JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
640 The experiments are aimple but significant and they are clearly explained. Diagrams are given where needed and, in a few cases, the explanation or arrangement of the apparatus is referred to the instructor. The manual is the spiral binding, expandable type, but is not a "fill-in." Experiments are to he written up according to a suggested form on the right hand page whioh is .. . blank. This should be a useful laboratory manual for a class which has a 2- to 3-hour lab period. Many of the experiments could be extended over more than a, single period if only one hour is svailable.
structure, the reader can of course expect the book to be autharitative. In this expectation he will not be disappointed. He might, to be sure, regret that in numerous instances the distinction between theory and fact has not been more clearly and more positively drawn; or he might wish that less space had been devoted to the cornputstion of the precise numerical values of quantities which cannot hc measured experimentally, either because the rrubstances to which they refer are unknown or because the experimental significanceof the quantities themselves (e. g., the free-valence number) has not been sufficientlyprecisely defined. However, such defects as these, if indeed they be defects, vary in importance with the prejudices of the individual readers and in any event they do not seriously detract from the value of this excellent contribution to the scientific literature. The book has been attractively printed, but it is possible that most of those American readers who can afford its high price in the first dace would orefer to uav . a few cents more to have it bound, 3nd wperiallg 10 havr its pages rut. The pronfreading huw in gvnrnll bwn quire satitifncturg e n thnt there src few elrow, ii any, which are Lkrlg ro exude rrouble. One ui the more serious such errors, for example, is a rather trivial one on pages.156 and 157, where the method specified in Figure 16 for numbering the carbon atoms in the naphthalene molecule is inconsistent with the set of canonical structures listed in Table 111. A still less important error occurs on page 510 where the benzenoid rings in ~truoturesCVII and CVIII should obviously be replaced by quinoid ones. Moreover, it may be wondered whether the printer ran out of lower-case e's, for in about the last fifty pages this particular letter is missing several dozen times. Finally, attention may here be called to a matter of nomenclature whioh may perhaps be customary in France, but which is likely to cause some confusion with an English-speaking reader: throughout Chapter VIII, any ultraviolet absorption band which is described as "the most distant" (la plus lointaine) is always to be understood as the one closest to the visible.
RICHARD WISTAR
Mmza Comaas O A X L ~ DC. * ~ t r o n ~ u
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Bernard Pullman and Mme. Alberte Pullman, Institute of Radium, Paris. Preface by Louis d e Bmglfe, Secretary of the Academy of Sciences. Masson et Cie, Paris, 1952. 665 pp. 170 figs. 17 X 25.5 cm. 2600 fr. A ROUGH idea of the extent to which the whole brosd field of molecular structure is covered in this important book can be gained from the following list of the titles of the ten chapters: The Foundations of Theoretical Chemistry; The Atom; The Chemical Bond; The General Methods for the Study of Conjugated Moleoules; Resonance Energy and Its Principal Applications; Bond Order and Its Physicochemical Significance; Distribution of Electric Charge and Dipole Moments; Electronic Spectra. and Color; The Diamagnetism of Aromatic Compounds; and Molecular Diagrams and Chemical Reactivity. The book begins with a brief introduction to quantum mechanics, after which the problem of valence is treated by both the valence-bond and the molecular-orbital methods. In this discussion, the relations of the two methods to each other are clearly explained, and the reader's attention is called to the limitations of eech treatment. The mathematical procedures by which resonance enereies. .. . charee distributions. bond orders.. ete... erg.., are oali.ulated an! dwribed in dcra~land ilhrstmt~dwith many numerical eunmples. .\loreover, the values c.$lculntedfor the energics of all the= molecular url>itnlsin a rarl~erlarge number of unsaturated and aromatic hydrocarbons are collected in a useful appendix. This hook is, in fact, particularly valuable in that it is one of the few places in which a novice can at present find an orderly and complete presentation of all the material that is necessary for an adequate understanding of the contemporary literature on the quantum-mechanical treatment of valence. After devoting approximately the first half of the book to these essential mathematical details, the authors then turn their attention to the more qualitative and more descriptive applic* tions of the theory thus developed. As is only natural, oonsiderable emphasis is placed upon the concepts of bond order (indice de liaison), of free-valence number (indice de valence libre), and of molecular diagrams (diagrammes mol&ulaires), which have been 80 extensively developed by the Drs. Pullman and their numerous collahoratom, as well as by the closely associated English school. Since these concepts seem not to have received in America as muoh attention as they deserve, it may be hoped that this book will do much to correct the present unfortunate negleot. In view of the eminence of the authors in the field of molecular
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CHEMICAL REACTIONS. VOLUME IV C A. Jacobson, Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus, West Vizginia University, Compiler and Editor. Reinhold Publishing Corp., New York, 1951. 790 pp. 16 X 23.5 cm. $14.
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Tars book continues the series, dealing with the reactions of iron, lanthanum, lead, lithium, magnesium, manganese, mercury, molybdenum, and neodymium. The format and arrangement is. of course, similar to those of the earlier volumes. The value of this series ta chemists has been mentioned in earlier reviews CONDENSED REVIEW OF PHARMACY Geor9.e W.Fiero, Esso Standard Oil Company. Seventh edition. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.. New York, 1952. 122 pp. 23.5 X 16 Em.
$3.25.
THIS is a handbook rather than a review. Some tables and
organic and inorgrtnic-into
five pages!
ERRATUM INTHE review of the seventh edition of Lowy, Harrow, and Apfelbaum's "Introduction to Organic Chemistry" on page 530 of the October issue, the price of this book is given as $5. The publishers have informed us that the prim has now been increased to $5.50.
