RECENT BOOKS LABORATORY MANUAL OP SPOTTESTS. Dr. Fritz Feigl, Laborab r i o da P r o d u ~ oMineral, Ministerio da Agricultura, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Translated from the German manuscript by RALPHE. OESPER,Ph.D., Professor of Chemistry, University of Cincinnati. Academic Press. Inc., New Y a k , 1943. xii 276 pp. 46 figs. 15 X 23 cm. $3.90. This book is by a pioneer in the field of spot test analysis. It was written t o serve as a manual for instruction in spot tests and t o be used in a course designed for advanced students who have completed courses in inorganic, organic, physical, and analvtical chemistrv. Such a backmound- is a necessam reauisite for n student to understand spot reactions, since they involve organic reagents, complex furmnrion, catalyzed reactions, capillary prwesm, and so forth. Although the manual was derigncd especially for teaching purposes, the professional chemist was also kept in mind. I n addition t o drawing from his more than 20 years' experience in the field of spot test analysis, the author spent almost two years composing the manuscript and in developing new examples that would be especially appropriate for their educational value. The book. therefore. contains man" examples and applications of spot reactions that are publish& here for the first time. The "Manual" is divided into nine chapters as follows: Chapter I (22 pp.) presents a general discussion of the theoretical foundations of spot test analysis; Chapter I1 (40 pp.) is on the technique of spot test analysis, including a description of the necessary equipment, much of i t illustrated with 39 figures; Chapter 111 (38 pp.) presents in six parts an extended treatment of surface and capillary efiects, together with appropriate instructive experiments; Chapter IV (70 pp.) deals with spot reactions designed t o detect or identify inorganic materials and includes spat tests with inorganic reagents (normal salts and complex compounds), organic reagents, tests with the aid of masking and demasking reactions, tests by means of catalysis reactions, and tests by induced precipitations; Chapter V (29 pp.) is on qualitative organic spot analysis and consists of three parts: the detection of certain elements in organic compounds, the detection of certain characteristic groups of atoms, and the detection of specific organic compounds. Chapters VI. VII. and VIII (45 pp.) deal respectively with the practical application of spot reactions to the testing of rocks and minerals, industrial materials, and biological substances. Many practical examples are given. The "Manual" closes with Chapter IX (16 pp.) on quantitative determinations by means of spot colorimetry. Auxiliary reagents are listed in the Appendix, together with a "Floor plan of a spot test laboratory" (drawnt o scale). "A general discussion of the main topics to he treated opens each chapter and division. The chemical basis for every test is given as well as adequate working directions. The choice of experiments has been dictated largely by the desire t o use examples which are both characteristic and also of important practical value. Constant stress has been laid on the microchemical aspects. A critical evaluation has been given for each test as t o its specificity and selectivity. The interference due t o accompanying materials is considered in every case, and directions are given for obviating this interference, provided the 'foreign' material does not exceed certain limits. In all, about 180 experiments are included. These can be performed easily in a course extending over 2 to 3 months, by students who have had some previous training in chemical manipulations." "Manual of Spot Tests" will make a valuable companion to Dr. Feigl's previous books: "Qualitative Analysis by Spot Tests" (translated by Matthews, 2nd ed., 1939) and Specific and Special Reactions" (translated by Oesper, 1940). in which will be found additional exercises, a more detailed discussion of the underl~ingtheories, and references to the original literature.
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The book is well indexed and attractively bound. Professor Oesper is t o be congratulated upon doing such an excellent job translating the German manuscript. Analytical chemists will be grateful t o Dr. Feigl for his painstaking care in writing a well-rounded and practical manual of spot test analysis. It should be a valuable aid in the teaching of advanced chemistry. JOHNH. YOE U-nsrru
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THE C H E ~ S T R Y OP SYNTHETIC SUBSTANCES. Emil Dreher. Translated by Marion Lee Taylor. Philosophical Library, Inc., New York. 1943. 103 pp. 13.5 X 21 cm. $3.00. A collection of papers by Emil Dreher previously published is put under one cover and translated from the German. The phases of the chemistry of high-molecular-weight polymers which are discussed include the following: determination of molecular weight by viscosity measurements, physical and chemical properties of synthetic drying oils, mechanism of polymerization and polycondensation, and the influence of structure and groups on the solubility of high polymeric substances. I t is largely a review of the work of Standinger and other German investigators previous to 1938 with very few references t o foreign publications. The translation suffers very definitely in being too literal throughout the book (e. g., copious abundance," p. 10) and occasionally is almost unintelligible, e. g., p. 77. The current technical terminology is not used in a number of cases: double union for double bond, coordinate where conjugate is meant, liveliness for reactivity, acetification for acetylation, and chlorocaoutchouc for chlorinated rubber. T o the reviewer i t appears t o be a questionable scientific contribution t o the literature to publish a poor translation of a book five years out of date (at time of publication) when there is an acute paper shortage. LEALLYN B. CLAPP
C H E ~ S ~-Henry Y . Eying, Frick Chemical Laboratory, Princeton University, Jokn Walter, Palmer Physical Laboratory, Princeton University, and George E. Rimball, Department of Chemistry, Columbia University. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, 1944. vi 394 pp. 49 figs. 20 tables. 14 X 21.5 cm. $5.00. It has become increasingly apparent in recent years that in spite of its essential mathematical basis, quantum mechanics has important contributions t o make to chemistry. According to Dirac, the underlying physical laws necessary for the formulation of a mathematical theory of the whole of chemistry are completely known. However, it is only in the simplest cases that it has been possible hitherto t o obtain even an approximate solution t o the resulting equations. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that quantum mechanics has already been of value in the elucidation of problems related to valence, chemical structure, atomic and molecular spectra, intermolecular forces, etc. As the authors of the book on "Quantum Chemistry" state in their preface, "no chemist can afford t o be uninformed of a theory which systematizes all of chemistry even though mathematical complexity often puts exact numerical results beyond immediate reach." I t is therefore their object "to put into a systematic, condensed form the tools which have been found useful in efforts to understand and develop the concepts of chemistry and physics." Some indication of the scope of the book can be obtained from QUANTUM
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