The book is attractively but not any too substantially bound. The page type is 10 on 12 and the problems 8 on 10 Caslan old face with antique section and side heads. The paper is good although it does not take common writing ink very well. The entire volume suffers seriously from either broken or poorly impressed type. There are numerous typographical errors throughout the book, thirty-one of which are in the index. Apparently the book is designed for all first-course college chemistry students. regardless of their previous contact with the subject in the high school. I t is organized in two parts: I. Theoretical Chemistry (162 pp.); and 11. Descriptive Chemistry (226 pp.). This twophase arrangement suggests "Work first and play afterward.'' I t is an excellent rejuvenation of a similar one used by an author in the latter part of the 19th century. Judging from the "Syllabus of Lectures" on page vi, the authors intersperse the chapten from Part I1 with those in Part I t o meet their awn needs and desires. It would seem that the authors have a keen appreciation of the enormous volume of descriptive chemistry which is often foisted on the fint-course student. With this and certain other facts (see preface) in mind they have included very little historical material and have made industrial process descriptions lextremely concise. Part I affords one of the most compact and a t the same time generally satisfactory treatises on elementary physical chemistry of any of present-day vintage I n quite a few passages, highly erroneous impressions are likely t o result from the brevity of the treatment. A few examples are: (1) "A compound is represented by a formula, made by placing side by side the symbols of its constituent elements" (p. 4); (2) from their picture of an atom (p. 6), uranium has an atomic weight of 92; (3) "The oxygen standard is more convenient since a great number of elements then have atomic
weights which are very nearly whole numbers" (p. 23); (4) "If a non-volatile (solid) solute is introduced, the molecules of the solute interfere with the escape of the solvent molecules, thereby decreasing the vapor pressure" (p. 59): (5) from the discussion of "Order of Reaction" (p. 79) the reader might infer that the number of unimolecular reactions is somewhat large; (6) on page 80, the statement is made that "Most reactions are not of this type" (irreversible), nevertheless, very few of the chemical equations in the book are written with the reversible sign. The authors have used definitiods very sparingly, a position which might be justified only for more advanced students as definitions are dangerous. It is regrettable that the spelling of sulfur throughout the book is not that used in the publications of The American Chemical Society. A few cuts of chemists, etc., would add to the human side of the volume. J. E. DAY Outline of the History of Chemistry. Nonnrs W. RAKESTRAW.Published hy the compiler, Bmwn University, Providence, R. I . Two wall charts on cloth, 83. X 149 cm. 510.00 a pair; on paper, 25.5 X 43 cm., 50 cents a pair. Slosson's aphorism to the effect that history may he compared to a chauffer's mirror on an automobile in that we look backward in order to see what is coming forward is especially applicable in the case of the history of chemistry. Professor F. J. Moore, in the preface t o his admirable little book on the subject has clearly stated the advantages of a knowledge of the work and methods of thought of our chemical forefathers. The interested student, however, wishing to go deeper into the subject, is apt t o hecome lost in the labyrinthian passages along which the science has developed, and welcomes a thread of Ariadne t o lead him through the maze. Such a
thread he finds in these charts with their flow lines, which serve to connect related subjects and persons. Marginal references t o British sovereigns and American presidents help to fix periods of time. The veni comoleteness of these charts is their sole drawback for there is so much material incorporated in them that i t is difficult a t times to follow the connection. COLINM. MACKALL
The Phase Rule and Its Applications. ALEXANDERFINDLAY,M.A., D.Sc., F.I.C., Professor of Chemistry, University of Aberdeen. Longmans, Green & Co., New York and London, 1927. 326 pp. 165 Sixth edition. xv illustrations. 21 X 14 em. $3.50 net.
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Twenty-four years ago Professor FindLay wrote, "the desire having been to explain as clearly as possible the principles underlying the Phase Rule, and to illustrate their application t o the classification and investigation of equilibria, by means of a number of cases actually studied." He expressed also his desire t o make the h w k elementary enough for the beginner while retaining such a thoroughness of treatment as to give him a really satisfactory foundation in the subject. How well he has attained his object, the use of the hook by thousands of teachers abundantly attests. One planning to give a course in "Phase Rule" instinctively thinks of "Findlay" as his text. This sixth edition will still further confirm aU users in this thought. Twenty-eight pages have been added since the fifth edition. This does not seem so much, but the real excellence of the new edition lies in the choice and arrangement of material. Many sections have been entirely rearranged and rewritten, notably the sections on oneand two-component systems, with considerable increase in utility and clarity thereby. The practical applications of the subject have been stressed more than ever. The sections on reciprocal salt pairs and salts with a common ion have been con-
siderablyexpandedandimproved. Smits' theory of allotropy and the nature of the equilibria in intensively dried systems are discussed briefly. One feels that the applications in metallor;raphy profit~. -~ and peolom might ably be expanded somewhat. Also the wisdom of dropping the chapter appearing in former editions on blast furnace equilibria is to be doubted, although real criticism along this line is unfair. One must draw the line on material t o be included somewhere. The reviewer notes with satisfaction the much more extensive discussion of the Clapeyron-Clansius equation and its application to phase transformations. I t is possible to repress mathematics too far in such a work. I n fact i t seems a pity that a really satisfactory derivation of the phase rule itself has not as yet been included. MALCOLM M. HARINO
in General Chemistry. Exercises CH-ES M. ALLEN,M.A., Head of the Department of Chemistry, Pratt Institute. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York City. Second edition. 1927. 63 pp. 20 X 26 cm. 81.75. This book consists of sixty-two experiments covering first-year chemistry. The directions are given clearly with explanations when necessary, together with the necessary precautions. The text contains an entire page of laboratory directions, which are omitted from most texts hecause they appear too obvious, with the result that the student becomes familiar with them only by the end of the term. The attention of the student is called to the things t o be observed by questions throughout the procedure, while questions of a general type appear a t the end of each experiment. The manual carefully avoids imparting information which a student can obtain for himself. The experiments in most cases are well selected, but distillation might be carried out more conveniently with a flask than a retort. The type is of good size, clear and printed an loose leaves, well secured in a
