FEBRUARY, 19%
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accessory items and operating details. Although Hilger instruments are emphasized, various others are described briefly. Zeiss and Hilger filter photometers are included. Throughout this section occur many helpful suggestions on testing and manipulating instruments, and on the merits of each type of equipment. Alt,oeet,her.the reviewer is well imoressed with this book. I t
on the point of view of the reader. For example, it seems the inclusion of the addition of alkanes to alkenes and the omission of the addition of alkenes to alkenes as a simple type of polymeriastion was not too wise. The latter seems more significant than the former to the general student. Although the book contains muoh more material than could he covered adeauatelv in a. semester course it enables the instructor
t,he price is high
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KAOLIN CLAYS AND THEIR INDUSTRIAL USES J. M. Huber Corporation, New Yolk, New Yo&, 1949. 141 pp. 49 figs. 15.5 X 23.5 cm. Gratis to and technicians in the clay consuming industry. THIS book describes the production of kaolin clays and gives many illustrations af the operations at the company's plants. I t then relates the manner in which the clay is used in the mbber and paper industries. This book would be of interest only to a technical man in a olny consuming industry. KENNETH KOBE UNIVERBITT OP TEXAS
A ~ T I N T. e x m
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ORGANIC CHEMISTRY
Roy (2. Brewster, Professor of Chemistry, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. Prentice-Hall, Inc., New York, 1949. v 409 pp. 12 figs. 34 tables. 17 charts. 16 X 23.5 cm. $6.
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T m purpose of the author as given in the preface is that a semester's course in organic chemistry should acquaint the student with the most important descriptive mstcrid and also give same insight into t.he theoretical interpretation of the phenomena studied. In this wsy he will have acquired bhe basic facts for the study of biology, medicine, and relsted sciences and also theability to interpret the bomplex processes met in these fields. The plan of the text is well adapted for this purpose. I n Chaptar 1, General Principles, the author bas summarized very setisfxtorily atomic structure and linkages, the types of bonds and the relative eIeotronegat,ivity of elements, thus correlating the prinoiples of inorganic chemistry with organic. In presenting a clear, simplified discussion of bond energies, resonance, and the mechanism of react,ions, including acid and bane oatalpis, he makes it possible for t.he sbudwt to give an el~ctronieinterpretation to typical reactions which should eliminate his tendency to think that organic chemistry involves only memory. The present reviewer found this treatment very valuable in the use as a text of the author's larger hook, "Organic Chemistry" (1948), which is revised and condensedin thisBriof Course. The material is covered in much the same manner but the illustrat,iona and certnin specializedreactions are necessarily omitted. The material is systematically arrenged with 21 chapters given to the study of aliphatic compounds including amino acids, proteins, and carbohydrates and with the remaining 13 devoted to aromatic, alieyolic, and heterocyclic compounds. The order of topics can be changed a t the convenience of the instructor. The problems at the end of each chapter are well chosen. Illustrations of medicinals, vitamins, and hormones are given in the cor-
relative merit of the topics included or omitted will depend mainly
RECENT ADVANCES IN ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY:
FRONTIERS IN CHEMISTRY. VOL. VII. R. E. Bur*, Plastics Dept.. E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Wilmington. Delaware; and Oliver Grumitt, Modey Chemical Laboratory, Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, Editors. Intersoienoe Publishers, Inc., New York, 1949. 10 tables. 9 3 figs. 15.5 x 23.5 Em. $4.50.
TEEmost recent volume in the series based on the Frontiers in Chemistry lectures presented a t Western Reserve University consists of a survey of the fundamental background and of the current status of half a dozen of the active fields of contemporary analytical chemistry. In keeping with the other volumes of the series, the volume is well printed and illustrated. The subject matter, as one would expect from the authors of the different chapters, is well organized and presented. The volume would be valuable to anyone engaged in analytical chemistry as well as to any chemist who would desire a knowledge of certain contemporary analytical techniques and of their possible applicability to his own problems. The book wauld serve admirably as the text for a graduate seminar in analytical chemistry. The chapter on voltammetry (polarography) and amperometric titrations by I. M. Kolthoff (30 pages) devotes two-thirds of its length to an excellent introduction to the fundamental phenomena observed at a polarizable microelectrode. The five pages of applications and the five pages on amperometric titrations are well bdmced discussionsof what can be done with the dropping mercury electrode and the rotating platinum electrode, including the limitations of the two types of electrodes. The reviewer is sorry that two of the examples cited on the use of polsrogrephy in organio chemistry (effectof halogen on acetone reducibility and study of keto-en01 equilibrium) were included since studies published since the lectures were given have indicated the incorrectness of the earlier interpretation of the experimental data. The two chapters on inorganic analysis with organic reagents and on some recent colorimetric and gravimrtric organic reagents by J. H. Yoe (48 pages) are refreshingly new treatments of the subject. The former chapter is divided into short disoussions of the various ways in which organic reagents are used; the greater portion of the chapter covers chelate compounds on the basis of the types of the two reacting groups. The reviewer would be inclined to debate the statement that "comparatively few chemists at the present time have seemed to realize the adwntages and possibilities of organic reagents in inorganic analysis." The first part of thesecond chapter by Yoeis devoted to an outline for the development of a new colorimetric method in which the various fsotors to be studied are discussed. The latter half of the chapter discusses some of the reagents for five commonly determined cations. The material presented is largely based on Yoe's book written with Sarver and on his published research. In his chapter on the application of infrared spectroscopy in analysis (33 pages), Otto Beck, after a short but informative account of Beer's law and of the origin of infrared spectra, surveys the development of infrared instrumentation for analytical work during the past decade and indicates the merits and faults of
