NEW BOOKS Diagrammes et Surfaces thermodynamiques. By J. W. Gibbs. Scientza, No. 22. 13 X 20 c m ; pp. 86. Paris: C. N a u d , 1903. Price: a francs. This number of the Scientia series is a French translation of Gibbs's two papers, on graphical methods of thermodynamics, from the second volume of the Transactions of the Connecticut Academy. I t is prefaced by a fourteenpage introduction, a brief biographical note, and a bibliography of Gibbs's publications. The interesting and appreciative introduction, by Professor B. Brunhes, of the University of Clermont, is in the main ageometric study of the mutual relations of the energy, free energy, heat function, and thermodynamic potential surfaces. Because of the relative inaccessibility of the original papers, the little book will be of material service to students of thermodynamics everywhere. /. E. Trevov Thermodynamics and Chemistry, a non-mathematical treatise f o r chemists and students ojchemistry. B y P.Duhem. Authorized tt-andation by George K. Burgess. 15 x 23 c m ; pp. xxi+ 441. N e w York :John WileyandSons, '903. Price : bound, $4 60, net. - We take pleasure in calling attention t o the appearairce of an English translation of Duhem's beautiful little non-mathematical work on thermodynamics, written for the use of students of chemistry. Since the original edition of the book was fully reviewed in this Journal (6, 193) on its appearance, it is not necessary to examine it with detail now. Let it suffice to quote, from the author's introduction to the edition, the following passages : " I am glad, in the first place, to have my treatise rendered easily accessible to American students; one of the objects which I had in mind when writing it was to make the work of J. Willard Gibbs known and admired ; I like to think it will contribute to enhance, within your active universities, the glory of your illustrious countryn~an. ' I Furthermore, this glory is more and more resplendent every day ; more and more clearly the author of the phase law appears as the initiator of a chemical revolution ; and many do not hesitate to compare the Yale college professor to our Lavoisier. / ' Chemists had fixed upon a certain number of properties by which they recognized a substance to be a definite conipound ; these characteristics are effaced by the phase r u l e ; many substances, to which formulse had been attributed, are erased from the number of combinations ; chemical science as a whole needs a revision at which the laboratories of America and Europe are working most diligently. Nevertheless, whatever be the outcome of this revolution, it seems to me there is injustice in making the glory of Gibbs consist in this alone, by seeing in him merely the author of the phase rule. I n his imniortal work, On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances, this rule is not all ; it is but one '(
New Books theorem, and is accompanied by other propositions whose importance is not less ; the theorems on indifferent points, the laws of dissociation of perfect gases, the properties of dilute solutions, the conditions of osmotic equilibrium, the theory of the voltaic cell, bear, not less than the phase rule, the mark of the genius of their author.” . . . At the start the wholly algebraic doctrine of Gibbs did not find in the country of its creator experimentalists to transform it into chemical theory ; it first found them in Holland. From this again, it seems to me, we may learn a lesson, The full discovery of the truth requires the concurrence of all peoples, their diverse intellectual aptitudes, their different ways of conceiving an idea, of developing it, and of expressing it. I n this respect, exclusiveness would again be punished by sterility. You agree with this, for you have judged it useful to mitigate the vigorous and assertive initiative which the American universities impart to their students by the discipline of equilibrium and of proportion which French teaching imposes ; what you have tried in your own intellectual formation you wished to procure for others ; you have desired to make known to your countrymen the book in which I have tried to expose, with French neutrality, ideas coming rrom America ; I could not wish an interpreter better prepared to diffuse my thought.” J . E. Trevor Treatise on Thermodynamics. By M a x Planch. Translated by A l e x aizder 0g-g. z4 X 22 cm ;pp. xii 1272. N e w York : Longmans, Green, and Co.. ‘903. A i c e : bound, $3.00. -The popularity of Planck’s treatise on thermodynamics undoubtedly justifies the issue of this very well made English translation of it. The book begins with a discussion of the ideas of temperature, molecular weight, and quantity of heat, passes to developnient of the first