RECENT BOOKS INDUSTRJAL CHEMI~~Y W.. T.Rend. Second Edition. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York City. 1938. x 605 pp. 14.5 X 23 cm. $5.00.
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This second edition is certainly a worth-while revision and we want t o compliment the author on the care and thoroughness shown. Chapter XXV,pertaining to synthetic drugs, dyes, and resins, has the largest amount of new material added, namely, eleven pages. This is understandable, due to the rapid progress in the last few years in this particular field. The second edition embraces twenty-nine more pages than the first but the new is represented by more than this increase, in that there has been a decrease of fifteen illustrations and the omission of certain obsolete material. This book is one of the best arranged and most readable of the general surveys of industrial chemistry. In the preface of the first edition the author stated that this book was prepared for a varied group of readers, i. 8.. "students preparing for a career in chemical industry.. .students who do not expect to enter a chemical field . . teachers in chemistry in high school and college business men. . . . . This book is written with a view to meeting the needs of all these classes of readers. I t is intended as a textbook and as collateral reading for students, and as a reference book for business men." Becauseof this wide basis of readers the author has rightly added a considerable number of introductory andvery excellent chapterson, for instance, "Relation of Chemistry to Industry"; "Chemical Organizations"; "Chemical Economics" and "Unit Operations and Equipment." I n our modern teaching of chemical engineering we devote two or three courses to the study of unit operations, havinga textbook tocover this one section alone. This is also true of econamics. Space has been taken for these subjects from the major part of the b w k pertaining to the study of the process industries. Because of thus addressing this book to such a wide audience, some of its value has beeti lessened for students who are specializing in chemical engineering or in applied chemistry, and who devote whole courses t o certain subjects covered by only a chapter in this book. Consequently, while we cannot recommend this hook for students in chemical engineering, or those who are going to specialize deeply in applied chemistry, we do think it is the best arranged and the most interesting book, with the most satisfactory illustrations, written for those wide groups in our arts colleges and in our industries who wish to have an up-to-date general presentation of industrial chemistry. R. N o n n ~ sSnnEvs
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PURDU UNIVB~SITY ~ LIP*YBTTB,INDIAN*
GENERALCHEDUS~Y.Eugene P. Sckoch and WiUiam A. Pelsing, Professors of Chemistry, The University of Texas. McGraw-Hill Book Company. Inc., New York City, 1938. 524 pp. 73 figs. 31 tahles. 14 X 21 cm. 83.25. This text which has been used for many years a t the University of Texas has now heenmade one of the famous "International Series." The laboratory experiments are interspersed throughout the hook. Theoretical physical chemistry is emphasized much more thanin theusual elementary text of this length. Descriptive material is a t a minimum. No pictures of famous chemists are included and likewise chemical history has been slighted. Under oxygen and hydrogen hrief historical sketches are placed a t the end of the discussion of these elements instead of a t the beginning which is the usual position. Only one chapter of twenty-two pages is devoted t o "Common Metallic Elements" and in this Fe,Cu, Hg, Zn, and P b are the ones honored. The book is truly different. I n place of the usual chapter headed "Oxygen" we find "Energy Changes in Chemical Reactions Illustrated by Reactions Involving Oxygen." Chapter ZV is. entitled "Simple Reactions of Metals and Acids; The Preparation and Properties of Hydrogen; Some Properties of
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Solutions." I n this the student is introduced to Raoult's Law with delta T and its ramifications. The halogens are grouped in a very short chapter with nitrogen and phosphorus. Chapter XIV headed, "The Actions and Uses of General Reagents for Solutions of Salts" includes NsOH as a reagent, preparation of NaC1. purification of natural waters, ammonia as a reagent, meaning of the term pH; H*S as a reagent. The next chapter is devoted entirely t o a system of qualitative analysis and most of the remainder of the book, about one hundred fifty pages, covers electrolysis, E.M.P.batteries, and organic chemistry. While i t is admitted that the time-honored sequence of material may be questioned, i t is difficult to see the logic of the order and grouping used by the authors in many cases. For wample, a chapter on molecular weights falls between colloids and the formation of salts. The experimental part consists in the main of wellchosen illustrations of the text material. For a complete laboratory course more experiments may he desired. Under the chapter on the gas laws only one experiment is given, and this is a demonstration on diffusion. I n the chapter on battery action five lecture experiments are described, but there is none for the individual to perform. I n a text of five hundred pages the author has been compelled to leave out same of the subject matter that is in the usual eighthundred page book. I t is, in general, the purely inorganic material that has been omitted. The rare elements are not mentioned, and very little space is devoted to the more common ones. The physicalchemistry part of the general course is given a very thorough treatment. CFURLESE. W ~ E UNWBRB~TY OF MARYLAND COLLBOB P ~ YM,~ R Y L A N D
SCIENCE IN GENERAL EDUCATION.Commission on Secondary School Curriculum, Progressive Education Association. D. Appleton-Century Co.. Inc., New York City. 1938. xiii 591 pp. 14 X 22 em. $3.00. This book is a report of the Committee on the Function of Science in General Education. It is intended t o eive suegestions t o science teachers for the rethinking of science education with the immediate purpose of improving science teaching and with the ultimate purpose of reorganizing the entire science program along the lines of the philosophy of the Progressive Education Association. view on the purpose of "Part I makes explicit a basic point general education in a democracy and the functionif science teaching in relation it: ~h~ point of departure is essentially that the individual in his internal activities and in his interaction with his environment develops needs which take the form of "tensions" within the organism. The Committee proposes that " the purpose of general education is t o meet the needs of individuals in the basic aspects of living in such a way as t o promote the fullest possible realization of personal potentialities and the mast effective participation in a demacrstic society. "Part I1 details a corresbonding analysis of the r81e of science teaching in providing experiences--in personal living, in immediate personal-social relationships, in social-civic relationships. and in economic relationships-that are conducive to personal growth and effective social participation in a democracy." The Committee hastens t o assure the reader that it holds no brief for this classification. Then it proceeds to discuss the various needs in each of these areas, (e. g., "need for personal health," "need for a satisfying [sic] world picture and a workable philosophy of life," "need for wise selection and use of goods and ser- : vices"), and to suggest procedures by which the science program ' may contribute t o meet these needs. The discussion of the needs is very extensive and involved, but i t is apparently not meant
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