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NEW BOOKS
Pour Comprendre la Chimie Moderne. By E. CATTELAIN.18 X 11 cm.; 254 pp. Paris: G. Doin & Cie., 1933. Price:. 15 francs. There are some who will condemn this book merely because the theory of atomic structure is introduced on p. 24, whereas no mention of a buret is made until p. 150. In a book of this type addressed to the layman there is, however, something to be said for using this theory as a framework into which the facts of chemistry may be fitted, in spite of the obvious risk that the stability of the whole structure may be thought to depend on this framework. Granting this, certain features of the arrangement of the subject matter may prove useful to teachers who have to “explain” modern chemistry to those who have not had an experimental initiation into the science. On the other hand, the book should not be put into the hands of the novice who might aspire to become a serious student of Chemistry. Apart from acquiring strange ideas about the scope of organic chemistry (p. 17) and regarding the structure of an “unionised molecule” of sodium chloride (p. 236), he would be completely confused in his attempt to understand the explanation of how the volumes of gases participating in a reaction are shown by the chemical equation (p. 73), since the author habitually writes the formulas of hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen as if their molecules were monatomic. H. J. T. ELLIXGHAM. Theorie der Oberlachenerscheinungen. Edited by A. R . RABINOWITSCH, N. A. BACK Charkom, Russia: Technischer Staatsverlag, 1933. and A. G. PASSYNSKI. During September 20-24, 1932, a symposium on “The Properties of Surfaces” was held a t MOSCOW, Russia, under the auspices of the “Assoziation Physikalisch-Chemischer Forschungs-Institute im Karpow-Institut fur physikalische Chemie, Moskau.” The papers presented a t this symposium appear in Band 4, Heft 2, pp. 139-432 (1933), of the “Physikalische Zeitschrift der Sowjetunion.” All papers appear in either German or English. This Symposium may be regarded as more or less analogous to the Colloid Symposiums which have been held annually for the past ten years in the United States. The following twenty-three papers, all dealing with problems of surface chemistry or surface physics, are included in the monograph: M. Polanyi. Adsorption und Kapillarkondensation. M. Dubinin. Kapillarkondensation von Dampfen an porosen Sorbenten. M. 0. Charmadarjan und W. K . Markow. Einfluss der Reaktion des Mediums im Moment der Koagulation suf die Struktur des Silikagels. I. F. P. Bowden. On the Range of Surface Forces. R. Burstein, P. Lewin und S. Petrow. Aktivierte Adsorption von Gasen an Kohle. P. I. Lukirsky. c b e r die Austrittsarbeit der Elektronen und die photoelektrischen Eigenschaften der Metalle. A. Frumkin. Ionenadsorption an Metallen und Kohle. E. Lange. uber die Natur der Quecksilbert’ropfelektrode. B. P. Nikolski. Die Eigenschaften der Doppelschicht und die Austauschadsorption von Ionen an nichtmetallischen Oberflachen. L. Lepin. Die Oberflachenoxyde der Kohle und die Adsorption yon Elektrolyten. H. R. Kruyt. Kapillar-elektrische Untersuchungen an Silberhalogeniden. A. J. Rabinowitsch. Adsorption der Elektrolyte und {-Potential. L. W. Janssen. Der Aufbau der elektrischen Doppelschicht. M. 0. Charmadarjan und B. I. Perwuschin. u b e r einige Erscheinungen bei der Bewegung einer der Elektroden im Elektrolyten und iiber das elektrokinetische Potential.
