Organizational Currents in Physical Chemistry Textbooks This analysis is a highly personal one by a practicing teacher of nhvsical chemistrv. " . not a skilled historian of science. No attempt has been made a t completeness or even representativeness. The texts named include only those with which I have had some direct contact or experience. Physical chemistry has been taught for about 60 years in the junior or senior year of undergraduate work. The stated nre-reauisites or co-reauisites. a vear or more of college level bhysiciand about the skme am.ou;t of calculus, have cianged htrle. The texts in the field have changed agreat deal. Much of this change mirrors the evolution ot'modeh science. Some of this chance is the result of an unhalnnced kinetic state--the introductori course in Physical Chemistry acquires new material by trickle-down from advanced areas more rapidly than it can push material into freshman year General Chemistry or sophomore year courses in Quantitative and Organic Chemistry. I think that three principal types can he discerned among physical chemistry textbooks: (1) atomistic (in which the coverage and emphasis are given first and primarily to micnwnpic systems);12) thermodynamic (in which coverageand emphnsis are given first and primarily to the behavior of macrosconic svstem): and (31 hifocal (in which an effort is made to &&re content & t h a t atomistic and thermodynamic approaches are either interwoven or leap-frog each other chapter-hy-chapter. The first widely influential texts were atomistic in their approach. One of these was Lothar Meyer's long-lived "Modern Theories of Chemistry". [Longmans, Green, London, 1865-1888. The last edition was the 4th English based on the 6th German.] Another was Walther Nernst's "Theoretical Chemistry". ["Theoretical Chemistry (from the standpoint of Avogadro's Rule and Thermodynamics)," Macmillan, London, 1895-1916. The last edition was the 6th English.] These works started with discussions of atomic theory and ended with applications of thermodyamics to chemical systems.
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P e t e r E. Yankwich University of Illinois Urbana, 61801 The long line (so long that it became the American tradition) of texts oriented first to thermodvnamin heean in 1913 with Frederick W. Getman's "outlines of Theoretical Chemistw." I1 have never seen the orieinal: its successors with which I am familiar have heen published over the years by Wilev. Farrineton Daniels was Getman's co-author between 1931snd 194$ the 1947 edition was Daniels'alone; Rohert A. Albertv was associated with Daniels in writinr the editions published between 1951 and 1975.1 ~ e t m a n - ~ a n i e l s - ~ l h e r t ~ has excited fierce loyalties; no other single work has been so influential for so long. Other hooks in this line were those by: E. B. Millard ["Physical Chemistry for Colleges," McGrawHill, New York, 1921-19461; A. A. Noyes and M. S. Sherrill ["A Course of Study in Chemical Principles," Macmillan, New York, 1922, 19381; W. H. and E. K. Rodehush ["An Introductory Course in Physical Chemistry," Van Nostrand, New York 1932,19381; W. B. Meldrum and F. T. Gucker ["Introduction to Theoretical Chemistry, American Book, Co., New York, 19361; F. H. MacDougall ["Physical Chemistry," Macmillan, New York, 1943-1952); S. Glasstone ["Textbook of Phvsical Chemistrv." Van Nostrand. New York 1940.19461: C. F. Prutton and 5: H. Maron ["~ukdamentalprinciples di Physical Chemistry," Macmillan, New York 1944-19651; W. J. Moore ["Physical Chemistry," Prentice-Hall, New York, 1950-1; W. F. Sheehan PPhvsical Chemistrv!' Allvn and ~ a c o gBoston, 19611; .and -G. W. castellan ["fhysical Chemistry," Addison-Wesley, Reading, 1964,19711. During this long period, three landmark works were published whose influence has been verygreat, though not always immediate. The first of these was Lewis and Randall ["Thermodynamics and the Free Energy of Chemical Substances," McGraw-Hill, New York, 19231; the second was the Taylor (later Taylor and Glasstone) "Treatise" ["A Treatise of Physical Chemistry," Van Nostrand, New York, 1924; 1930-31: 1942. 19511: the third was Samuel Glasstone's "~heoreiicaldhemistry" [Van Nostrand, New York, 19441. Lewis and Randall's work kept the thermodynamic approach
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to introductory physical chemistry alive for 30 years, until Moore's skillful addition of statistical topics rejuvenated it in 1950. Taylor's "Treatise" attempted a detailed and schematic statement with serious inclusions of atomistics; it was "mined" for 25 years, a t least. Glasstone's slim "Theoretical Chernistrv" broueht ~~" within the erasn - . of advanced undergraduates and summarized for graduate students the sweep of quantum chemistry, statistical mechanics, and molecular spectra. A
The first solid break-away from the thermodynamics line came in 1940 with the publication of the abbreviated first edition of Moelwyn-Hughes' text ["Physical Chemistry," Cambridee. 1940: Pereamon Press. London. 1951.19611. This work waspkposhy b$ocal. It infl"enced my teaching great deal. and I think it influenced Walter Moore's writing somewhat. But the American "translator" of the bifocal approach has heen Gordon Barrow ["Physical Chemistry," McGrawHill, New York, 1961,1967,19731, This hreak-away was extended into a genuine atomistic re-synthesis of the introductory course by G. H. Duffey ["Physical Chemistry," McGraw-Hill, New York, 19621; like many pathfinder works, this was apparently not a commercial success. Duffey's book may have been truly seminal, however.
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Witness the following sequence of texts, all entitled "Physical Chemistry": D. F. Eggen, N. W. Gregory, G. D. Halsey, Jr., and B. S. Rabinovitch [Wiley, New York, 19641;F. T. Gucker and R. L. Seifert [Norton, New York, 19661;and S. H. Maron and J. B. Lando [Macmillan, New York, 19741. As to the influence of textbooks on instruction: Quantum and statistical mechanics were slow to reach basic, trusted status in the introductory physical chemistry course, a progress which had to be led by the pervasion by these methods of the research done by people who taught physical chemistry; the "broad highway of thermodynamics" was too attractive, and for very practical reasons. Familiarity is a powerful attractant; Getman and Daniels, Moore, and the Prutton-Maron texts are examples of "national habits". Increasingly, textbooks are being written outside the major research universities; the game their faculties play no longer permits the time for such writine. As in discipGne, the stick comes into play only when the carrot is too far ahead. This maxim amlies t o the writing, the adoption, and the actual use of textbooks. There has heen a "floo-over" into text owanization based on atomistics, hut the advantages of hifocali~yshould not he forgotten: thermodynamics is not any less critical in the education of a chemist than it was a half century ago.