and second laws of thermodynamics, and concludes with applications of the therniodynamic principles to homogeneous systems, systems in different states of aggregation, systems of any number of independent component$, gaseous systems, and dilute solutions. Despite its many admirable features, the treatment is open to several serious objections. One relates to the employment of Planck’s fundamental function, which is the Massieu-Gibbs thermodynamic potential divided by the absolute temperature and taken negatively. The properties of this function are not as siniple as are those of any one of the Gibbsian fundamental functions. Other obvious objections have been so well stated in a recent review (Nature, Dec. 31, 1903) of this work that they are reproduced here. “ The method of introducing such notions as temperature and entropy cannot be regarded as satisfactory. We find in chapter I. the usual juggling with the terms “ perfect gas ’’ and absolute temperatnre.” Thus absolute temperature is defined in 8 g by the expansion of gases, while in 2 24 these gases are shown to obey laws which are not rigorously consistent with this definition of temperature. The term “ perfect gas is introduced in a vague sort of way in this chapter, but without sufficiently definite statements being made as to what is a perfect gas and what is not. To define absolute temperature by means of a perfect gas and then define a perfect gas by means of its laws of expansion referred to absolute temperature is merely working round i n a circle. I’
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Moteover, the entropy of unit mass of a substance is defined, in the first instance, by the formula Rim log z’ const., @ cv log B applicable to the case of a perfect gas. . , . I ‘ To define a physical quantity in the first instance by means of its value in a particular case, when the definition is riot valid in the more general case, is certain to be misleading, and noamount of subsequent discussion, such as Prof. Planck admittedly gives, can set matters right.” Apart from objections of this sort, the author’s work has been uncommonly well done. I t is the plan of the treatment, rather than the execution in detail, that arouses criticism. J . E. Trevor
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Physical Chemistry for Physicians and Biologists. By Brnst Cohm. Authorized Translation from the German 4y Martin H. Fischer. 13 X z9 cvn; pp. viii 4-34?. New York: Henry Hold and Company, rgo3.-This book having been appreciatively noticed at length in this Journal ( 5 , 6 5 7 ) on its first appearance, there remains now only to chronicle with pleasure the appearance of an English translation of it. The version reads smoothly, and has evidently been prepared with care. An iinfortunate oversight is the omission of a table of contents. Suitable indices are, however, not lacking J . E. Trevor
A Text-book of Organic Chemistry. Ry A. F. Hollewan. Translated by A . Jamieson Walker, assisfed by Owen E. Moll’, wzfh fhe co-operation of the author. 15 % 23 cin; pp. xvii+555. N e w York : John Wiley and Sons, 1903. Price: bound, $2.50. - Those who are familiar with Prof. Holleman’s excellent text-book of inorganic chemistry will have no reason to be disdppointed in the present, companion volume, for the text of this work shows the same broad and thorough knowledge as the former, and the same desire to infuse into this study something of a modern feeling. The opening chapters deal with such subjects as analytical methods, molecular weight determinations, separation by distillation, - including a brief discussion of the vapor pressures of liquid mixtures, -determinations of boiling-point, melting-point, etc., passing on then to the consideration of the different classes of saturated compounds, -hydrocarbons, alcohols, (iiitroducing stereoisomerism with the amyl alcohols), alkyl monohalides, esters, ethers, sulphur compounds, nitrogen compounds, on to acids, aldehydes, and ketones. Then follow the unsaturated compounds of the fatty series, and their derivatives ; then ‘ I compounds containing more than one substituting group ”, alkyl polyhalides, polyhydric alcohols ; then polybasic acids, including an excellent treatment of the isomerism of fumaric and maleic acids. The subject of tautomerism, the oxonium compounds derived from di-methylpyrone, urea, uric acid, all these and many other topics come in later for clear, though brief consideration, and this part of the work ends with a chapter on the polymethylene derivatives. The second part is given up to the aromatic series, and benzene and its derivatives are there treated in somewhat the same order that is observed in the first part. A final section deals with the albumins.
