NEW BOOKS The Phenomena of Polymerisation and Condensation. A General Discussion held by the Faraday Society, September, 1935. 25 x 17 om.; vi 412 pp. London: Gurney & Jackson, 1936. Price: 22s. 6d. It may be said without question that this volume is one of the most interesting published by The Faraday Society during recent years. Polymerisation and condensation products are of great fundamental and technical interest and are now receiving due attention. Professor Rideal in his introductory paper distinguishes between three types of polymers: first there are the polymers formed by linear accretion; secondly, those in which a large ring is the structural unit; thirdly, there is the condensation product formed by cross-linkage. The discussion is divided into two parts, called “general” and “special”; each of these contains highly instructive papers. Particular attention should be drawn to the two papers by Staudinger, the first of which is a n extremely lucid survey of the formation of polymers of unsaturated substances. Readers coming to the subject freshly would do well to study this paper immediately after Rideal’s, in order to gain some idea of the types of product and the relative ease of polymerisation in the various cases. It is impossible to review individually all of the numerous contributions, but mention may be made of a few of special interest. Already attempts are being made to study the structure of polymers by means of x-rays; the difficulty is of course that most of them are “amorphous”. Kat2 however shows that interesting deductions may be made by comparing the patterns with those of monomeric substances of similar type. Houwink and de Boer are making valiant theoretical attempts to link up the physical properties of polymers with atomic linkage forces, and their papers deserve close attention. Meyer has studied polymerised sulfur and poly-phosphonitrilic chloride by means of their x-ray diffraction patterns, and Melville and Gray give evidence t o show that the vapor of red phosphorus is not polymerised but consists of PJ molecules. The well-known American authorities on hydrous oxides, Weiser and Milligan, conclude that many of these are not polymerised but simply aggregates of microcrystalline particles with strong adsorptive properties. An interesting and promising application of physical methods to organic polymerisation described by Farquharsoa consists in following the change of magnetic susceptibility during the process. For reference purposes the usefulness of these volumes would be improved very greatly by the addition of a subject index; the volume will no doubt serve the purpose of a handbook to many and the price is such that full documentation may be reasonably expected. The work of the editorial committee would be minimized in this respect if each author supplied a brief list of the important points dealt with in his paper. J. T. RANDALL.
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Fhorescenee Analysis i n Ultra-violet Light. By J. A. RADLEYand JULIUS GRANT. 5+ x 8% in.; xi 308 pp. 2nd edition. New York: D. Van Nostrand Go. This second edition, appearing only three years after the publication of the first edition, signifies the interest in fluorescence analysis as also does the faat that over three hundred papers have appeared in this three-year period. The authors pointed 855
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out in their first edition that “if applied with discretion and under standard conditions, fluorescence analysis is a most valuable aid to the scientific worker, especially in routine work or sorting tests, and may usually supplement, though seldom completely replace, ordinary testing or analytical methods.” The difficulty is not only that so many things fluoresce, but that the fluorescence is so often changed by the presence of other molecular species, often in very small amounts and perhaps not even suspected as being present. However, fluorescence analysis is becoming a valuable tool in the hands of those skilled in its use and cognizant of its capricious behavior, consequently an authoritative book covering this field fulfills a useful purpose. The subject matter covered is as follows: PART I. Theory and Technique of Fluorescence Analysis. The titles of the chapters are as follows: I. Theoretical introduction; 11. The production of ultra-violet light; 111. Filters; IV. The measurement of the intensity of sources of ultra-violet light; V. Methods and technique of fluorescence analysis. PART 11. Applications of Fluorescence Analysis. The titles of the chapters are as follows: I. Agriculture; 11. Bacteriology; 111. Botany; IV. Constructional materials and glass, etc.; V. Drugs; VI. Foods and food products; VII. Fuels and lubricants; VIII. Inorganic chemistry; IX. Leather and tanning; X . Legal and criminological work; XI. Medical and biological science; XII. Minerals and gems; XIII. Museum work; XIV. Organic chemistry; XV. Paints and varnishes; XVI. Paper, cellulose and allied industries; XVII. The rubber industry; XVIII. Textiles; XIX. Waters and sewage. This is an excellent book, well written and printed, dealing with a subject of much importance and interest. I t should be in every chemical library. J. H. MATHEWS.
Collected Scientijc Papers of Sir W i l l i a m Bate Hardy, F. R. S. Published under the auspices of the Colloid Committee of the Faraday Society (preface by Eric Rideal). 17.5 x 26 cm.; xi 922 pp.; portrait; 14 plates; many figures. Cambridge, England: The University Press (New York: The MacMillan Company), 1936. Price: $18.00. I t is given to a few men t o make a major impression upon the scientific thought of their times. Sir William was one of this chosen few. His contribution was all the more remarkable because of the breadth of his influence. He made major contributions to such diverse fields as zoology, morphology, cytology, physiology, biochemistry, physical chemistry, colloid chemistry, physics, and engineering. His education a t Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, was as a zoologist; following graduation he remained in the laboratories of his college, becoming a Fellow of the College in 1892 and later Demonstrator and then Lecturer in Physiology in the University of Cambridge. During this early period in his educational career (1892-1898) he puhlished eleven papers dealing primarily with the histology, morphology, behavior, and function of the free living or “wandering cells” (i.e., the leucocytes) of crustaceans, amphibians, and mammals. I t was this series of studies which led him into the field of surface phenomena. As Rideal notes in the preface of the present volume, Sir William once saw a cell divide under the microscope and he asked himself the question, “Why does a cell divide?” This question motivated Sir William’s future work in that borderline field between biochemistry, physics, colloid chemistry, and physiology, and led him to investigate surface and interfacial phenomena. In 1899 he published two classic papers in the Journal of Physiology. One was entitled “On the Structure of Cell Protoplasm”; the other “On the Coagulation of Proteid by Electricity.” These mere his beginning papers in colloid chemistry. They reflected his earlier interest in cytology, morphology, and histology. In the
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