VOL.7, No. 5
RECEN'T BOOKS
study of the content of current chemistry textbooks. One is surprised t o find that several errors which have crept into the texts have been retained by these authors. Such mistakes as designating density as a pure number, giving the weight of a molecule, and using the long ago discarded term of water of nystallizalion, are typical. Some questions are ambiguous. I n spite of these minor defects every teacher will find that merely reading the tests gives him a fair conception of what is now being taught and what learned in chemistry. The modified true-false type of question in which the student is required t o not only indicate the false statement but t o correct i t will make a special appeal t o those teachers to whom testing is something more than a measuring device. HATTIE D. F. HAUB
The Terminology of Physical Science. DUANEROLLER. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Okla., 1929. 116 pp. 14 X 22 cm. 81.W. This interesting little b w k is to the terminology of physical science as Crabb to the English language in general. The terms considered include those that are meaningless or ambiguous, those that should be discarded because better words are available, those that require precise definition because of inaccurate popular usage, and those that are so similar as t o be readily confused. Following this glossary is a list of pre6xes and s h e s and a c h a ~ t e rdevoted to the migin and meaning of the names of the chemical elements. Mistakes in pronunciation. correct spelling, and the principles of abbreviation are then considered. Terms from physics and physical chemistry receive more attention than purely chemical terms. The rules of the American Chemical Society on spelling and pronunciation might well have been included. Readers who have given little thought t o scientific terminology will be startled to
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note how many terms are like the human appendix in being vestigial inheritances from a more primitive stage of evolution. The problem of getting rid of them is made easier by directing attention t o them. Every editor or writer in the field of physics and chemistry should consider the suggestions of this little manual very carefully. Students would profit by having the distinction between similar terms brought t o their attention a t an early stage in their training. Yet the benefits that any one may acquire from stricter attention to details of this sort is not to.be had apart from risk. A young lady, just recovered from smallpox, was shunned by her friendsnot because of physical disfigurement by the disease, but because she had devoted spare moments while in quarantine to studying "Five Thousand Words Commonly Mispronounced." This gave her a sense of superiority that made her unpopular. HORACEG. DEMING UNWSRSPIY OB NBBRASKA
,LINCOLN, NBBRASB*
~ u a l i t a t i f iAnalysis. C. J. BROCKMAN, Associate Professor of Chemistry, University of Georgia. Ginn & Co., 197 pp. Boston, Mass., 1930. x Tables. 15% X 23 cm. 8.20.
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The purpose of this book is t o present a method of qualitative analysis without the use of hydrogen sulfide, and the scope of the scheme covers the cations and anions usually included in the ordinary textbooks in this field of chemistry. While the reviewer has not had occasion to try out the method so that he can compare i t with the conventional one, he finds the object of the author praiseworthy and of considerable interest. Such a departure from the beaten track has often been discussed, but so far as the reviewer knows, this is the first textbook which has seriously placed i t before the hydrogen-sulfide-gassed worker in qualitative analysis. I n discussing the objections t o the hydrogen sulfide method.
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JOURNAL OF CHItMICAL EDUCATION
the author refers to the slowness of the precipitation and to the well-known instability of moist sulfides. Thz division of the cations into groups is effected as follows: 1. Hydrochloric acid-Ag, HgA,Ph; IL Sulfuric add and alcohol-Pb, Ba, Sr, Ca; III. Potassium hydroxide and sodium peroxide-Sn, Al, Sb, Zu, Cr, As; N. Solution of precipitate from last treatment by hydrochloric and nitric acids, neutralization with ammonium carbonate and addition of ammonium hydroxide and phosphateMn, Bi, Fe, Mg; V. Cu, Hg, Co, Ni, Cd in solution as complex ammonium salts. The alkalies are tested for either in the original solution or after the removal of Group II. The grouping of the anions does not differ essentially from that of the conventional method. One notices the mention of certain reagents not in general use, such as formin, o-hydroxyquinoline, indigo suspension, a-naphthylamine, pyridine-thiocyanate, sdfanilic acid, titan yellow, uranyl acetate and benzine. The laws governing chemical changes are adequately discussed, but are not over emphasized, the point of view of the author being, apparently, that the major concern of the analytical chemist is the practical problem of analysis. From an educational standpoint the hook is stimulating because its departure from the accustomed procedure brings in the study of a rather unusual group of chemical reactions This cannot fail to quicken the interest of the real analytical chemist. Whether the suggested system of analysis be adopted or not, it certainly merits serious consideration, and as the author suggests in his preface, it will hardly appeal t o the "cook-book" chemist. An obvious criticism is the fact that no scheme of analysis can be complete or of lasting value which does not include, a t least, some of the so-called rarer elements which have in recent years become im-
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MAY,1930
portant constituents of many industrial moducts.
Organic Syntheses. Volume X. An Annual Publication of Satisfactory Methods for the Preparation of Organic Chemicals. HANST. CLARKE,Editorin-Chief, with ROGERADAMS,JAMESB. CONANT, HENRYGILMAN,C. S. MARVEL, C. R. NOLLER,FRANKC. WHITM O ~and , C. F. H. ALLEN,Secretary to the Board, McGill University, Montreal. John Wiley &.Sons, Inc.. New York 119 pp. 15 X 23 City, 1930. vii cm. $1.75.
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The volume contains the following list of thirty-one preparations. of which seven are by members of the editorial hoard:
In the appendix are later references to forty-four preparations which have appeared in preceding volumes, together with certain corrections. Each new volume is a very welcome a n d , valuable addition to the chemist's hook shelf. The present one maintains the high excellence of the series and is characterized by an increase in the number of preparations of biochemical nature; a fact to be commended since there is a need for such types of syntheses that are thus made readily available and are carefully standardized. Interesting features in this respect are the use of the pH values in the preparation of casein and the convenient biochemical method of asymmetric reduction used in the preparation of 1Propylene Glycol. F. B. D ~ m s U-RSIN OP KANSAS LAWRRNCH. KANSAS
