CHEMISTRY IN ACTION
George M. Rowlins, Professor of Chemistry, Austin Peay State College, Clarksville. Tennessee, and Alden H. Struble, late teacher of Chemistry, Western High School, Washington, D. C. Third edition. D. C. Heath 8 Co., Boston, Massachusetts, 1956. viii 591 pp. Many figs. and tables. 17 X 24 cm. $4.40.
+
LIKE the earlier editions, this new "Chemistry in Action" ia an attractive book, with an easy-to-read print, a double colnmn format, and generous margins. I t is p~.ofusely illustrated; practically every page carries photographs or simple tcaehing diagrams or both. The liberal use of color is montioned by the publisher8 as a teaching device. While it certainly gives point to many of the drawings in which it is used, the appearance of something in red on every page soon gets to he an old story, and the impact which its more sparing use would have given is somewhat last. The text is divided into nine units, with 47 subdivision chapters. At the end of each chapter is a. summary in the form of two groups of questions: the first designed as a review of the rhspter, the second to test the ability to apply the material to new situat,ions. Similarly, a group of questions sommariees each unit and is follon.ed by a list of topics or projects for furthel. sturly. A fine feature of the earlier editions, a You Will Like to Read list, has been retained. The appendix contains more than the usual amount of useful information Most valuable is an annotated list of films, including information about where they may be obtained. Supplementary material includes a Teacher's Handbook, a laboratory manual, with a teacher's key, two sets of tests of equal difficulty with accompanying keys. The longest unit is The Wonder Element Cmbon, the best material and writing in the book. The photographs are excellent; the well-selected subject matter is presented in an appealing manner. Here is the anewer to a lang-felt need on the part of those teachers who wish to put more emphasis on organic chemistry. The revision introduces "many modern chemical developments" and presents concepts in a modern manner. Thus, the acidity of an aluminum sulfate sohltion is attributed to AI(0H) +=andto Al(OH):+ and not to aluminum hydroxide, and the alkalinity of a aolution of sodium carbonate to HCOJ- and not to carbonic acid. In discussing acids, however, the authors speak of the hydronium ion, give an equation for its formation, and then say that far the sake of simplicity they will use H+ to indieate the hydronium ion. Thereafter H + appears until, 186 pages later, an eqnittion is given for the ianization of hydrochloric arid whieh shows the formation of the hydronium ion. VOLUME 34, NO. 1, JULY, 1951
Such treatment cannot help being confusing to the student. If he can master A1(OH)+Z and AI(OH)%+he is equally capable of managing HaO+. The thing whieh really disturbs me about the book is that a good text has shoved the periodio classification of the elements toward the rear cover, making it more or less of an extra t o be learned rather than giving i t its proper place aa an invaluable tool to be used throughout the entire year. Atomic stnlcture is introduced and used without benefit of the Periodic Chart. This sequence of subject matter leaves the student with the impression that the atomic theory is the fact, and that on it we base the periodicity of the e!ements, an unfortunate reversal of the real situation. But, after all, the proof of any pudding is in the eating. In my own school "Chemistry in Action" has been in use this year. In the hands of an inexperienced teacher with a class of only average ability (a8 distinct from our "honors" section) the work has been successful. I have sat in on z good many sessions, and I am constantly amazed a t the good, hard, "unwatered-down" chemistrv n h k h is being taught. Much of this I attribute to the clarity of presentation and "teschability" of the text. What more can one say? DOROTHY W. GIFFORD LINCOGA8 ~ ~ 0 0 ~ PROVIDENCE. RRODEIBL*ND
ELEMENTARY QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS Morris F. Stubbs, Professor of Chemistry, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, and W. Norton Jones, Jr., Professor of Chemistry, McMurry College. William C. Brown Co., Dubuque, Iowa, 1956. v 110 pp. 5 figs. 22 X 28 cm. Paper bound. $2.
+
HEREin one volume is both a laboratory manual and a workbook for students studying equilibria in chemical reactions. The principal difference between it and other qnslitative analysis laboratory manuals is that the student is directed to set up a scheme of analysis and separation after running preliminary tests for individual ions. This is noteworthy for those who have some opportunity and method for screening students. I t is doubtful, however, whether the first-year, run-ofthe-mill student in most of our colleges is capable of determining a scheme of analysis and separation without individual guidance. The authors state in the preface that interferences will not be considered. The preliminary tests that are given show adequately the properties of the individual ions. The ~ t u d e n tshould be made aware, however, that interferences affect
the separations and identification, and it might be pointed out that the scheme will fail, should certain ions be present. To give one example, in the ammonium hydroxide group, if both F e t b a d Ali" are present in s. sample, the seheme developed for their separation and identification will fail. The learning and teaching process would have been enhanced had the book used chemical formulas following the word formula in the discussion of the preliminary tests. MAUD B. PURDY LOUISIANA STATEUNIYERBXTY B*TONRonae. L o m e l * ~ *
QUANTITATIVE CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
Robert B. Fischer, Associate Professor of Chemistry, Indiana University. W. B. Saunders Co., Philadelphia and London, 1956. vii 40 pp. 9 1 figs. 16 X 24 cm. $5.50.
