BOOK
REVIEWS
Laboratory Guide for General Chemistry: A Research Approach Hemy S. Gates, Milton College, Milton, Wisconsin. Houghton Mifflin Co., Inc., 97 pp. Figs. and Boston, 1962. x tables. 15.5 X 23.5 cm. Paperbound.
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$225.
Every college teacher concerned with the direction of a freshman laboratory course should know about this little guide. He would do well to look it over with the thought of applying it to his own situation, for it is a book of considerable stature. Says the author in his Preface: "This Guide grew out of my conviction that labmatory work is . . and will . . . remain the indispensible feature of current instruction in chemistry." To develop a program worthy of this dominant and lasting role, the author projects a plan using semiroutine procedures on s. miniatwe research problem. Each student receives a smdl sample of an individual, unknown organic compound. His problem for the first semester is t o determine such physical properties of this substance as its melting point, boiling
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point, density, specific heat, and molecular weight. Then by chemical tests, he finds the functional gI0UpS present and ultimately attempts t o identify the compound. Student judgment will be required throughout, for the directions, though well stated, are general. Furthermore, not all properties can be determined for all unknowns. Depending on properties of tho unknown, the right method will have to he selected before the molecular weight can be properly measured. Student effort will be required throughout, for blank notehooks with sewn binding and numbered pages are used for record keeping. Written reports on each project are p r e pared and submitted. While one may wonder a t first a t the use of organic compounds for study in a general chemistry course, this does not create many real problems. The most serious one lies in the need for understanding the rules of nomenclature. The author turns this liability into an asset by using 15 of his 97 pages in a discussion of the IUPAC rules. The second semester's work is devoted to inorganic qualitative analysis, though
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not in its familiar form. All of the unknowns are issued as solids, and they are single salta, not mixtures. Each student first identifies his unknowns by a systematic study of the properties of its ions. Then he devises a scheme for the separation of a mixture of all of them. More detailed information is given in this section of the guide than in the first semester's part, but the same notebook is retained and used, the same kind of reports can be written and submitted, and the same research approach is everywhere noticeable. At the end are five pages of notes to the instructor listing the recommended locker equipment, special apparatus, and shelf reagents. While some of the chemicals listed would not he found in the usual general chemistry stockroom, the locker equipment is standard. Considering the nature of the program there are remarkably few special items of equipment required. When the various parts are all considered together, they add up t o a most impressive laboratory guide. I t must work very well indeed with classes of limited size: the real question, of course, is concerned with its effectiveness in large laboratory sections. Can they he handled this way? This reviewer is one optimistic teacher who wants to try i t to find out. ROBERTD. EDDY Tujts Universzty Medjord, Massachusetts
Fundamental Chemistry
Henry S. Gates, Laboratory Guide for General Chemistry: A Research .4pproach Donald H. Andwws and Richard J . Kokcs, Fundamental Chemistry E m ' n S. Gould, Inorganic Reactipns and Structure Ewing C. Scott and Frank A. Kanda, The Nature of Atoms and Molecules: A General Chemistry E. H. E. Pietseh and the Gmelin Institute, editors, Grnelins Handbuch der Anarganischen Chemie, 8. Auflage, System-Nummer 60, Kupfer. Part B, Section 2 Paul Pascal, editor, Nouveau Trait6 de Chimie Minerale. Volume 5, Zinc, Cadmium, Mereure Cad E. Crouthamel, Analytical Chemistry. Volume 2 Paul Pascal, editor, Nouveau Trait6 de Chimie Minerale. Volume 6, Boron, Aluminum, Gallium, Indium, Thzllium J . Ramtvez-Muiioz and G. Saleedo-Eseobav, Quimica Analitica Cualitativa R. Jirgensons and M . E. Straumanis, A Short Textbook of Colloid Chemistry H. R. Kruyt and J . Th. G. Overbeek, Initiation B la Chimie Physique Durward C. Layde, Introduction to Qualitative Analysis Sidnev J . Johnstone and Margery G. Johnstone, Minerals for the Chemical and Allied Industries G. Stephenson, Mathematical Methods for Science Students 8 . Kenneth Gmham, editor, H . I,. Pinkerfon, assistant editor, Electronlating Engineering Handbook S. G . Waley, Mechanisms of Organic and Enzymic Reactions M . Slacey and S . A . Baker, Carbohydrates of Living Tissues Arthur C. Cope, editor, Organic Reactions. Volume 12 Albert R. Costa, Miehcl Eugbne Chevreul: Pioneei of Organic Chemistry John 0.Edwards, editor, Peroxide Reeotion Mechanisms Georg Karagounis, Introductory Organic Quantum Chemistry W . Theilheimer, Synthetic Methods of Organic Chemistry. Volume 15 H. Grbber and S. Erk, Funditmentale of Heat Transfer Samuel C. Lind, Radiation Chemistry of Gnses G. M. Radqw, The Chemistry of Heterocyclic Compounds
Donald H. Andrezus and Richard J . Kokes, both of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, 1962. xv 814 pp. Figs. and tables. 17 X 24.5 em. $7.95.
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I t is refreshing and gratifying to see an unconventional new freshman text, especially when its unconventional features satisfy one's own prejudices about the first-year curriculum. Andrews and Kokes have written a book which does represent rt substantial break with tradition. "Fundamental Chemistry" is an attempt to introduce firm physical principles a t the earliest opportunity-to provide freshmen with s. framework of quantum, statistical, and thermodynamic concepts, and to use these concepts t o interpret a large body of chemical phenomena. This reviewer is an outspoken supporter of such aviewpoint. Anyone writing a text or teaching a freshman course which does devote considerable time to thermodynamics or to statistical and quantum mechanics knows very well the very first objection he must answer. I s i t possible, the question goes, t o increase the time spent on "physical chemistry'' and still retain descriptive chemistry, a t least enough descriptive chemistry to develop some chemical intuition and a feeling for the systematic chemistry of the elements. Andrewa and Kokes have demonstrated in their new hook that one can retain a systematic study of descriptive chemistry within
Volume 39, Number 12, December 1962
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