BOOK REVIEWS ~ p e r t in s ratalysis and to those not spreializing in th? subject but interested in a quirk review of eurrent thinking in the field. PAULH. EXMETT Johns Hopkins liniacrsily Baltimore, Jlnlyinnd
Cobalt: Its Chemistry, Metallurgy ond User
Edited by Roland S. Young, Consulting Chrmical Engineer, Victoria, British Columbia. .ICS Monograph 1.0.149. Rrinhold Publishing Corp., New I'orli, 1960. vii 424 pp. Figs. and tahles. 1.53 X 23.5 cm. $15.
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Thc tremendously increased activity in chemistry during the last 15 years has madc necessary the compIct,e rewriting of much of the chemical literature, including the ACS monograph on cobnlt nhieh Dr. Young wrote in 1048. A though the 1980 volume resembles t h e earlier one in sum" mays, it,is not a reviaion, but a really new and much larger book. Many of t h e ehapten have n o eountcrpnrts in the older book; thoso t h a t do hnvc heell completely remittrn and brought up to date. I n thc writing of this volume, Dr. 1-ounk has had the assistance of sevoral specialists who have m i t t e n c h a p t m on the fields in which they are expert. The writing throughout is of uniformly high quality and, odd as it may seem for a technical book, this reviewer had trouble in laying the volume aside. The simple cobxlt(I1) salts are dealt with rather lightly, but t h e othcr mpects of the chemistry, metallurgy and uses of cohnlt are discussed in an interesting and authoritative way. The chemist who wants t o knox about the history of cohalt, t h e optical isomerism of cobalt complexes, t h e mystery of "salt sick" sheep, the 0x0 procm, thc use of cobalt-GO in the diagnosis of pernicious anemia, or the camplicated and interesting chemistry involved in the extraction of cobalt from its ores d l find the answer here. These example are but representative bits taken from ehaptrrs on the history of cobalt, its complexes, its brhnvior in biological processes, its uses in cntalysis, radioactive cobalt, and the extractive metallurgy of the metal. Other chapters are concerned with the ocourrence, properties, andsimplesalts of cobalt, its phase diagrams and alloys, its applientions in magnetic, electric and eleotronie uses, in tool steels, in cemented carbides, and in ceramics, its electrodeposition and its quantitative determination. Every chapter excites the reader's curiosity and suggcsts interesting research problems. Even t h e discussion of the simple salts, h-hichmight he thought to be too elementary to be very thought provoking, reports the amazing observation that cobalt(I1) ic+ dide exists in two isomeric forms, one af (Conlinzted on page ,4600)
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BOOK REVIEWS
colorless solution. Whether this volume is uncd as a reference, as n, source book, or t o enrich t h e teaching of chemistry, i t is stimulating and worth while, and every inorganio rhcmist should h a w nrrrsn t o it.
JOHN C. BAILAR,JR. University qf Illinois Uvbana
Russian for Scientists
C. R. Burton and H. Sheldon .lackson,
.,
IJniversitv of Manehester., Eneland. Interseirnee Publishers, Ine., New Yark, 1960. xir 2!N pp. 14.5 X 22 em. $5.25.
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I,>~ngu:~gctert,books mny be grossly r l ~ ~ s i f i einto d two c ~ t e g ~ r i e(~h. e type involves the ooncomitnnt presentntion of grammar, syntax, voeabnlsry, and reading passages in s gradual progressive manner. The other kind devotes single concentrated sections t o grammar, to syntax, to reading passages, etc. The present t,mt is of the lattcr type; it is divided into five main sections. The first seet,ion (pp. 1-80) is a n excellent :and detailed listing of the aspects of Russian gr;tmmnr particularly from the point of virw of reading Soviet scientific
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papers. I t docs, however, have thc folloaing deficiencies: (1) the Russian printed type is rather small, (2) there ore no accentuation marks for the Russian words, (3) English transliteration symbols for the Cyrillic alphabet are omitted, and ( 4 ) there is deviation from the traditional noun declension order of nominative, genptive, dat,ive, accusative, instrumental, and prepasit,ional cases. The second seetion (pp. 90-113) is a series of exercises concerned with the application of the previously learned grammatical rules. The a u t h o n claim i t is " . . . intcnded t o farm a bridge leading from the grammatical section to the annotated texts and the oontinuvus passages." Sentences are given to I>P translated from the Russian to English and from English to Russian; the correct translations are not provided. The latter exercises are each supplied with an English-Russian voesbulary section. Same am1rigoit.v may be mct here since the voenhulary meaning of each word is intended for spcritic contextual use in the English-Russian exercise. Thus, the word "reduction" is translated as "sniahenie" (p. 113); most chemists, however, would use "vosstanovlenic" as an outdf-context trsnslation for "reduotion." The third section (pp. 114-138) deals with the translation of selected annotated teehnical passages "to facilitate the step from the translation of isolated sentences to that of connected passages." FooG notes are provided with each reading t o explain vocnhulnry and to indicate the relevant part of the fimt section grammar discussion which applies. Interestingly
enough, the title of each of the passages t o he translated is in English and not in Russian. The fourth sectian (pp. 1:3200) consists of 92 short passages of teehnical writings in the fields of physics and electrical engineering, and the fifth sretion (pp. 201-249) has 75 such passages in chemistry and chemicnl engineering. Here t,he student is on his own; there are no footnotes, vocabulary, or correct translntion listings. The hook is completed by a short list of ahhreviatians (pp. 250-251), a vocxhulary sect,ion (pp. 252-296), and a n indcr (pp. 207-299). The book is well printed, adequately covered, and relatively free of errors. A typographical error appears on p. 20, and misspellings on p. 81 (bezopasnost) and p. 287 (tormoz). The common mistranslation of "tverdykh" as "heavy" instead of "solid" occurs an p. 68. The sound of soft "t" as exemplified by the pronunci* tion of tho letters "to" in the word "tube" (p. 6) is valid in Britain, but not in America. Two stpitemmts concerning the preposition "y" (pp. 81 and 135) appear contradictory. I t is the reviewer's opinion that s stodent of the scientific aspects of the Russian language should use o. gradual, progressive text as his primary source material. The present book is rpcommended as nn interesting supplementary additional text because of its concentrated grammar section and its reading passages.