+
INTHE preface the author calls this book the "successor" to the earlier work of the same name (1949) by Clark, Nash, and Fischer. The term is well chosen since the new book differs from the old in form and content to a greater degree than is perhaps implied by the term "revision." The page size is larger, the type is more legible, and the general format and appearance of the book are a distinct improvement over the previous one. In scope there is little change, but Professor Fischer has improved the organization of tho older text. The new text is leas diffuse than the earlier one. Principles applicable to a particular type of analysis are more concisely treated in a single chapter and more clearly correlated with the descriptions of laboratory procedures. Same features of the book of interest to the teacher should be mentioned. The unit operations approach to technique is effectively used in the Introduction and in the first chapter of each of the main sections of the book which are in order: Grevimetric Methods, Volumetric Methods, and Optical and Electrical Methods. I t will be noted that Gravimetric Methods are given first. The treatment of the individual sections is such, however, that m y order of prcsentation may be followed without loss of continuity. In general the order of presentation of each field of analysis is unit operations, calculations, laboratory methods, and finally theory. An exception is made, however, in the case of redox methods where theory precedes the laboratory methods. AR is 80 frequently the case in textbooks of elementary analytical chemistry, the final secbion on Opticaland Electrical Methods seems to be an afterthought with little correlation with the older procedures. I t would seem that potentiometrie titrstions could well be a
apparently is not the case. To this reviewer the outstanding character of this hook is its conciseness and clarity. I t is an excellent book for the first course for the average student. I t must he stated, however, that there is little of the new or novel in its presentation or content. Perhaps it is too much t o expect that a text should attempt t o interest, to inspire, even to entertain the eager student. If one is looking for this character in a text, the book in question is not the one. I t is a. utilitarian text, and on that basis a good one. LEWIS G. BASSETT INBT~TDTE R E N B B ~ APOLTT~CHNIC ER Tnor, New Yon=
STATISTICAL MECHANICS: PRINCIPLES AND SELECTED APPLICATIONS Terrell L. Hill, Naval Medical Research Institute, Bethesda, Maryland. McGraw. Hill Book Co., Inc., New York, 1956. xiii 432 pp. 72 figs. 18 tables. 15.5 X 23.5 cm. 59.
+
T ~ primary E aim of this book is to provide a detailed aceaunt of s selected group of recent developments in statistical mechanics. The topics, although limited, have been well chosen and in general the material does not duplicate that covered in earlier works by Fowler, Tolman, Fowler and Guggenheim, and Mayer and Mayer or in the recent book by Hirschfelder, Curtiss, and Bird. Far the chemist and physicist whose research interests require s. knowledge of the major results in the theories of cooperative phenomena, liquids, and liquid solutions during the past twenty years, Dr. Hill's hook offers a unique and comprehensive presentation of these topics. As a research reference it should be extremely valuable since the concepts discussed are fundamental to the whole modern structure of equilibrium statistical mechmics. The author has also included three hope that the volume may prove useful as a. text for a second course in statistical mechanics. However, despite the funds, mental nature of the material presented it is doubtful that this book will be extensively used as atext. I n the first plece, the brevity of some of the presentation gives rise to an extremely high density of pure formalinm. This is true in the chapters on applications as well as in the introductory m&terid. Secondly, the extensive cross referencing of equations and the involved natation which the subject matter inherently demands makes this a difficult book for even the advanced graduate student. Finally, the use of a generalized ensemble by the author will probably prove to be controversial. The subtle diiculties which arise in this case, when one tries t o use only intensive properties as independent variables, outweigh whatever didactic value this general presentation offers. While the emphasis of the hook is on the formalism there are several illuminating
and clarifying discussions, notably in Chapter I on the ensemble concept and in Chapter 6 and Appendix 9 on firsGorder phase transitions. The comprehensive discussion on fluctuation theory in Chapter 4 is also an outstanding feature of the book and would be a profitable addition to an advanced course in stati&ical mechanics. In addition, Chapter 6 contains the &st complete discussion of the theory of molecular distribution functions to appear in book form. This i~ a rather specialized topic for a course in stati&A mechanios, hut anyone who wishes to cover this subject will find this presentation very vduahle. The additional contents include the Theory of Imperfect Gases and Condensation, Nearest-Neighbor Lattice Statistics. and Lattice Theories of the Liauid and &lid States. The treatment of each subject is exhaustive from the theoretical point of view but includes a minimum of numerical crtleulations and comparisons with experiment. This is consistent with the major purpose of the book but offers an additional barrier t o its use as a text. ZEVI W. BALSBURG T"E Rrcr I N ~ T I T ~ T E HOUBTON, TEXM
RECENT ADVANCES IN SCIENCE: PHYSICS AND APPLIED MATHEMATICS Edited by Morris H. Shamon, Associate Professor of Physics, and George M. Murphy, Professor of Chemistry, both of New York University. New York University Press and dishihuted by Interscience Pub384 pp. lishers, New York, 1956: xi 172 figs. 15 X 23 cm. 57.50.