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In a work so good as this it is no pleasure to call attention to small faults, yet the nse of ba on p. 37 and elsewhere as signifying gBa in an equation shall not go unnoticed ; and there are here and thereslight misprints. A s a whole, the book can be commended in the highest terms, and the translators are to be congratulated on having rendered it into very readable English. The print is plain if not fine. A . P.Saunders Light Waves and their Uses. By A . A. Michelson. The Decennial Publicalions oj’ the University of Chicago, Second Srries, Volume 111. 15 X 22 cm ; p p 166. Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, ‘903. Price: bound, $1.50, net.- This book reproduces a course of lectures delivered before the Lowell Institute in 1899. After a general discussion of waves, i n which it is shown that their most important characteristic is their ability to produce interference phenomena, the lectures deal with the employment of interference in the production of a natural standard of length, in the analysis of the vibrations emitted by a source of light, and in the measurement of very small distances and angles. Being a first-hand account of Michelson’s own researches, and presented in a form adapted to a general audience, it will not fail to fascinate anyone who is at all interested in physical science. J. E. Trevor Introduction to the Rarer Elements. By Philip E. Browning. 15 x 23 cm ; Soits ; Loizdon: Chapman and Hall, 1903. Price : cloth, $1.50, net. - The author discusses each of‘ the rarer elements in detail, giving consideration to the discovery, occurrence, extraction, preparation, and properties of the several substances. A list of typical compounds and their leading characteristics, together with a description of the best methods for the determination and separation of the rarer elements, and a list of laboratory experiments to be performed with each group are also included. The author is to be congratulated upon the clear and interesting manner in which he has presented this most complex subject. The book will form a very useful and valuable guide to those who are interested in this branch of inorganic chemistry and to such analysts as have to deal with the separation atld determination of these elements. It is to be regretted that the details under some of the methods for the separation and purification of the rarer elements are so meagre, and it is to be hoped that in a second editiori these may be considerably expanded. A few inaccuracies have crept into the first edition. Thus, on page 33, it is stated that cerous salts may be oxidized by means of hydrogen dioxide, Under suitable conditions this substance is also one of the most efficient reducing agents for changing ceric salts to cerous conipounds. In the same paragraph it it is stated that solutions of pure cerium salts give no absorption spectra. The word spectra should be “ bands.” On page 35 the substance KN, is called potassium nitride, a name that properly applies to the compound, K,N. On page 40 it is stated that didymium niay be separated into praseodymium and neodymium by the fractional crystallization of the double ammonium nitrates, whereas it is almost impossible to effect this separation if only these two elements are present. On page 42 the precipitate of cerium obtained by the addi-
pp. viii - 157. New York :John Wiley and
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tion of ammonium hydroxide and hydrogen dioxide is said to be of an orangeyellow color. On the contrary, this substance resembles ferric hydroxide very closely. Under the directions given for the extraction of thorium from monazite, we are told that thorium oxalate, after solution in ammonium oxalate, is separated by cooling the solution, filtering, and adding hpdrochloric acid to the filtrate. Rut unless the solution is also diluted before filtration, some of the oxalates of the other rare earths will remain in the solution and be precipitated with the thorium oxalate. Among the omissions in the work might be mentioned the method of Muthmann for the separation of cerium, and that of Staudenmeier for the separation of tellurium and the preparation of pure telluric acid. These points, however, are of but minor importance and do not seriously itnpair the value of this most useful and interesting work. L . M. Dennis Quantitative Chemical Analysis. By C. Remigius Fresenius. Authorized Translation of the Greatly A m p l i j e d and Revised S i x t h German Edition, by Alfred I. Cohn. z5 X 23 cm. Vol. I,p$. xii 