BOOK REVIEWS
The Story of Chemistry Ceorg L o r k ~ v ~ n n n . I'hilosophirnl
hrary, Inr., Nmv York, I!1.5!I. 12 X l!) rm. $4.75.
I,i2 i i pp.
Reading this l,oolt is ik plenwrr. Lockrmnnn nritea in a sprightly manner, not often thcrasr with historians of rhemintry, and he has n sensrxof humor that rnliven~ the aork. His plraeant caiiy-going stylo is illustmtrd by tht, follonine passage: "[Priestle,y] was a fanatic of religious free-
thought who could tolerntc no idpas hesides his own. Since he was also a hrrwe and doughty fighter he could not remain for long a t peacc wit,h his surroundings. . . . Once when he managed to stay beyond that term apparently fired for him by nature, a. raging mob set fire t o tho roof over his head and he barely escaped with hi^ life. . . . Finally, having broken with one and all, he emigrated t o America in 17!24. He refused the offer of a profcssarahip a t the University of Philadelphia and spent ten years ss a farmer in the area of the sources of the Susqu* hanna. There hc died s t 71, apparently the victim of a poi~aning; but i t is by no means certain that his wild lifo ended that way." Lockemann's stabement about Priestlcy heing poisoned is onc of the oddest fahlcs in chemistry and one t h a t has heen pop.ping... nrr. in European histories for more than a century. It is a mystery who
started this myth, and it is ~ ~ ~ n a r k a b l ~ that a n otherwise careful historian would be snared hy this old t d e , particularly when there are SO many rarefully dornmentcd papars availnblr concerning PriestIcy's lifc in Amcriea. Lockemann writes from the viewpoint of x Gcrman historian. That is, he is thoroughly familiar with the hirtoq. of German chemistry. He is perhaps less familiar with the history of European chemistry, but he is hardly familiar with Bmcrican chemistry. He mentions only 25 Americans oot of the more than lClOU persons listed in thc index. Hc says pmctieally nothing about chemical iodusbry in the Unitcd States, although information on this subject has been availahlc for years in Williama Hnyner' li volume "American Chemiral Industry." 4 s a result the hook appears t o hc a bit logsided. The physical make-up of thc hook requires some comment. First, there are no illnstratinns. This will not neieh rlnduly with a rtmlcr who is already familiar with history of chcmi~try,but it may dull thc vohlmr for someone ~ h iso using t h e Imok as a n introduction t o history. Secondly, i t has no references. This may or may not bo s, drarvhaek, depending on whether the reader is rrading for pleasure or for information, and whet,her thc reader has access to other ST-orks. Finally, it has no subject i n d ~ s . Again, this may or may not be an ineonvr~nirnco, depending on t.ho purpose of t h r readcr. This book would not he witnhlc for a text, but i t wonld certainly be interrsting collateral rrading for a seriep of 1~ctnrt.son history of chemistry. Any chen~istwill enjoy it as light reading. ~
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Nouveou Trait6 de Chimis Minirole. Volume 7 (in two ports)
Edited h Paul Pascol, Sorho~~nu. Mnssan t,t Cie, Paris, 1950. Two volumev tutdling xrrix 1474 pp. 551 figures, :3G3 tables. 17.5 X 26 em. 200 KF.
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Thc division of Vnlume i of Pnsral's new treatise into t\%--o separate parts :1p pears t o have been done more ior the coovenienee oi hinding than far logical repafirtion of material. Paging is eontinuons, and a single index appears a t the end oi part two of the set. The volume is concerned with semdimn, yttrium, the rare carth clcments, and actinium, h ~ i ts r i ~ ~ i dium and yttrium are not considorrd sepxrstely irom the lanthanides hcrr, so that all hnt the lnst 60 pages may he cansidcretl t,o be a trratise on the mre earths. All material, except that on aet.inium by G. Bonis8ierer, was x r i t t ~ n joint,ly by Trombe, Loriers, (;someMahn, ;tnd La Blsnehetxis. Thosr mlthors have prndocecl an excellent piwc of a o r k on thc rnrc r a r t h ~ , pnrtieularly on mineral sourrrr, general methods of separation, chrmirnl and physical properties, and separation by ion rxchnng~. The treatment on m?t,;rl-
(Contimred on page ~4118)
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lournol o f Chemical Education
lurgy is also quite good. The histnrical section present,^ considerable information in the space allotted. The section on actinium consists of but 34 pages, and the literature search for it was conducted through 1959. Modern treatment has been given to its isotopps, nuclear properties, preparation, separation, and chemical properties. The literature searches for the rareearths were not conducted systomationlly beyond Ilecernbcr 31, 1954, in most cmes. Of the 56 bibliographic lists, only one went through 1958, five through 1057, and three through 1956, despite publication date of 1959. Despite a few such dranbacka, t,he volume ir; an excellent work and fills ~wupn+w>-i\.r. n.iwcnr.v I,rmk ;I wed ior un I I W r x w t ~ , ~ r ~ lvahsi c 1, > ~ . - c ~ . a~ n w ~ l~ ww ~t -~
Proceedings of the lntarndional Symposium in Microchemistry
Published for The Society for Analytical Chemistry, Pergamon Press, Inc., New York, 1960. xavi 583 pp. Many figs. and tables. 18 X 25.5 cm. $15.
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The Symposium on Microohemistry held a t Birmingham University in August, 1958, was attended by over 400 analytiral chemists including 110 from 25 countries outside the United Kingdom. Many of these participated in the evten~ivcdiscussion6 whirh are report,ed after most of the 60 papers in these proceedings. R. C. Chirnside's remarks on page 408 are worth quoting: "At the outset I must declare myself a heretic for I have newr been completely eonvinecd that there is such a thing as microchemistry or even micrachemicnl analysis. To what indeed does the 'miero' refer; to the chemistry, to the sample, to thc quantity of the suhstance to be determined, to the size of the apparatus, or even to the stature of the analyst? Having studied the whole programme of the Symposium I am no nearer a definition; indeed the range and variety of topics and techniques discussed are such that I am confirmed in my heresy." With t,his concession in the uae of the term "mieroehemistry," the reader will enjoy the authors' accounts of their research on nearly every analytical technique thslc can be considered "micro" in n.nv sense. Included are evaluations.
well written-ven the foreign papers have been cast in the style of the English authors. Major topics and authors are: Quditative Micro-analysis, Feik, Weleher, West, and Weisz; The Decomposition of Organic Matter, Diehl and Smith, and Pijck, et al.; Weighing, Hadsman and Corner; Classical Methods far the Determination of Elements, Groups and Physical Constants, Lieb, Schoniger, Malissa, Colson, Levy, Kirsten, Hersch, Ma, Veibel, Stephen, and Sobotko; Biochemical Methods, Adamson and Simpson, Nicholas, and Rosen; Chromatography, Crouch and Swainbank, Grand-Clement, (Continued on page A181)
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