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Recent Books
Chemistry for Today. WILLIAM McEDWARDS HENPEERSON and WILLIAM DER~ON, Professors of Chemistry a t Ohio State University, and G w ~ o s WINEGARFOWLER,Head of Science Department, Central High School, Syracuse, New York. First edition. Ginn and Co., Boston, Mass., 1930. xi 555 pp.; appendixes and index, 35 pp. 330 illustmtions including portraits of famous chemists, 2 color plates. 13 X 19.5 cm. $1.80.
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That the text is modern is shown by the inclusion of same very recent material such as: the Vorce cell for preparing chlorine, the use of vanadium oxides in the Selden process for preparing sulfuric add, carboloy, the newer steels, and various other items. The LeBlauc process is omitted since it is not used in this country. The diilacement series is deferred until Chapter 18 but the reviewer feels that it might well have been introduced much earlier. ,The solution of problems is carefully explained in the text but the reviewer failed to find anything like an adequate number of problems for pupils to work on. Doubtless the authors contemplated the use of a problem book in connection with the text. The treatment of the structure of the atom is good, the solar-system method being used, hut it is stated in the preface that this is simply a choice of what seems the simplest for teaching elementary students. The Lewis-Lanpmuir octet theory is not given. The illustrations are good but in the line drawings the reviewer wonders why the artists who prepare such drawings for all of our texts persist in drawing a line across the tops of flasks, bottles. thistle tubes, etc., so that they look like closed vessels. A number of valuable appendixes and a satisfactory index close the volume which is one that all teachers will he interested to examine and to consider in making their choice of text for the coming year. C. H. STONE E ~ o u s nHIORSCBOOL
This book will be welcomed as an interesting and valuable addition to the list of chemistry texts for preparatory schools. The h t impressions from it are pleasing; good paper and substantial binding; clear type and illustrations; lies readily open in the hand when opened a t any page. The volume is considerably larger than its predecessors by the first two of the above authors but it is explained in the preface that this increase in size is due not so much to the inclusion of new material as t o the more complete and fuller treatment of the many topics on which experience has shown that an amplified treatment is necessary. After an introductory chapter dealing with the work of the alchemists, the following forty-sixchapters deal with the subject in about the usual order. The body of the tent is printed uniformly in one size of type, but the summaries and the legends attached to the illustrations are in smaller type. Instead of giving the usual form of swunary which is simply a condensed statement of the matter of the text, the authors have mesented a BOSTON. WSB~S -~ ,M - A S S A C~summary in the form of questions which send the student to the text for the an- General Chemistry for Colleges. B. swers. Following the summary a t the Sanra H o ~ m s Professor , of Inorganic end of each chapter is a series of thought Chemistry in the University of Illinois. questions and after these there is addiD. C. Heath and Company, New York tional material for honor students, a novel City, 1930. x f 757 pp. 243 figures. feature. 14 X 21.5 an. S.72. 2526 ~~
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VOL.7, No. 10
RECENT BOOKS
The most striking feature of this new text is that we 6nd things in about the same order in which they have been placed in the majority of American texts. In the first 173 pages we find History of Chemistry, Modem Chemistry. Fundamental Conceptions, Oxygen; Ozone, Metric System; Gas Laws; Kinetic Theory, Hydrogen, Valence; Nomenclature. Water; Hydrogen Peroxide, Solutions; Colloids and Atomic Theory; Gas Volumes. The next 348 pages are devoted to the study of the non-metallic elements: Sodium, Bases, and Salts; Ionization, The Periodic System, and The Structure of Atoms; Crystals. The remaining 219 pages deal with the metals and their compounds. Looking for new departures in the order of presentation, the chapter on Solutions in which the ideas of colloidal condition arr more extensively discussed draws one's attention. The discussion of The Periodic System is immediately followed by a discusion of The Structue of Atoms; Crystals. Carbon is the last of the "nonmetals" t o be discusred. The metals are taken up in the order from Group IA t o Group VIII as placed in T h e Periodic System. Considerable emphasis is placed upon the grouping and "tests for the metals." The 243 illustrations are mostly well selected and placed, especially those used to describe or arouse interest in the practical operations of chemistry. Many references for supplementary readings are listed. The followingare a few of the questions which occur t o the reviewer. Why repeat so much elementary material covered in elementary courses such as General Science, Elementary Physics or Elementary Chemistry? Why does H stand for hydrogen (see page 27) and not for a definite quantity of hydrogen? Are solutions never compounds? (See page 129.) Why are interpretations required by t h e results of recent work on solution neglected in defning degree of dissociation, acids, and bases? Why are not "ion electron
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partials" used in interpreting oxidationreduction reactions? The book is comprehensive and the viewpoint of the author appears in the consistent manner in which he presents and develops the subject. The style is dear and concise. The student will find the presentation attractive. CLIFPORD D. CARPENTER COGUIBIA U N l Y B B S l N
NSW YORECITY
La Grande Oeuvre de la Chimie (The Great Work of Chemistry). Preface by JEAN G$RARDand 61 articles by specialists in various branches of chemistry. Published by Chimie et Industrie, 49 Rue des Mathurins, Paris, France, 1929. 250 pp., quarto. 20.5 X 27 em. The object of this book is to enlighten the general public upon the iduence which chemistry exercises upon humanity. It describes in a comprehensive manner the past achievements of chemistry and forecasts the benefits which will result from a mom intensive application of this science. It is the result of an organized effort to popularize chemistry made by French chemists under the leadership of their vigorous Sod&& de Chimie Industrielle. Such an undertaking is most commendable and deserves to be crowned with the greatest success. In general it may be said that the need for cultivating the popular appreciation of science is not as great in Frauce as in some of the other countries. The average Frenchman has inherently a very high regard for science and learning. In fact, among French people undignified references to science offend good taste. The vernacular and even witty style sametimes employed in popular articles on science in America is not appreciated in France. For this reason the wonderfully successfd books of Doctor Slosson and other of our writers have not, as yet, been translated and offered t o the French public. This di5erence in taste must be taken into consideration in judging the
