scholarly hut readable volume in Reidel's new "Chemists and Chemistry" series is the first hook-length biography t o chart the life and work of Boussingault (1802-1887). Evolving from a Ph. D. (London) thesis and based on primary and secondary sources obtained from twenty-five libraries and archives located in four different countries, i t is intended t o "lead to a greater understanding and appreciation of the multifarious interests of one whose aloofness fitted him for the life of a cloistered academic, yet experiencing mare than the usual share of adventure." The neglect of Boussingault, who, incidentally, was married t o Marie SalomB Alexandrine Adele LeBel, paternal aunt of Joseph Achille LeBel of stereochemistry fame, is due t o several factors. In mid-nineteenth-century agriculture, the pioneering research of Boussingault, Persoz, Kuhlmann, and Ville in France, Thaer and Sprengel in Germany, and Lawes and Gilbert in England was eclipsed by the more popular, didactic, and polemical work of Justus von Liehig. The emphasis in French chemistry a t that time was on structural organic chemistry, which may also account for Boussingault's comparative and unjustified neglect in the history of science-a neglect which McCosh's hiography seeks to remedy. Undeterred by the lack of a university education (He attended the Ec6le des Mines a t Saint-Etienne near Lyon), Boussingault was basically a shy man whose introversion may have contributed to his incapacity to learn a foreign language despite more than a decade of geological and meteorological research in South America (1822-1832), whieh earned him recognition as a scientist and election t o the AcadBmie des Sciences (1839). During his travels he developed the polymath tendency characteristic throughout his life, and the 45 papers that he published during these formative years were devoted togeology, mining, mineralogy, chemistry, medicine, meteorology, and vulcanology. He recommended that iodized salt be used for Andean goiter sufferers, and he made numerous observations on malaria, which he had contracted. His travels had been recommended by Alexander von Humboldt, and just as Humholdt, who, like Boussingault, had been trained as a scientist a t a mining school, made a life study of geophysics, for whieh he had never been trained, so did Boussingault devote much of his long life toagricultural science, for which he too had never been trained. On returning to France, Boussingault devoted the years 1836 t o 1848 to animal and crop husbandry. In 183fi he established the first agricultural research station a t his farm, Bechelbronn, in Alsace, where he made the first complete analysis of crops in rotation. The years 1849-51 were devoted largely to political affairs. (He was elected to the AssembiCe Nationale in 1848and to the Conseil d'etat in 1849.) From 1852 to 1859 heagain took up his agricultural work, dealing with problems of sail fertility, crop rotation, plant and soil fixation and assimilation of nitrogen, plant nutrients, animal nutrition, and forage crops. He devoted the years 1860 to 1883 t o the metallurgy of iron and steel, photosynthesis, and soil nitrification. In his well balanced study MeCash not only discusses Boussingault's triumphs but also points out his professional weaknesses-his tendency t o ignore contemporary and past work, his inability to construct conjectural
models despite his tendency t o seek analoeies. and his "ooen mind" attitude or refusal " to make any possible inferences until his experiments were concluded. The book is replete with syllabuses of Boussingault's lectures a t the Conservatoire des Arts et MBtiers, detailed notes for the Introduction and subsequent sixteen chapters, a complete list of Boussingault's scientific papers ( e 3 5 0 in all) and 17 hooks, a list of archival documentary material (4 pp.) and works consulted (7 pp.), and nime (4 pp.) and subject (4 pp.) indexes. This highly recommended volume, of particular interest to persons involved in agricultural chemistry, metallurgy, applied chemistry, history of science, and 19th-century French history as well as to the general reader, should serve t o acquaint this readership with the life, work, and times of a remarkably prolific but sorely neglected seientist. George B. Kauffman Califwnia State University. Fresno
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Fresna, CA 93740
Modern Inorganic Chemistry William L. Jolly. McGraw-Hill, Inc., New York. NY. 1984. xiv 610 pp. Figs. and tables. 16.5 X 24 cm.
