associated in students' minds with inorganio chemistry, by providing a text that will knit together the theoretical inorganic chemistry of the classroom with the practical inorganic chemistry of the laboratory, and to present i t in amanner designed to interest the student. The rather sketchy theoretical discussions interspersed throughout the book are "intended to induce rather than render unnecessary the frequent consultation of modern textbooks of inorganic chemistry which [the author hopes] will be inspired by the bench work." The author has attempted to give an understanding of the philosophy of inorganic chemistry by the careful selection of representative compounds, shown in their periodic relationships to one another. This aim in the main has been well achieved, but unfortunately in part has been defeated by adherence t o the archaic convention of considering manganese with the halogens, chromium and molybdenum with the chakogens, and so forth, when they could much more instructively have been considered as an integral part of the transition series. On the other hand, the surveys of the valeucies of vanadium, molybdenum, and manganese are among the most instructive exercises possible.
..
The book also falls somewhat Short of its aim because of the author's too zealous attention to making "no exacting demands upon expensive glassware." The author himself admits in the preface that as aresult of this "the mmipulation and preparation of compounds gaseous rtt normal pressures play a very small part in the book," and the same may be said of volatile compounds in general. A further result of this policy is that the preparations are carried out almost entirely in aqueous solution or occasionally in the most common organic solvents or high-temperatu1.e melts. Thus, the great wealth of illustrative chemistry avaihhle in such solvents as liquid ammonia, ior example, has been rntirely sacrificed. Likewise, the class of addition compounds is not r e p resented. I t is a great credit to the author, therefore, that, having limited himself almost entirely to aqueous solutions, he has succeeded in giving such a wide variety of preparations with ao of method. The inclusion of several elec. .lit,tln ...... hnlicat.ion -r~~~~~~~ . trolytic preparations and the preparation of one clathrate compound are particularly to be commended. Not the least of the book's virtues is the insistence on analysis in identification of products. I n a field where the mixed melting ~ o i nand t the various other devices of qualitative organic analysia so frequently fail, this is a point of great importance, though one often neglected, presumably because of its laek of glamor. However, the author points out that "in analyzing the compounds they themselves have prepared [the students] find no drudgen.." Since this does not purport to be a book of theory, perhaps not too much should be said on this point. However, the presentation does have certain inadequacies in detail which detract from the generally pleasing picture, such as the uncritical aeeeptance of unequal bond lengths in the perchlorate ion (p. 436) and of the nonexistence of manganese carbonyls (p. 497). Some confusion is also evident in the citation of ionic chttrrtcter in P-0 and Si-0 bonds to explain wide bond angles, while in the same table are included phosphorus and anenic trifluorides whose bonds surely have more ionic character and which nevertheless have smaller angles (p. 447). Nevertheless, the reviewer feels that this hook does help to answer a serious need. Within the limits to which the author has confined himself the coverage is excellent. The text is of psr-
APRIL, 1955
219
ticular clarity of organination and exposition. The index could have been improved by including certain intermediates of interest that do not appear in the section headings, such as sulfur mouobromide and anhydrous stannous chloride. The diagrams, printing, and paper me good. The binding, however, is too light for s book that will inevitablv have as much use as this one. A. F. CLIFFORD
PURDUE UNIYERBITY LAFAYETTE, IIIOIAN*
0
ORGANIC CHEMISTRY
I. L. Finar, Senior Lecturer in Organic Chemisky, Northern Polytechnic, Holloway, London. Second edition. Longmans, Green and Co., New York, 1954. xv 731 pp. Figs. 16 X 25.5 cm. $7.50.
+
THEauthor's aim, as expressed in the preface t o the first edition, is "to describe the fundamental principles of organic chemistry." The accomplishment of this aim is realized in the pres; ent,stion of a comprehensive treatment of organic chemistry in terms of modern concepts. Another important objective is found in the value of the book t o the student in his study for the General Honours degree in chemistry of the London University. Dr. Finar has succeeded nobly in presenting, in dear, concise style, fundamental organic chemistry in the traditional pattern (atomic structure, aliphatics, alicyclics, aromatics, and heterocvolics) in the light of electronio interpretations and reaction mechanisms. The bridging of the aliphatics and aromatics with a well written e h a ~ t e ron alicvclic comoounds merits commen-
on nomenclature, publications of organic chemistry, and infarmation on searching the literature. The description of Beilstein's "Hsndburh" is very instructive and useful. The questions at the end of each chapter are very good, and the references to the literature are pertinent and up to date. One finds so comprehensive a text wanting, a t least in the areas of proteins, fats, soaps, rubber, sulfa drugs, and high polymers. The author, in his preface t o the second edition, faces this problem with the statement: "Since I do not consider the chemistry of natural products fundamental chemistry hut rather the applications of fundamental principles, I have excluded almost completely the study of natural products." The beauty of
..
