BOOK REVIEWS Addition of Grignard Reagents). The latter is pure organic chemistry and would have made a greater contribution if it had been published in an organic chemistry review series.
the positive ion, analytical methods, dloys, and compounds of bismuth with special emphasis on the selenides and tellurides. This volume, together with the one being prepared on phosphorus, completes the treatment of elementa of the fifth period.
J. V. D.
Massachusetls Institute of Technology Cambridge
Quantitative Analysis Gmelins Handbuch der Anorganischen Chemie. 8. Auflage, System Nummer 19, Wismut
Edited by E. H. E. Pielsch and the Gnelin Institute. Verlag Chemie, GMBH, Weinheim, Bergstrasse, 1964. lviii 806 pp. Figs.and tables. 17.5 X 25.5 cm. $163.
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This supplement volume on bismuth features a detailed discussion of the ocrmrrenoe of the element and includes sections on geochemistry, economic geogand toxicity. These raphy, mine& aspects were wvered only briefly in the bismuth volume which appeared in 1927. Other major sections, which survey the literature through 1960, deal with the preparation and manufacture of the element, isotopes, properties of the atom and ions of bismuth, phyaical properties, electmchemical behavior, chemical reaotions of the metal, chemical reactions of
A70
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Journal of Chemical Education
Paul E. Mem'lt, State University College at Potsdam, New York. D. C. Heath and Co., Boston, 1964. viii 343 pp. Figs. and tables. 16 X 24 cm. $5.95.
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This text consists of four major parts: a general introduction and technique section, volumetric analysis, gravimetric analysis, and an introduction to inatmmental methods. It contains more than thirty experiments, fully representing these sections. The chapters on principles are clearly and briefly written, and many numerical problems have been provided. The three chapters on spectropbotometry are outetandii in the section on instmmental methods of analysis. The work ea a whole presents its subject in an uncomplicated, unsophieticated lieht. I t convevs the main ideas of auantsative ohemistw without anv of thk deto tbee!T&ive w of tail which $e&tid the auhject. Perbape for a certain type of student the brevity of diacuaaion and
simplicity can be justi6ed. However, for the prospective scientist, in particular the chemietry major, this approach may he criticized for two m o m . First, it doea not give an adequate background in quantitative technique to which a student can refer at a future t h e of need. Ae examples, the following questions are not touched upon in this text: How does the normality of a solution change with temperature? How does one calibrate a pipet? What is a vacuum weight and how is it determined? What precision or accuracy can be expected of a given procedure? The discussions of the experiments are usually undocumented and too brief to serve as references. Secondly, this text offers little challenge to the student. I t does not au5ciently encourage the development of laboratory technique, the compreheasian of the detailed chemistry of the various experiments, or the me of the scientific literature. The preface to this text does not tell us to what kind of student it is directed or what is the objective of the wurse i t outlines. Theae two points are especially important in the present case, because, in the reviewer's opinion, this book is not equally well suited for all the atudents a t various levela of development who now take courses in qwntittttive adysis. It can he rewmmended only for a short course or for students with very limited objectives.
J. W. COLUT Ohw State University Colurnbvs
