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0%= and technical interest. As an example, the account of the reaction 2NO 2N01,with a wealth of numerical data, may be mentioned. J. R. PARTINGTON. Gmelins Handbuch der anorganischen Chemie. 8 Auflage. Herausgegeben von der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft. System-Nummer 35: Aluminium. Teil A, Lieferung 3. 26 x 18 om.; pp. 451-534. Berlin: Verlag Chemie, 1936. Price: 10.50 marks (in Germany, 14 marks). This section deals solely with the surface treatment of aluminum and aluminum alloys, including oxide layers and metallic surfaces. It gives full references to literature and patents and contains material of physicochemical interest as well as much on the technical side.
J. R. PARTINGTON. 22.5 x 15 cm.; x and Reactions of Organic Compounds. By W. J. HICKINBOTTOM. 449 pp. London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1936. Price: 16/--. For its price and size this book is unique. The author has set out to describe the jucts of organic chemistry by reference to laboratory practice rather than to classical theory, and in consequence the arrangement of the subject matter presents unusual features. The most obvious is simplicity of classification. Only eleven chapters are taken to describe the reactions of the commoner groupings and radicals in the various types of structural situation in which they occur. The consideration of benzene with methane, phenols and alcohols with enols, etc., in this way avoids repetition and enables the ground to be covered much more neatly than is done in many text-books where the conventional order is followed. As a typical example the chapter headed “Aldehydes and Ketones’’ can be mentioned. Here are first detailed quite fully the various transformations of substances of these types without any references t o the common subdivisions of organic chemistry, a very widely chosen selection of specific examples is then quoted, drawn from aliphatic, aromatic, and heterocyclic systems, the carbohydrates, and the quinones. Such a plan emphasizes the essential unity of the chemistry of the carbonyl compounds, and at the same time the wealth of experimental illustration given affords the very necessary indication of the limitations which “general” reactions are apt t o display in practice. As a complement t o a standard text-book this work should prove valuable both to advanced students and t o those who desire a book of reference which is convenient t o read and up-to-date (the index is good and frequent citations are made to the original literature). From the point of view of the student the book is additionally attractive because it has a useful appendix dealing with the identification of organic substances, and throughout its contents are distributed some thirty five pages of tables of physical constants, derivatives etc., quite adequate for the general requirements of qualitative analysis. Full experimental details are included for several It thus offers under one cover much of the material of hundreds of Dreparations. - three books. R. J. W. La F ~ V R E .
