sian adds style to the methodical textual presentation. The appendices, preceded by a 10-page glossary, contain exponents and notation, slide rule, isotopes, electronic configurations, water vapor pressures, logs, and a handy square root table. George F. Martins Newton High School Newtonville. Mess. 02160
Chemistry and Society
clear and readable style, and there is an attempt t o relate the discussion of specific topics to the principles which were developed earlier. The lecturer will probahly want t o do more of this. The text contains problems and study questions a t the end of each chapter, including some "open-ended" questions. Unfortunately for the students no answers are given even for the numerical problems. Possibly the main idea that a student using this hook will retain after the course ends is the importance of energy in chemistry, in science and t o mankind. For the nonscience student to have obtained a firm mental grasp on a t least one major concept during the course may be a sufficient accomplishment t o justify trying this textbook.
Leo Sehubert, The American University, and Luis A. Veguillo-Berdecio, Universi-
Carl W. Moeller
The University of Connecticut Sfom. Connecticut 06268
ty of Puerto Rim. Allyn and Bacon, Inc., Boston, 1972. ix + 341 pp. Figs. and tables. 24 x 19.5 cm. $11.50. This is another in the growing list of textbooks written for the nonscience students. It would be appropriate for a onesemester course since it contains 16 chapters each of which can be covered in about three class periods. The first 9 chapters are strongly ariented toward physics. Concepts such as chemical solutions, concentration, chemical equilibria, groups of elements, etc., are barely described, while electrical units, enthalpy, entropy, free energy, quantum numbers, ete., are mare thoroughly considered. Later in the book about two pages are spent on oridatian-reduction and two pages an acid-base concepts. Threaded throughout the book are discussions af energy with topics ranging from gravitational energy to several pages on nuclear energy. Much of the discussion of chemical reactions is related t o the energy changes rather than to the substances inlolved. One has the impression that too many topics are introduced in these 9 chapten and many of the principles are developed inadequately to help the student acquire a good understanding of the concepts involved. Unless the students using the hook had previously had good training in physics and the early chapters were functioning as a review, it would require mast of a semester to expand sufficiently the coverage of that material. Alternatively some of the topics might be ignored in order t o explain fewer concepts and to devote more time to the last half of the book. The intent of the authors is to develop in the early chapters some principles of chemistry and physics and to show that their development was logical, but to omit, as much as possible, the "facts." Then in the latter half of the book the principles are applied to a discussion of some chemical topics to which the nonscience students can relate through their own experiences or general reading. These chapters involve the reader with the chemistry of living systems, diseases and poisons, food and nutrition, and the environment, as well as with chemical technology and energy conversion. Since this is the material which the students will find t o he of considerable interest, i t is desirable to get to these chapters as quickly as passihle and to spend a good portion of the semester an them. They are written in a A184 /Journal of Chemical Education
Introduction Analysis
to
Quantitative
Chemical
Ernest Gmnwold, Brandeis University, and Louis J Kirshenboum, University of Rhade Island. Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, N. J., 1972. xiv + 370 pp. Figs. and tables. 24
X
16.5 cm. $11.95.
This text, designed for a one-semester course a t the freshman or (more apprapriately) sophomore level, most assuredly cannot be viewed as "just another quant book", for in fact it is the most innovative treatment of elementary analytical chemistry to appear in many years. The major departure of this text from conventional practice is a generalization of "wet" methods, avoiding the usual classification by "reaction type" (acid-base, redox, etc.). Instead, following several introductory chapters, the authors deal with aqueous acid-base, silver halide precipitation, redox, and EDTA titrations in a single thirty-page chapter (Volumetric Analysis in Aqueous Solution). By so doing, €he authors minimize the redundaey which usually results when each of the common "Sshaped titration curve methods" is treated as a distinct entity. Following the Volumetric Analysis chapter (which, for many instructors, will be the heart of the text), appear two superb chapters on solvent effects upon acid-base reactions and ionic equilibria in general, two excessively detailed chapters on the shapes of titration curves end errors in titrimetry, one chapter on indicators, and a final chapter dealing with Instrumental Analysis of Liquid Solutions. A second section presents laboratory instructions and experiments. Efforts to generalize the presentation of traditional analytical chemistry are long overdue; an instructor of introductory analytical chemistry can hardly fail to ohtain many new ideas for his own course by carefully perusing this hook. Whether i t will succeed in the classroom milieu is an entirely different matter which will, I suspect, depend critically upon the nature of the student clientele. The book is heavily weighted toward titrimetry, and does not provide a balanced view of analytical
chemistry. There are some noteworthy omissions. For instance, the general treatment of errors in analytical measurements is handled in a cursory .fashion (the Gaussian error curve, the qualitative significance of which is easily apprehended by sophomores, is not discussed, the term "standard deviation" never appears, and the operational distinctions between random and determinate errors are never clearly made). Likewise, separation techniques go virtually unmentioned; the term "chromatography" appears nowhere in the text. Additionally, as the authors emphasize in their preface, instrumental teehniques are not emphasized, for the logical reason that sophomore-level students generally have not had sufficient physics to grasp these methods thoroughly. In fact, Grunwald and Kirschenhaum have prepared a textbook oriented almost eaclusively around analytical solution ehemistry. My own feeling is that the suitability of this teat for adoption depends substantially upon whether the students in the course will encounter additional coursework in analytical chemistry in their undergraduate careers. If the answer t o this question is "yes", this teat should receive serious consideration, If, however, the course includes appreciable numbers of pre-medical students, engineers, or others who will encounter little, if any, additional work in analytical chemistry, this text has serious limitations. It does not attempt t o deal with the general approach to analyzing complex samples. There are some major omissions, especially chemical separation methods. Likewise, while the typical sophomore's background in physics is likely to be rudimentary, it is highly desirable to include a careful presentation of the most important instrumental methods and their limitations in any course containing a significant number of students who are not chemistry majors. One might argue that concentration upon titrimetry to the virtual exclusion of other analytical measurement procedures is undesirable even in courses populated by a high proportion of chemistry majors. With this important eamot, Grunwald and Kirschenhaum represents a refreshing departure from traditional practice, and it should greatly assist instructors of analytical chemistry to reevaluate their own approaches to presenting the more traditional aspects of quantitative analysis. Earl L. Wehrv Unwers11, 01 Tennessee Knoxv;lle. Tennessee 37916
Chemical Quantitative Analysis. A New Approach
Sibilla E. Kennedy, Esther B. Sparberg, and Frances S. K. Sterrett, all of Hofstra University. Harper & Row, Publishers, New York, 1972. xxii 362 pp. Figs. and tables. 27.8 x 21 cm. $6.
+
This is an analytical chemistry laboratory manual intended, primarily, far use in general chemistry. It contains directions (Continued on page A188)
