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Recent Books
Mathematical Preparation far Physical Chemistry. FARRINGTON DANISLS, Associate Professor of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin. McGraw-Hill Book Company. Inc., New York and London, 1928. First edition. x 308 pp. 65 figures. 20 X 14 cms. 83.00 net.
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"It is because the author has seen so many students struggling against the handicap of an inadequate preparation in mathematic~spending more effort in avoiding mathematics than needs t o be spent in learning it-that this book has Its only prerequisites been written. . . are a little knowledge of algebra, a speaking acquaintance with trigonometry and an interest in chemistry. . . . I t is not equivalent to the standard courses in analytical geometry, differential calculus and integral calculus. . . . The material of this book is sufficient mathematical preparation for a first course in physical chemistry and for some advanced . the author. . . hopes courses. . . ." that many who read these pages will resolve to go farther in the study of mathematics." In such words Professor Daniels states the purpose of his hook. Many teachers of chemistry have sighed for a course in higher mathematics that would really meet their particular needs, a few have themselves introduced such a course, hut very few have had the courage to write a book emhodvine - their ideas. It is the reviewer's opinion that Professor Daniels has not only done what his preface states, but he has done it exceedingly well. Within such a bulk as to be a text and not a reference book, he has presented the fundamental and necessary ideas of physical chemical mathematics quite thoroughly. Furthermore, he has done it so interestingly that it will he an unim-
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aginative reader who is not urged to go on. One ventures the prediction that many teachers will now find time to offer such a course with this book as the teat. In twenty-me chapters the author discusses the following subjects: large and small numbers, logarithms, the slide rule, graphical representation of equations, graphs of equations of the second degree, graphs of logarithmic and trigonometrical functions, differential calculus, ditlerentiation, graphs and calculus, the differential integral calculus, the significance of "e," differentiation and integration of trigonometrical functions, integration, the use of integration tables, geometrical application of integral calculus, partial differentiation, differential equations, infinite series, probability, graphical methods in physical chemistry. The book includes five appendices covering: physical chemical problems, definitions of advanced terms, a bibliography, theorems of elementary mathematics, and eleven tables. Following each chapter there is also a very generous selection of problems for every other one of which the answer is furnished. The reviewer wishes t o commend especially the fact that well over fifty per cent of all the problems in the book are eminently practical from the chemist's viewpoint. How interest is aroused by this is obvious. In conclusion, this hook is very interesting and is very useful. I t is a long step in the rignt direction. MALCOLM M. HARING General Chemistry. THOMASP. MCCUTCHBON,Professor of Inorganic Chemistry a t the University of Pennsylvania and HARRYSELTZ,Assistant Professor of Physical Chemistry a t the Carnegie Institute. of Technology. D. Van Nostrand Comp&y, Inc., New 415 pp. 33 York City, 1927. x figs. 22.2 X 14.5 ern. 63.50.
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The book is attractively but not any too substantially bound. The page type is 10 on 12 and the problems 8 on 10 Caslan old face with antique section and side heads. The paper is good although it does not take common writing ink very well. The entire volume suffers seriously from either broken or poorly impressed type. There are numerous typographical errors throughout the book, thirty-one of which are in the index. Apparently the book is designed for all first-course college chemistry students. regardless of their previous contact with the subject in the high school. I t is organized in two parts: I. Theoretical Chemistry (162 pp.); and 11. Descriptive Chemistry (226 pp.). This twophase arrangement suggests "Work first and play afterward.'' I t is an excellent rejuvenation of a similar one used by an author in the latter part of the 19th century. Judging from the "Syllabus of Lectures" on page vi, the authors intersperse the chapten from Part I1 with those in Part I t o meet their awn needs and desires. It would seem that the authors have a keen appreciation of the enormous volume of descriptive chemistry which is often foisted on the fint-course student. With this and certain other facts (see preface) in mind they have included very little historical material and have made industrial process descriptions lextremely concise. Part I affords one of the most compact and a t the same time generally satisfactory treatises on elementary physical chemistry of any of present-day vintage I n quite a few passages, highly erroneous impressions are likely t o result from the brevity of the treatment. A few examples are: (1) "A compound is represented by a formula, made by placing side by side the symbols of its constituent elements" (p. 4); (2) from their picture of an atom (p. 6), uranium has an atomic weight of 92; (3) "The oxygen standard is more convenient since a great number of elements then have atomic
weights which are very nearly whole numbers" (p. 23); (4) "If a non-volatile (solid) solute is introduced, the molecules of the solute interfere with the escape of the solvent molecules, thereby decreasing the vapor pressure" (p. 59): (5) from the discussion of "Order of Reaction" (p. 79) the reader might infer that the number of unimolecular reactions is somewhat large; (6) on page 80, the statement is made that "Most reactions are not of this type" (irreversible), nevertheless, very few of the chemical equations in the book are written with the reversible sign. The authors have used definitiods very sparingly, a position which might be justified only for more advanced students as definitions are dangerous. It is regrettable that the spelling of sulfur throughout the book is not that used in the publications of The American Chemical Society. A few cuts of chemists, etc., would add to the human side of the volume. J. E. DAY Outline of the History of Chemistry. Nonnrs W. RAKESTRAW.Published hy the compiler, Bmwn University, Providence, R. I . Two wall charts on cloth, 83. X 149 cm. 510.00 a pair; on paper, 25.5 X 43 cm., 50 cents a pair. Slosson's aphorism to the effect that history may he compared to a chauffer's mirror on an automobile in that we look backward in order to see what is coming forward is especially applicable in the case of the history of chemistry. Professor F. J. Moore, in the preface t o his admirable little book on the subject has clearly stated the advantages of a knowledge of the work and methods of thought of our chemical forefathers. The interested student, however, wishing to go deeper into the subject, is apt t o hecome lost in the labyrinthian passages along which the science has developed, and welcomes a thread of Ariadne t o lead him through the maze. Such a
