REFENT BOOKS GENERAL CHEMISTRY PROBLEMS.William M. Spice,, Associate Professor of Chemistry, Georgia School of Technology, William S. Taylor, Professor of Chemistry, Georgia School of Technology, and Joe D. Clary, Assistant Professor of Chemistry. Georgia School of Technology. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, 1943. v 120 pp. 2 figs. 14.5 X 22 em. $1.25. No one denies that problems are the bugbear of most students in pneral chemistry. These authors approach the subject b y telling the student, " all education is self-education. You must do the work. The purpose of this workbook is t o help you teach yourself . . . The difficulty (in working problems) is not in the mathematics, hut is due t o a lack of understanding of the principles, an inability to be exact. and a tendency t o work problems by a mechanical process. . . . We require you to justify each step in writing by reference to a law or definition, or b y mathematical reasoning. . . If a student can work a given pmblem in this way, we are justified in believing t h a t he is capable of solving other problems of the same type." The book "attempts t o teach (1) the necessity for (written) justification of every step taken in the solution of a problem, (2) the importance of thinking in terms of chemical units (moles. gram-atomic weights, gram-equivalent weights, etc.), (3) the elementary ideas about significant figures. (4) the use of logarithms and the slide rule. (5) the importance of mentally checking all results." Certainly these aims are laudable, although for noa-engineering students, (the authors are all faculty members of the Georgia School of Technology), number 4 may seem superfluous. Certainly, too, these aims are met in excellent style. The usual topics of units, formulas, gas laws, valence, molecular and atomic weights, problems based on equations, solutions, and equivalent weights are accompanied by a significant chapter on Use of Chemical Units of Quantity, and by goad discusisions of exponents, logarithms, and significant figures. Purists, and teachers of advanced courses, may find room for quibbling over such items as the use of cc. rather than ml.,the definitions of valence. normalitv and eauivaleut weieht. - . and the use throughout of the Arrhenius theory of ionization. I n the light of exact knowledge exceptions may be taken, but this reviewer is content with the course chosen. The only fault this reviewer finds with an excellent text, well written, well printed, is with the sometimes elaborate efforts t h e authors have made to eliminate the use of proportions. In short, all teachers of general chemistry should consider well the use of this book in meeting what should not be, hut is, t h e greatest difficulty faced by their students. EARLW. PHELAN
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the help of the fire department in fighting a serious fire, so the smoke-eatercan profit by collaboration with a chemist in studying the scientific aspect of fires, avoiding technical errors, and realizing that the fundamental problem is one of controlling a chemical reaction. ELBERTC. WEAVER
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I N T ~ O D ~ CCOLLEGE T O R YCHEMISTRY.J . A . Babor, Associate Professor of Chemistry, College of the City of New York, and A . Lckman, Associate Professor of Chemistry, College of the City of New York. Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York, 1941. xiii 663 pp. 138 figs. 15 X 23 cm. $3.50. The text consists of 48 chapters covering some 625 pages, plus 9 pages of appendixes which include a four-place table of logarithms and a n index. I n the index many of the references to chromium and its compounds are misplaced. The book is intended for two types of courses: classes cornposed of students who have had no high-school instruction in the subject and classes composed of both students who have had no high-school chemistry and those who have had an elementary course. This result has been accomplished largely by elimination and rearrangement of material found in the text, "General College Chemistry," by the same authors. For example, the chapters dealing with colloidal solutions and radium and radioactivity appear t o be identical, word-for-word, in the two texts. In other portions of the text, by the elimination of paragraphs dealing with the more advanced discussions the material is brought within the scope of this hook. This has been done in such manner as to detract in no wise from a logical development of the subject. Theoretical matter is distributed throughout the first half of the book and not all given in the first few chapters before the student has had opportunity to acquire same chemical knowledge. The theoretical material is modern and is explained in an understandable fashion. The BrBnsted theory of acids and bases is introduced after the limitations of the Arrhenius concept of ionization have been discussed, and thereafter is employed exclusively. Molecular and atorpic weight determinations are taken up in chapter 8 after the student has been introduced to oxygen, hydrogen, and water, and the kinetic molecular theory. This is the chemist's method. No mention is made of the mass spectrograph a t this point, but brief mention of it is made in chapter 20 in the discussion of atoms and isotopes. The reviewer wishes more writers of freshman chemistry texts would make use of the ohvsicist's method of determining atomic weiehts since less confusion results in the beginner's mind. The chemist's methods could come later. The organic chemistry content consists of four chapters: carbon and some carbon compounds, the hydrocarbons, derivatives of hydrocarbons, and carbohydrates. Any one or all of these chapters may be omitted if so desired. There is also a 13-page chapter a n food and nutrition. Brief menticn is made of the essential foods for man, together with two tables on composition of the edible portions and ash of a number of common foods. The discussion ol metals occupies 138 pages and is devoted to the more common metallic elements. I t is 5 0 arranged that a course in qualitative analysis may be simultaneously studied.
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THESCIENCEOF FIREFIGHTING.John J. Mccarthy. W. W. Norton and Company, Inc., New York, 1943. 265pp. 15figs. 13.5 X 20 cm. $2.50. This timely hook by the assistant chief, in command, New York Fire Department, who has spent 29 years in active fire fightiug is from a practical authoritative source. It contains examples of fireaghting strategy, suggestions for mutual aid. a n d an appendix an hydraulics. A title such as "Techniques of Fire Fighting and Fire Prevention" would be more descriptive. The scientific aspect of the subject is limited, discussion of the fundamental nature of fire occupying only part of a chapter. Just as a chemist needs
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