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NEW BOOKS
have achieved an unusual simplicity and clarity of style without undue sacrifice of of accuracy. This book contains no index. ROBEBTLIVINGSTON.
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Metallography. By C . H. DESCH. Fourth edition. viii 402 pp.; 28 plates; 147 figures. London: Longmans, Green and Company, 1937. Price: $8.00. Dr. Desch haa drastically revised the third edition (1922) of his book so as to take into account many advancements in the field of metallography. Many sections have been rewritten and expanded. This has all been accomplished without sacrificing the general plan developed and tested through years of teaching. Thermal measurements and analysis, microscopical examination, experimental methods of determining metallic structures and properties, questions concerning crystalline growth, diffusion in the solid, electrolytic potential and corrosion, deformation, age-hardening, and the relations between ordered and disordered solid solutions are among the many subjects treated in the book. The book contains twenty-two chapters, twenty being on various topics in metallography and two, written by G. D. Preston, on theoretical and experimental x-rays. Numerous references to the literature are given in the footnotes. The index contains the names of more than one thousand authors. This excellent product of Dr. Desch’s scholarship and broad experience should serve well as a textbook or as a reference for scientists in both pure and applied science. H.A. MILEY. A N D S. C. Electrochemistry of Gases and Other Dielectrics. By GEORGEGLOCKLER LIND. 9t x 62 in.; 82 figures; 34 tables; xiii 469 pp. S e w Tork: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1939. Price: $6.00. Few phases of science afford more voluminous material from which to construct a general treatise than does the subject of chemical reactions in the electric discharge; nevertheless, three almost unsurmountable difficulties present themselves: (1) The physics of the electric discharge has not been fully solved. (E) Most of the reactions described in the literature have been carried out under conditions lying somewhere between the straightforward reaction and equilibrium, consequently the results are specific for experimental conditions and difficult to interpret. (S) The mechanism of reaction in the electric discharge is still a matter of conjecture. Doctors Glockler and Lind, fully realizing these difficulties, have skillfully made of them a virtue in that these very uncertainties have been used to suggest, if not to stimulate, further research. The authors have described the various proposed mechanisms for the electric discharge in gases, but they have in no way limited the continuous usefulness of their treatise by adhering to any concept that may soon become outmoded. In fact i t should be said that the subject matter is so arranged that when further facts are discovered they will serve as an extension of the text, rather than as a correction. The book is divided into three parts. Part I deals with “Typical Reactions in Various Forms of Discharge.” Here are described characteristic reactions in the glow discharge, the silent electric discharge, the corona, and the low-voltage arc. Part I1 is a comprehensive survey of “Chemical Reactions in the Electric Discharge.” Reactions involving carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, and many other elements are treated in detail. A historical approach is adopted where consistent with the subject matter. One chapter is devoted to active nitrogen. Such subjects as colloids, vitamins, insulators, lubrication, and flames are discussed. Part I11 treat8 the “Physical and Theoretical Aspects of Discharge Reactions.” The physics
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