+
THIShook is the outgrowth of the First Symposium on Recent Advances in Science held a t New York University in 1954. I t contains chapters on "Methods of Applied Mathematics" by Richard Courant, "The Future of Operations Research" by Philip M. Morse, "Atomic Struoture" by I. I. Rabi, "Microwave Spectroscopy" by C. H. Tomes, "Nuclear Structure and Transmutations" by H. A. Bethe, "Elementary Particles" by V. F. Weisskopf, "Electronuclear Machines" by Leland J. Haworth, "Neutron Physics" by Norman F. Ramsey, "Transistor Physics" by William Shockley, "Ferromagnetism" by R. M. Boeorth, "Cryogenics" by F. G. Brickwedde, and "Physics and the Engineer" by Edward U. Condon. This group of authorities, writing as "experts for non-experts" about the recent advances in their fields of special interest, has brought together between the covers of a single book most of the research in modern physics that has made this field so fascinating and yet so frustrating to scientists in other m a s . That they have succeeded in every instance in making the material clear to "everyone who is interested in the progress of science" is too much to expect. The average biologist is not too familiar with differential operatortors or even surface integrals. A scientist in rt closely allied field will resd much that is already familiar. Yet, on page after page
new ideas and fresh approaches to old ones will make a. careful reading of this book rewarding. It can he recommended to soientists and to students of science as one of the best collections of its kind t o appear in recent years. However, it is much too technical for a nonscientist. JOHN A. TIMM Sraa~olrsCOGZEG. Bosros. M * s s * c s a s m ~ ~ s
RADIATION BIOLOGY. VOLUME 111: VISIBLE AND NEAR-VISIBLE LIGHT Edited by Alexander Hollaender, Diredor of Biology Division. Oak Ridge National Laboratory. MoGraw-Hill Bwk Co., Inc.. New York, 1956. viii 7 6 s pp. Figs. and tables. 16.5 X 23.5 cm. 510.
+
Tars is the third and final volume of th e series on radiation biology published under the sponsorship of the National Research Council. I t is not intended to be of great importance in terms of the practical effects of visible m d near-visible radiation
research scientist who is currently active in the are' which he describes. The topics included are: energy exchange in photoreactions; electronic structure and excitation of polyenes and porphyrins; generation, control, and measurement of visible and near-visihle radiant energy; energy efficiency in photosynthesis; the mechanism of photosynthesis; the absorption, action, and fluorescence spectra of photosynthetic pigments in living cells and in solutions; chlorophyll formation and accumulation in plants; nitrate reduction; phototropism; photoperiodism; seed gormination; viscosity, permeability, and protoplasmic streaming; electrical phenomena in vision; invertebrate photoreceptars; and photodynamic action and its pathological effects. The many authors have done an exceptionally fine job of compiling the varied iniormation and of discussing these complex research areas. All of the chapters are written for the scientist who is generally familiar with the fundamentals of the area discussed. The casual or the uninformed reader will gain little from this work. There are relatively few printing errors. There are some unexpected omissions. E.g., chemical actinometry is only mentioned, neither adequately described nor evaluated in Chapter 3; these omissions are justified perhaps in vicw of the limited space and the relativeimportance of the many topics eonsidored. Scicntists active in research in photosynthesis, photobiology, and other areas related to biological growth and energy will find this book s. necessary and an invaluable addition t o their libraries. Others in related areas such as photochemistry and biochemistry will discover that many of the chapters are of direct interest to them. JACK G. CALVERT
THE0x10STATEUNIYERBIFI C O L ~ M10. B 0x10 ~ ~
(Continued o n page A S S I )
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