780; Vol. IL,p p . xxii ~255. N e w York :John Wiley and Sons, (904. Price : both volumes, $r2.50. -Everybody knows the work of the deceased master analyst. Analytical methods keep pace with chemical thought. The latter surges these days and is ever dependent upon the former. The users of the fifth edition soon learned the need of inter-leaving. The author incorporated such in the sixth edition. Two thoughts came to the reviewer. First, when are books of this character t o be made according to the separate sheet system? Second, science is lauded as knowing no national limitations, when are we to remove the linguistic boundary lines ? Utopian perhaps, for an American, the dream of an uniform language when we haven’t even an uniform system of measurement ! The rendering of this standard text has been doubly well done by the translator, inasmuch as he omitted some of the antiquated methods and incorporated some of the more modern ones. W e rather incline to the opinion it would have been well to use the blue pencil even more rigorously, vide, the old charcoal trough of Liebig for heating tubes. Unfortunately some of the late approved methods and apparatus are not given, as the Shimer crucible for carbon, electric heating oven, ammonium persulphate determination of manganese, estimation of chromium by sodium dioxide fusion, and so 011. Yet Gooch’s revolvi n g cathode apparatus for copper is seen. The translator recalculated all the values in the original book on the basis of the table of atomic weights reported in 1902. The excellent methods of the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists and Hillebrand’s elegant ‘ I Principles of Rock Analysis ” are bodily reprinted as two appendices. This Journal limits the reviewer. Perhaps it is just as well, for some of these matters are of opinion. Also, perhaps a sufficiently liberal discount is allowed the purchaser in view of the fact that one-teiith of the two volumes may be had for the asking at Washington. The typography is good on the whole. One does not expect blemishes in a big work like this, and dislikes meeting with even the few errors. The elegance of the book is injured by some sixteen pages of advertising matter in the rear. Each volume has a useful index. Chas. Basterville
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Elementary Chemistry. By Robert Hart Bradbury. r# X 20 c i w ; flp. xii t; 329 N e w York : D. A$pZeton a d Company, ‘903. -The headings of the earlier chapters of this book, taken in order, are :-Water ; Solution ; Physical and chemical change ; Mixture - Element - Compound ; Hydrogen ; Oxygen and hydrogen peroxide ; Conibustion ; Naming chemical compounds Chemical symbols and equations -Different kinds of chemical change ; Salt and sodium ; Chlorine ; The chlorides- Compounds of chlorine containlng oxygen ; The atomic theory - The law of multiple proportions ; The atmosphere -Nitrogen ; Compounds of nitrogen and hydrogen ; Compounds containing nitrogen and oxygen ; Atomic and moleciilar weights --hvogadro’s lam- ; Acids, bases, and salts- Electrolytic dissociation -Metals and nonmetals. This hrings tis to page 135, and from this point onwards the author considers the elements by groups, beginning with the sodium group and passing on to a consideration of all the comnioner elements, but without introducing the periodic system until the second last chapter. I t has seemed worth while to give the arrangement of the text thus fully because in this respect the work offers something new in the treatment of the subject. It represents an attempt to arrange the material i n a more rational and more natural sequence than the conventional one, and the result should be a lessening in the difficulties which beset the student in the first few%onths of chemical study. The reviewer has for years followed a somewhat similar plan, aud believes that it has advantages over the older one in which the student was introduced at once to something entirely unfamiliar, - either hydrogen or oxygen, -and was only afterwards led on to the study of so familiar a substance as water. It may well be questioned whether there is an advantage in putting off the consideration of Avogadro’s hypothesis (here called Avogadro’s law) so long as Dr. Bradbury does ; or in setting the atomic theory before the law of multiple proportions ; or in postponing the periodic system to the end of the book, and thus depriving the studeiit of one of the best aids towards getting a general grasp of the subject. In fact there is much in the order of presentation, especially in