RECENT BOOKS PROELEMS ANLI EXPERIMENTSIN CHEMISTRYFOR GIRLS. (With Household Applications.) M. M.Downing and G. M. Bradbury, Lakewood High School, Lakewood (Cleveland), Ohio. With a foreword by Regina J. Friant, Department of Home Economics Education, Iowa State College. The Ohio Service Printing Co., Lorain, Ohio, 1'334. iv 169 pp. 7 figs. 21 X 27 cm. Pasteboard cover. $1.50.
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As stated by the authors, this hook is a combination brief textbook. laboratory manual. and workbook. It is intended for the higb-school girl and is designed to help her to use her chemical knowledge in her own home. The book is divided into 16 units of approximately 10 pages each-The Nature of Oxidation, Chemical Shorthand. The Chemistry of Textiles, etc. Each unit has its own separate title page on which there is a list of the problems involved, experiments, and general references, ranging in number from 5 to 10, with space Left for assignments. One wonders a t the arrangement of the references; it is neither alphabetical nor chronological and might, therefore, be assumed t o be in order of importance. Investigation of the texts to which reference is made, however, hardly bears out this assumption. The list would definitely be helpful t o an instructor using this hook hut would be much more helpful if the dates given were those of the most recent editions, and if more of the later books could be included. I t is somewhat puzzling why a book bearing a copyright date of 1934 should give as references, Food Ini~speclion and Analysis by Leach (1913), and Chemistry o j Food end Nutrition by Sherman (1919), or why in a reference list of a unit devoted t o organic chemistry not even one organic chemistry book is included, or why in a unit devoted t o the chemistry of foods, no book devoted exclusively to this subject is listed. Investigation of the text indicates that more recent material might have been included to advantage. The fact that the book is not indexed w d d be a great handicap t o any user. I n a search for "types of chemical reaction" or the "test for a sulfate." what student would suspect, on turning t o the table of contents, that the title "Hydrogen, the Lightest Substance" holds the key to the solution? Roughly speaking, one-third of the printed matter is devoted t o text material, one-third to experiments (of which there are 40) and one-third t o a combination of the title pages of the units, drill and learning exercises, appendix, and blank space. The organization is such that, in general, facts and principles are presented first followed by learning and drill 'exercises which are intended to help the student put into practice t l y t which has been learned. Such an arrangement might be expected t o assist the learning process and to make obvious the desirability of the subject matter. The factual material is very brief and the authors specifically state that the student must supplement the text with library reading. Unfortunately, in some instances, failure t o obey this injunction might result in definite misunderstanding on the part of the student. Such an arrangement, however, may serve the -commendable purpose of encouraging the student in the use of library facilities. The title page of each unit states problems which, it is t o be regretted, are largely problems from the point of view of the chemist and not of the student, e. g.. What are some important facts mnceming hydrogen? How is hydrogen used? What different types of chemical reaction are there? Even when some of the problems are considered from the point of view of the student, this point of view is frequently lost in the succeeding problems, e. g., What Three Essentials Are Needed t o Have a Fire? How Can We Prepare Pure Oxygen? Fact Outline for Oxygen. What Is Oxidation? At times there is a rather appalling failwe torelate laboratory procedure to home practice, e. g., an experiment on the Bunsen burner fails to make the obvious connection between the Bunsen burner and the gas stove which many of the girls have probably used for years; a measuring of liquids exercise-confines itself
wholly t o cc. and fails to relate cc. to the teaspoons, tablespoons, and cups with which the girl must be familiar; likewise, grams are treated as independent units in the laboratory exercise, whereas their relationship to the weight units with which the girl is alreadv . acauainted could verv e a d v be observed to advantare -at the samc time; i n series ~ of food tests on protein, compusitim and color test9 ars studid, but the much more pertinent subject (tothe girl) of cmgulation temperature is ignored. Granted that the lahoratory preparation of carbon dioxide has always been from marble and hydrochloric acid, why shouldn't a girl make and collect i t from the reaction between soda and sour milk or vinegar or even from baking powder and water? Is a girl's time being used to best advantage when she is preparing and collecting and studying hydrogen in detail? Mightn't she better collect illuminating gas from the cock and study its properties? Innumerable similar instances could be questioned. The fact appears to be that the main interest of the authors is in subject matter, with only secondary interest in the girl and her problems. This may he intentional hut seems quite unfortunate. Whereas the hook might have made a definite contribution t o household chemistry if the girl and the household had been foremost in the authors' minds, as it is. the book is one more chemistrv baok with housthuld applicationsin spite of a most thought-pruhkinr: unit on cowwtics, which should challenge the irltcrest of a n y girl, and the incorporation of a large nwnber of thought questiun~.
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Tne F U N D A ~ N T Aoa GENEEAL. ISTRY--TRY. Pewv A . Bond. -~~~ -L - S ~-~ Associate Professor of Chemistry, State University of Iowa, Iowa City. Farrar and Rinehart, Inc., New York City, 1935. x 411 pp. 68figs. 14 X 20.5cm. S . 0 0 ~
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I t is without doubt very d i c u l t t o write a thoroughly modem general chemistry text. Modern chemistry is characterized particularly hy a rapidly increasing rishnCss of its theoretical intemretations. The interaction of the& and emeriment has added tremendously to the bulk of our f3ctual knowledge; neverthrlrss, theory has certainly Lecvme of prime importance in the t u d y "fa science. Chemistry at present is by no mcnnr wholly an inductive subject. The author of the baok under review wisely recognizes this situation. He bas made an interesting and in +nsiderable part a successful effort t o present the subject in a truly modem manner, although here and there he lapses into conventional viewpoints. The k t two-fifths of the book are devoted to principles, except for short descriptive accounts of oxygen, hydrogen, and a very good introduction t o the meaning of chemical change in a chapter on typical metals. The connection of energy with chemical change, formulas, equations, and modem ideas of the composition of matter are very properly discussed in the first few pages. It is unfortunate, however, t o place a t the end of the book a subject that bas contributed as much t o modem theory as has radioactivity. The Debye-Hiickel theory is assumed in the discussion of strong electrolytes and the Brcnsted-Lowry conception of the acid-base function is ably presented. The reviewer thinks that these theories imply a more consistent use of ionic equations than has been made. The reaction that formerly was supposed t o produce ferric thiocyanate molecules is well presented as involving the equilibrium FeCls
+ 6SCN- 5 Fe(SCN); + 6C1-.
fallowing which there is given the incongruous orthodox molecular explanation (with a small unimportant modification) of the changes that occur when cupric bromide is dissolved and the solution is diluted (p. 135). Other reversions are: the chemical definition of a metal (53, 83, 125). the use of the term "polar" with respect to electrovaleuce (62), the definition of atomic
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