book reviews
critical survey at the beginning of each graduates are trtxed sometimes beyond the section tskes goad care of this kind of point of diminishing returns. problem. This hook on the structure and spectra Although comhustion and similar teehof a t o m and molecules covers quantitaniaues mav he of limited interest to the tively whst most freshman chemistry nokspeciafist, the ease is quite different courses these days treat quditatively. with the other steps which are involved The level is indeed precariously high; there in conduct of an analysis. The author's is a. lot of material and it is hard going for accounts of such general operations as an under~raduarc physical rhcn8isrry sample preparation, weighing, t.ransW U ~ + P . Hw~cvcr,rhc hook is thorough ference, and titration are very well done. and well orar~ircd.coverare of indivirlud Some of these techniques are involved in topics is terse hut detai1ed;the wording is many forms of trace analysis. In fact, clear, and there are a lot of problems from such techniques can he invsloahle in any which instructor and students may choose. preparation, isolation, or investigation The authors have obviously taught the which has to he performed on the ultramaterial a number of times and have paid micro scale. There are some excellent attention to the confusions of their stuexamples of the value of hiamperometric dents. Thus the hook can present comand hipotentiametric techniques in ultraplicated concepts in a relaxed, confident micro titrimetry. manner in such a. WILY that real insight is Since the publication of the second edigradually obtained by the student. No tion in 1961, Steyermark's 'Quantitative time, for example, is wasted in giving comOrzanio Microenalvsis" has become the plicated pseudo-derivations of things "hindhook" of m"icrochemists both at (like the Schrodinger equation) which canhome and overseas. Tblg's monograph not be derived, hut instead intuitive fordoes not compete with Steyermark's mulations of these things are offered as authoritative work, but rather complemenmry. aids 11) undcr~rmdin~.nntl ments it. The new work is a. translation, .\ I w r of vlmprer title< ruEKests rhr vovhut this is betrayed only by the statement cmrc: Thr ('ons~i~nntts of hlnrrcr. T ~ P on the title page. Editing, proofreading, ~ u i n t u mTheory, The Structure of'oneand general prodnetion are excellent, electron Atoms and Ions, Many-electron despite the quite low price. Tolg's hook Atom, Molecules and Chemical Bonds, is one that can hestrongly recommended. Diatomic and Polystomic Molecules, JOHN T. STOCK Molecular Spectra. This reviewer is University of Connecticut happy to have the hook; he would have Slows, Conn. 06868 been happier had it been available when he was in graduate school; the fact that it is now appropriate far undergraduate use is exciting, challenging, and just a hit frightening. FRANKC. ANDREWS Studies in the History of Chemistry Crown College Sir Harold Ha~tley,F.R.S., Honorary University of California Fellow of Bslliol College, Oxford. Santa C r w Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1971. xii 244 pp. 15 plates. 13.5 X 21.5 cm. $7.
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Ultramicro Elemental Analysis
Gilnther T6lg. Wiley-Interscience, New 200 pp. Figs. and York, 1870. xiii tables. 22 X l.5cm. SI0.95.
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This monograph is Volume 30 in the series "Chemical Analysis" under the editorship of Professam Kolthoff and Elving. Although shorter than some of the earlier volumes, it maintains t,he high standards already set by the series. Essentially, the work is concerned with the determination of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, the halogens, phosphorus, and arsenic in submilligram samples of organic compounds. The aubhor pays a well-deserved tribute to Professor R. Belcher and his coworkers at the University of Birmingham, England, as pioneers in this field. To the specialist in ultimate analysis, the value of the hook is obvious. The authnr, who hes made his own notable contrihotions to this field, clearly and fully describes the apparatus, reagents, and procedures for t,he various determinations. methods that are satisfactory at the 100-fig level
A44
/
Journal of Chemical Education
As stated in the Preface, this hook comprises a series of lectures originally put together seventy years ago. These have been amplified, updated and polished during the course of the author's long and distinguished life of chemical research. Sir Harold Hertley admits that there are chemists whom he would have liked to have covered (e.g., Cavendish, Wolleaton, Pasteur), "hut a t ninety I mustn't delay any longer." Despite these omissions, this is an excellent and soholilrly hook, sessoned by the author's vast experience and mature judgment. The time-span covered is approximately 1760-1860; i.e., the period including the h t e r phlogiston theory, "Chemical Revolution," birth of the chemical atomic theory, early electrochemistry, and the beginning of organic chemistry as s. distinct discipline. In Chapter I X the period coveredis -1865-1917. There are ten chapters. The first discusses Joseph Priestley (1733-1804), his life, first studies on gases, discovery of artificial soda water by impregnating water with "fixed air" (CO*), his studies on comhustion. and the isolation of oxygen, ammonia, nitrous oxide, sulfur dioxide, and other gases.
Chapter I1 (pp. 19-57) covers the life and work of Antoine L a r e n t Lavoisier (1745-94), "one of the immortals." His contributions to geology, the calcination of metals and combustion, the role of oxygen in calcination, saltpeter production, thermochemistry, composition of water, reform of chemical nomenclature, etc., are d l treated; as is his great Traitd Eldmentaire de Chimie (Paris, 1789), which effectively overthrew the phlogiston theory. Chapters 111, IV, and V (pp. 58-152) discuss the very exciting early years of the nineteenth century: the work of John Dalton (1766-1844) on the Atomic Theory; Sir Humphry Davy (1778-1829) on the isolation of the alkali and alkaline earth metals. and the miners' "Safetv position of salts and organic compounds. Chaptem VI and VII (pp. 153-184) discuss Michael F a r ~ d e y (1791-1867), primarily a s a physics1 chemist; and "Farsday'y's Successors and the Theory of Electrolytic Dissociation." Chapters VIII and I X (pp. 185-222) cover the important work of Stanislao Cannizzaro (1826-1910) on atomic and molecular theory; and the contributions of Henry Edward Armstrong (18481937) and other great organic chemists of the nineteenth century. The tenth and find chapter (pp. 223232) eives a,concise hut informative review
contains many personal recollections by the author, and other information that it would he difficult or impossible to find elsewhere. The hook ends with a comprehensive index (pp. 233-243). The fifteen plates depict portraits (Priestley, Lavoisier, Dalton, Drtvy, Beraelius, Faraday, Hartley, Moseley), spparatus (of Lavoisier), manuscripts (by Dalton, Davy, Famday), the title-page of Cannizzmo's clrwsic pamphlet, and C. N. Hinshelwood's laboratory. This hook is enthusiastically recommended to university students for its scholarly coverage of the formative period of modern chemistry, its impeccable clarity of style, and its selection of material. Considering that it was written by a ninety year old gentleman, this work is a remarkably lucid and praiseworthy produb tion. ROYG. N E V ~ ~ E Beehtel Laboratory Belmont, Calif. 94008
Modern Theory of Acids and Bases
Ralph G . Peerson, Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill. American Chemical Society, Washington, D. C. Two tape casettes or two 7%. tape reels, 64page manual. $30. 41-frame filmstrip also available. $7.50. "Modern Theory of Acids and Bases" is not a book and not A-V material, but a. combination of the two. (CmUinwd on page A48)
