difficult t o pick out material suited to the student's need and capacity. This book contains thirty-one reprinted articles from eight different chemical journals, including several from the Jounrmr. os CHEMICAL EDUCATION.These articles deal with topics generally considered in elementary courses, from alchemy to the latest methods for the manufacture of phosphoric acid, chlorine, sulfuric acid, and ammonia. They are arranged in the approximate order in which they are likely t o be considered, and interspersed with them are brief biographical sketches of twenty-three eminent chemists, past and contemporary. There is also a short biographical note far the author of each of the accompanying articles. The editor has written excellent iutroductory prefaces t o a number of the articles, which contain helpful summaries and pertinent comment. The articles are well chosen, with regard t o the balance between the historical, descriptive, theoretical, and practical, and although the collection contains about as much reading as the average student is likely t o do in a year's time, many teachers will wish t o supplement it by still forther references. For this purpose, the report of the Committee on Chemical Libraries, which is reprinted as thelast article in the hook, will be of value. The inclusion of the July, 1937, Market Report will also he useful in giving thestudent an appreciation of the cash value of some of the chemical substances he uses. All in all, the student will find this baok much mare interesting reading than his textbook, and, a t its moderate cost, he will probably he able t o afford a copy of his own, rather than depending upon reference copies in the library. Finally, this brief introduction t o the literature of chemistry may well inspire him t o dig into i t deeper and t o discover other original sources fully as interesting as these. N. W. RAKESTRAW B m m UN-Raooe ISLAND
WOVXDBNEB,
M. and B. Ruhemann. CamLow T E ~ E R ~ I W RPHYSICS. E bridge University Press. Cambridge. England, 1937. ix 313 pp. 114figs. 14 X 21.5cm. $5.00.
+
This hook will doubtless be received with especial interest a t the present time because of the recent extension of the range of law temneratures accessible to experiment and the extremely interesting phenomena being discovered in this range. he authors were situatedat the time of writing- a t Kharkov.U.S.S. R.. where a low temperature lsboratory has rccently been esrablished: before this they had worked wilh Simon in Germany and Oxford, and are amply qualified by Gr+hand cxperienec for thrir task. The purpose of the haok is to give a comprehensive survey of the entire field of low temperature physics for the general physicist. I n this general survey the authors discuss both the prohlems of experimental technic and those of theoretical interpretation and significance. The discussion of experimental technic is perhaps not suE5ciently detailed so that the specialist could design low temperature apparatus on the basis of i t without further study, hut it is sufficiently detailed t o suggest the nature of the experimental problems and diiculties and t o give the reader an appreciationof theingenuity which has frequently distinguished the solutions. An interesting feature is the historical discussion. which often displays a feeling for the human side of physical discovery which is not usual in the writings of physicists. This historical discussion brings out features which are not always properly appreciated, such as the wealth of qualitative knowledge attained by Olszewski. The theoretical discussion is not detailed enough t o satisfy the physicist exclusively interested in theory, or t o he used for purposes of instruction in theoretical physics, hut is admirably done from the point of view of the general physicist who wants a clear survey of the nature of the idea-. The order of presentation is from macroscopic to rnicruscopic phenomena. Part I deals with historical matters, general descriptions of apparatus and theoretical considerations governing the production of low temperatures, and the experimental results dealing with phase equilibrium between vapor, liquid, and ~~~~
~
~
~
~
solid phases, including a discussion of rectification and the properties of binary mixtures which is not usually given. Part I1 deals with phenomena in c r y s t a l ~ a y s t a lstructures stable a t low temperatures, molecular rotation, specific heats, and Nernst's law. Part 111 deals with phenomena involving spin-orthoand para-hydrogen, paramagnetism, and magnetic phenomena in general, including magnetic cooling and the recent methods for reaching the lowest temperatures by this method. Part IV deals with phenomena involving the "free" electron--electrical and thermal conductivity and supraconductivity. The topics of supraconductivity and specific heats have perhaps not been treated with the fullness which their relative importance justifies, but this was done intentionally because they have been sufficiently treated in other places. The preface is dated December, 1935. It is unfortunate that publication in a subject in which experimental progress is now so rapid has been so long delayed; the recent exciting work on the properties of helium I1 and new properties of supraconductors came too late for inclusion. There is, however, an addendum in which the more important new references up t o May, 1937, are given. P. W. B-GMAN H a a v m UNWB~SITV Cmaamoe. Mnss&caus~ms
T n e RETARDATION o s CHBMICAL REACTIONS.Kenneth C. Bailey. Sc.D., Litt.D., F.I.C., Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin. Professor of Physical Chemistry in the University of Dublin. Longmans, Green & Co., New York City, Edward Arnold & Co., London, 1937. viii 479 pp. 29 figs. 15 X 23 cm. 58.00.
+
Why should the chemist he interested in retarding chemical reactions? Isn't it difficult enough t o promote them? So natural a response t o the &le "~etardationof Chemical Reactions" will, however, suffer considerable change when one realizes the ". .. . . loss. inconvenience. and even calamitv suffered -continually through the occurreuce of undesired rtacrions, the oxidation of matcrinls which are better unoxhliard, the corrosion of metals, the ageing of rubber, the devcloprnrnt of rancidity ~n fats, the deterioration of chemicals in thelaboratory, the knocking of fuels in internal combustion engines, the explosion of fire damp in coal minesu-to mention but a few cases considered by the author where the retardation of chemical reaction becomes the chemist's paramount problem. Despite its importance, no previous general treatment of this branch of kinetics has appeared. It therefore becomes doubly valuable to have under one cover a bibliography of 1630 original and source items dealing with retardation phenomena, together with a critical discussion of their contents. I n many of these collected references, the material relevant t o retardation hides under titles far removed from the central theme of this hook and would be extremely difficult t o locate through Chemical A bstrects. The author has wisely excluded subjects which he felt himself insufficiently equipped to treat adequately or which would have expanded the text unreasonably; retardation by intensive drying, by poisoning of intentionally introduced catalysts, by salt effects and retardation of enzyme action have been eliminated from consideration. The historical approach is followed for each topic, with less significant details relegated t o small type. The advantages of such a chronological development are particularly evident in Chapters 3 to 6. Of these, the first two contain a review of the "Oxidation of Phosphorus" and "Hydrogen-Oxygen" reactions puhlished prior t o the introduction of chain mechanisms. One is brought face t o face with the confusion existing a t that time. The succeeding chapter contains the most compact, although inclusive, summary of the concepts and mathematical consequences of "Chain Reactions" yet published. A re-examination of these same two oxidations . . . . .in the Light of the Chain Theory" follows. Presented in this contrasting fashion, i t is indeed a forceful argument for the chain theory ~
~~.
~
".