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The past two years have pnmidrd professors of inorganic chemistry with what must certainly he a record number of new upperlevel inorganic chemistry textbooks for examination. This latest arrival, William L. Jollv's "Modern Inoreanic Chemistrv." " -. is..in the words of the author's nrefaca. n erentiv ..,---.~expanded and updated version of his 19% text, "The Principles of Inorganic Chemistry." But Jolly's earlier text was a slender volume, some 375 pages, and this new one remains a text of manageahle size. Indeed, it is almost exactly one-half the size (when number of pages and page size are taken into account) of the third edition of Huheey, the text against which all other inorganic texts seem t o he measured nowadays. Despite the hook'ssize, noimportant topics have been neglected. Jolly's style is concise while retaining the clarity of explanation necessary for a good undergraduate text. There were few places where I felt that a fuller exolanation was needed. Jolly, a well-known inorganic experimentalist and author of textbooks of inorganic synthesis, has provided a strong component of theory. The text begins, as usual, with a review of fundamentals such as atomic quantum theory, nicely condensed into 20 pages. There is a fuller development of several "theoretical chemisttv" h i e s than is usuallv seen: the~LCAO-MO ~. method ~~~-~~~ .(, 5 nn.). ~, -.. llurkel theury, hoth 5implr and txtenrlnl, \I, LIP.)m d 5CF m e t h d i 15pp.1 A slim section introduces the basic ideas of orbital symmetry (no longer an arcane suhject in sophomore organic chemistry texts) and applies them t o some simple reactions, in a chapter on gasphase kinetics. I felt that the chapter on acid-base reactions was particularly good, incorporating much descriptive chemistry, although the concept of t h e levelling effect of solvents was not made explicit. The Pearson HSAB and ~~~~~~~~
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are nicelv Draeo-Wavland E & C anoroaches ~" . combined. The author often points out the practical application of the chemistry described (and even some potential applications), a feature which will he welcomed by those who wage the battle t o keep descriptive chemistry in the science. For example, the chapter on semiranduetors concludes with a brief descrintion of the chemistry of photography and a mention of xerography. The Latter half of the text is devoted to transition metal chemistry. Crystal field theory receives a cursory treatment (3 pp.!), MO theory a much fuller one. Granted, MO theory is the more powerful, hut, in my opinion, n y ~ t afield l theory still has value for an introductory-level course. T h e treatment of transition metal chemistry concludes with chapters on homogeneous catalysis, heterogeneous catalysis, and hioinorganic chemistry. The chapter on heterogeneous catalysis has an excellent section on surface chemistry, in which the importance of surface adsorption in catalysis and in determining reaction products is emphasized. Here, as elsewhere, the author introduces less-familiar experimental techniques (in this case X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and LEED). The material on structures of solids (octahedral and tetrahedral sites, etc.), introduced earlier, is put t o good use. The bdok is illustrated with a large number of tables and figures and several appendices. I t is virtually free of typographical errors. A formula index is a welcome addition. This book provides a good coverage of the suhject matter of inorganic chemistry, organized in a more or less traditional manner. I t should he considered by anyone looking far a text of a size suitable for a one-semester course. E. J. Billo Boston College Chestnut Hill, MA 02167
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Equilibrium Thermodynamics, Third Edition C. J. Adkins, Cambridge University Press, New York. NY. 1984. xiii 285 pp. Figs. and tables. 15.5 X 23.5 cm. $39.50.
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Although this textbook is in its third edition, i t has never been reviewed in this Journal for an understandable reason; by the author's design, i t is for the "undergraduate physicist; but it is also suitable for use in the material sciences, engineering and chemistrv." With its emnhasis on the concerns of piwit..+and engineering, lhe hook isnot likely to Ire suiuthlr as a texthook in a traditimnl undergraduate course in chern~ralthermodynamics. This does not mean, however, that the hook should he ignored by chemical educators. C. J. Adkins has written a little gem of a hook on thermodvnamlcs ~~. usins..an aooroach that is clacaical and without any e x t r d e d diwussion