ucts which are familiar (i. e., proteins, fats, plastics, rubber, drugs). This text, as a whole, is well written, and the suthor is consistent in his usage of good formulas and illustrative examples; furthermore, the author and publisher have succeeded well in preeenting 8. book relatively free from errors. The British usage of nomenclature may be confusing a t certain points, to the American student. This fact is psrticularly true in the positioning of numerals used in the enumeration of subfitituents (e. g., butan2-01, for 2-butanol, or butanol-2, etc.), and the practice of using the prefix iso- in the I. U.C. system (e. g., isopropanol, isohutene, etc.). This tent will be of great value as a reference to the beginning graduate student of chemistry in the American university, especially for review purposes m d extension of his knowledge of modern concepts in organic chemistry. Although i t will find limited consideration for adoption as a n introductory text in the traditional undergraduate course in this country, i t should serve a8 xn excellent reference far every library of chemistry.
0
PAPER CHROMATOGRAPHY
Friedrich Cramer, University of Heidelberg. Second edition. Translated by Leighton Richards. St. Martin's Press, Inc., 124 pp. 68 figs. 4 tables. 16 X 2 3 New York, 1954. xii cm. $5.
+
IT SEEMS to be characteristic of paper chromatography that each worker develops his own laboratory methods, and that his modifications which neld excellent results in his hands mav urove to be unsatisfact0ry;n the hauds of another. This has iidAtoso many modifications of modificat.ions that it would be inadvisable, if not impossible to describe them all in a practical laboratory manual. Considerable judgment must have been necessary t o achieve the balanced selection of typical techniques found in this book. The author commendably states: "Attention is here expressly drawn to the tendency shown by beginners in this field to apply amounts of substance which are nearly always too large.. .. Paper chromatography is a thorough-going micro-method, and those unaccustomed to working on this scale are very prone to the errors of the novice." The author then proceeds to recommend the application of amounts of substance which, in the reviewer's opinion, are too large. The bibliography seems particularly lacking in references from the United States, hut perhaps this makes it all the more valuable to the American student, since most of its 362 references w e derived from European sources and hence are less familiar. Among substances considered are amino acids, proteins, sugars, alcohols, phosphate esters, nuelensides, nucleotides, nucleic acids, flwins, phenols, organic acids and bases, vitamins, antibiotics, pprphyrins, sterols, steroids, and dyestuffs. Paper elertrophoresm is also briefly touched upon. Most valuable is the detailed description of general and special techniques, with many diagrams snd illustrations of the clever little gadgets with which paper chromatography is so replete. This is a good hook which every paper chromatographer should have. I t has also been translat~dinto Italian. A. R. PdTTON
C o ~ o n ~ oA.o & M. Co~r,:ae COLORADO F o n ~COLLWB,
0
PRACTICAL PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY
Alexander Findlay, Professor of Chemistry,University of Aberdeen. Revised and edited by J. A. Kitchner, Imperial College of Science and Technology, London. Eighth edition. Longmans, 364 pp. Nustrated. Green and Co., New York, 1954, xiii 14.5 X 22 cm. $3.50.
+
Tnrs is the most recent edition of a laboratory manual of physical chemistry that was first published in England nearly half a century ago. The revision is conservative and well written. The emphasis is on relatively simple laboratory demonstrations of physical-chemical l a m and concepts. Most of the experiments seem easy to perform, although American undergraduates would probably find the explanations difficult. There is little effort to introduce methods that would he used in practice today or to train the student in experimental or research teehniques. There is no discussion of the design of experiments and little on treating data. It seems improbable that this book will be widely used in this country. Many of the teachers and a few of the students in laboratories of physical chemistry may, however, be interested in reading it. I t should be of especial interest to anyone seeking experiments for demonstration lectures in this subject.
ROY G . BOSSERT Olrro WGSGEYAN UNIVBRBITT DEGAWARE, OHIO
CARSTEN STEFFENB S ~ a w m n oR n s ~ ~ n I~snmwm ca s ~ * n r o n o .C n n ~ r o ~ m r