the theoretical chapters, that invites discussion ; so that the strength and weakness of the book alike may be found to lie in its arrangement of material. I n the selection of material as well the author has broken away somewhat from convention, and there is much matter here that fails to find a place even in larger texts; but while this has the advantage of adding variety and interest to the pages, it must be admitted that one often has the impression that this variety is gained a t the cost of a thorough development of the more important lines of the subject ; the chapters touch on too many different topics ; they are at the same time too complete and too incomplete. Taking it all in all, however, the book is much more of acontribution than most elementary texts, and it is commended to the attention of all who teach elementary chemistry ; it is sure to he suggestive, if not alnTays convincing, A.P.Saunders Elementary Chemistry : Part 11, Experimental Work. B y Robert Hart Rradbury. ‘4 x 20 cm;pp. viii f 155. N e w York : D.ilppleton and Company, r903. -The experiments included in this volume follow the same lines as the text noticed above. The directions are carefully worked out, and are evidently the result of laboratory experience and not merely written in the author’s
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study. The print of both volumes is very clear, and while the text is not free from errors, the reviewer has not noticed any important misprints. A. P.SaunderJ Das Weltgesetz des kleinsten Kraftaufwandes in den Reichen der Natur. I. Rand; In der Mathematit, Physik, una’ Chemie. By Gustav Portig. 15 X 23cm; pp. xii ~ 3 3 2 . Stuttgart; Max Kielmann, 190.3, Price : 8 marks. Die Grundziige der monistischen und dualistischen Weltanschauung, unter Bericcksichtigung des neuesten Standes der Naturwissenschaf t . By Gu rtav Portig. 4’5 X 23 cm ;pp. zx f ‘05. Stuttgart : Max Kielmann, ‘904. Price : paper, 2 ;bound, 3 marks. Of these two books, written by a professional philosopher, the first is an endeavor to trace in mathematics, in physics, and in chemistry, the rBle of the inductively established principle that always and everywhere the greatest effect is associated with a minimum employment of force, The second, announced as a separately printed portion of the second volume of the treatise, is intended to serve as an introduction to the whole. The author states that his work is an attempt to develop a philosophy to which the results of mathematics, physics, and chemistry lead, and that it is better that a philosopher should furnish this service of natural science than that a scientist should arouse the J. E. 7revor appearance of too great a claim upon fame.” Die Energie und ihre Formen. By A . Heyenstein. 15 X 23 cm ;pp. iv 15’. Leipzig und Wien : Franz Deuticke, 1903. Price ;$aper, 4.20 marks. -This is a long critical essay, the purpose of which is stated to be to assign to their proper places the axioms that support the existence of our material world. The present study is concerned with the (‘ axiom of the conservation of energy.” Subsequent publications are to deal with the axiom of the conservation of masses, and the axiom of the conservation of space.” -1.E. Trevor Zur Atombewegung, Kritik und Neues. By Johannes Hundhausen. 13 X rg cm; pp. 5 4 . Leipzig: Johann Ambrosius Rarth, ~ 9 0 3 . Price: paper, z.20 marks. - I t is not vefy easy to see what this brochure is about. I t may be that the author’s difficulty and his solution of it are expressed by the following passages : I ‘ The science of the present time does not possess a general unitary principle for the explanation of all motion-processes.” “Since form kppears as resistance to motion, through which it itself has initially been produced, it must have a corresponding reaction upon this motion which leads it [the motion ?] to the formation of like or similar forms.” These sentences may give the author’s leading idea ; the present writer J . E. Trevor hopes that they do. Annuaire pour 1’An 1904. Publit! p a r le Bureau des Longitudes. i o x z5 cm. Paris : Gauthier- Villars. Price : paper, z.50 francs. -The Annuaire of the Bureau of Longitudes for 1904contains over seven hundred pages of its usual tabulations of astronomical, physical, and chetnical data. The special features of the issue are a note, by M. Bouquet de la Grye, on the international geodesic conference held at Copenhagen in August, 1903,and a11 article by M. P. Hatt, giving an elementary explanation of the tides. 1.E. Trevor
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