Recent Books Elementary Inorganic Chemistry. J. W. Instructional Tests in Chemistry for High Schools and Colleges. Consists of three MELLOR,D.Sc., F.R.S. Longmans. pamphlets: (1) Student's Booklet, (2) Green & Co.. New York City. 1930. Teacher's Manual, and (3) Key. EARL x 229 pp. 7 tables. 129 figures, R. GLENN,New Jersey State Teachers' 13 X 19 including 5 photographs. College, Moutclair, New Jersey; LOUIS em. $1.50. E. WELTON,John Hay High School. This book is a study of same of the Cleveland, Ohio. World Book Comcommon non-metallic elements from a pany, Yonkers-ou-Hudson, New York, non-formula and non-mathematical view1930. iv 76 pp. 36 illustrations. point. A few equations are included but 16 X 25 a n : Price: (1) Student's these are balanced and seem to have no Booklet, $0.36. (2) Teacher's Manual, special purpose except to show the student $0.16, (3) Key. $0.16. that such things are used. The book is divided into 17 chapters in The authors state, in the Teacher's which the following subjects are covered: Manual which accompanies the Student's Air, Ha, 0. N. Mixtures and Com- Booklet, that the tests are to be used in pounds. Atomic Hypothesis, H9O; Chlo- improvement of learning in chemistry by rides and CI2; Acids, Bases, and Salts; identifying the students' learning difficqlCarbonates, CO2,Combustion and Flame, ties; by revealing the student's errors in Sulfur and Its Compounds, Nitrates, explanations, problems, uses of technical Nitric Add, Ammonia, Phosphorus. vocabulary, etc.; by frequent and rapid From this list it can be seen that the survey of students' progress; by giving field covered is very limited. The ma- 'the teacher information for devising necesterial is taken up in Mellor's charader- sary remedial drill work; by showing the istic manner. Sufficient history is in- nature of the students' achievement; and cluded to give a personal touch to the by investigations of the above data, "make subject matter. a beginning in the formulation of the It seems unfortunate that Dalton's psychology of learning chemistry." Atomic Hypothesis is given as the last The book contains 36 tests which word in the structure of matter even in may he used in any desired order and are this elementary discussion. The ma- short enough to be given and corrected terial usually covered under the metals in class, in a schwl period. In general, and under organic chemistry is not con- each test consists of multiple choice. sidered at all. Equivalent weights are matching, modified trne-false, completion, discussed but valence is not mentioned. brief answers, and vocabulary questions. The author apparently intends to give The instructions far giving the tests just an insight into the beginning of the are definite. Two pages in the back of study of chemistry, and he does this each book give the student a place to admirably. The topics are well presented record the time he has used in taking the and the book is written so that it may be test, his separate scores, and his rate of understood without theaidof an instructor. progress. Suggestions are offered to aid This is an excellent book for a short the teacher in interpreting the tests. course where descriptive material is de- A table of tentative norms, given in sired, or i t may be used as an introduction percentile ranks, and reliabilities is found to a more difficult presentation. in the teacher's manual. C. E. WHITE Each test covers a unit of work. The UNIYBBSITY 0s MARYLAND range of questions shows a thorough COLLBOB PI*, MD. 1:116
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VOL.7, No. 5
RECEN'T BOOKS
study of the content of current chemistry textbooks. One is surprised t o find that several errors which have crept into the texts have been retained by these authors. Such mistakes as designating density as a pure number, giving the weight of a molecule, and using the long ago discarded term of water of nystallizalion, are typical. Some questions are ambiguous. I n spite of these minor defects every teacher will find that merely reading the tests gives him a fair conception of what is now being taught and what learned in chemistry. The modified true-false type of question in which the student is required t o not only indicate the false statement but t o correct i t will make a special appeal t o those teachers to whom testing is something more than a measuring device. HATTIE D. F. HAUB
The Terminology of Physical Science. DUANEROLLER. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Okla., 1929. 116 pp. 14 X 22 cm. 81.W. This interesting little book is to the terminology of physical science as Crabb to the English language in general. The terms considered include those that are meaningless or ambiguous, those that should be discarded because better words are available, those that require precise definition because of inaccurate popular usage, and those that are so similar as t o be readily confused. Following this glossary is a list of pre6xes and s h e s and a c h a ~ t e rdevoted to the migin and meaning of the names of the chemical elements. Mistakes in pronunciation. correct spelling, and the principles of abbreviation are then considered. Terms from physics and physical chemistry receive more attention than purely chemical terms. The rules of the American Chemical Society on spelling and pronunciation might well have been included. Readers who have given little thought t o scientific terminology will be startled to
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note how many terms are like the human appendix in being vestigial inheritances from a more primitive stage of evolution. The problem of getting rid of them is made easier by directing attention t o them. Every editor or writer in the field of physics and chemistry should consider the suggestions of this little manual very carefully. Students would profit by having the distinction between similar terms brought t o their attention a t an early stage in their training. Yet the benefits that any one may acquire from stricter attention to details of this sort is not to.be had apart from risk. A young lady, just recovered from smallpox, was shunned by her friendsnot because of physical disfigurement by the disease, but because she had devoted spare moments while in quarantine to studying "Five Thousand Words Commonly Mispronounced." This gave her a sense of superiority that made her unpopular. HORACEG. DEMING UNWSRSPIY OB NBBRASKA
,LINCOLN, NBBRASB*
~ u a l i t a t i f iAnalysis. C. J. BROCKMAN, Associate Professor of Chemistry, University of Georgia. Ginn & Co., 197 pp. Boston, Mass., 1930. x Tables. 15% X 23 cm. 8.20.
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The purpose of this book is t o present a method of qualitative analysis without the use of hydrogen sulfide, and the scope of the scheme covers the cations and anions usually included in the ordinary textbooks in this field of chemistry. While the reviewer has not had occasion to try out the method so that he can compare i t with the conventional one, he finds the object of the author praiseworthy and of considerable interest. Such a departure from the beaten track has often been discussed, but so far as the reviewer knows, this is the first textbook which has seriously placed i t before the hydrogen-sulfide-gassed worker in qualitative analysis. I n discussing the objections t o the hydrogen sulfide method.
