t o see the previous confusion of inexplicable upper and lower erplosion limits, inhibitor and surface effects, swept into a semhlance of order. Especially noteworthy is the critical review of the "Work of Moureu and Dufraisse" on auto-oxidation and anti-oxygen activity. The author favors an alternative theory of aldehyde oxidation, through chain reactions initiated (or inhibited) in the liquidgas interfacial film. However, a sense of proportion is evident even in dealing with a personally favored theory-which cannot be said of several authors in the related field of homogeneous kinetics. Adverse theories are presented; the pet theory is not stretched. Oxidation of suliites, inks, and hydrwarbons, and stabilization of chloroform, ether, hydrogen peroxide, and perfumes are among the liquid phase reactions discussed. The author unfortunately overlooked the parallelism between acidity function and reaction rate (1932) in his chapter "Reactions Involving Sulfuric Acid." No single theory fits these various reactions, resulting in a separate or "unit" treatment of each particular subject; the single common factor is "retardant effects." However, the logical development of each topic, profusely illustrated with summarized experimental results, should become a nucleus around which the teacher of chemistry can construct lectures on these rarelv discussed vet imoortant themes. For the research worker.. this hook cannot but act as a stirnulus toward the solution of problems suggested hy the eucellrnr cwnpilatiun of rristant data.
DES CORPSGUS. George Porches, Ingeneur I. LE F~FPINAOE N. A. Dunold, Paris, France, 1938. viii 166 pp. 23 figs. 16.5 X 25 cm. Relih 78 Fr., Broch6 58 Fr.
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This book is a description and explanation of the fundamental principles of the refining of fatty substances with particular emphasis being placed on the preparation of edible oils and fats. The first chapter briefly describes the nature of fatty compounds and the extraction of the usable material. The second chapter gives the principal impurities in edible oils and fats and describes the methods of mechanical purification, filtration, and refining with sulfuric acid. The third chapter discusses neutralization by lye and the ways of recovering the neutral oil and eliminating the soap. The use of steam distillation and esterification as methods of removing the acids are treated briefly. In the fourth chapter the removal of mucilage and phosphatide is described, while the fifth chapter deals with decoloration. Chemical bleaching and removal of color by adsorbants is described. Five adsorbants are discussed and the methods for regeneration of them are mentioned. The sixth and last chapter explains the removal of odors by steam distillation and by vacuum distillation. The treatment of all the material is descriptive and well organized. The book can be recommended for those wishing a brief survey of the processes for the preparation of edible oils.
fies and brings up t o date the treatment of these resins, but also devotes considerable soace t o new subiect matter comnrisine the alkyds, and resins derived from petroleum, chlorinated hydrocarbons, aryl sulfonamides and formaldehyde, vinyl compounds. and acrylic a d d and its derivatives. Its scope has, moreover, been broadened to include the important cellulose derivative and casein plastics, and, more briefly, some of the rubber derivatives and certain naturally occurring substances such as the bituminous materials. The chapter on causes of resinification has been expanded from eight pages in the old b w k to sixty-six pages in the present volume. The chapter an testing of synthetic resins has likewise grown from six to sixteen pages. These two chapters add much t o the practical as well as to the scientific value of the book, and will be appreciated by all students and workers in resin chemistry. Additional new subject matter is to be found in the new volume in a comprehensive chapter on molding compositions and molding technic, and in three chapters dealing with the use of resins, varnishes, and plastics in the field of electrical insulation. The introductory chapter, classifying the more important synthetic resins and plastics and summarizing their physical and chemical properties and applications, is excellent. The b w k also contains several interesting and instructive charts and tables. A bibliography a t the end of each chapter lists references t o original sources of information, inviting and facilitating further investigation of any topic of particular interest. While a single volume, designed by its authors, as this one is. as a compilation and critical summary of the published information an synthetic resins cannot be as detailed ss the more comprehensive treatises which are available, a more detailed description of certain relatively recent applications of synthetic resins, such as in veneering and in plywwd and safety glass manufacture, would be desirable. The book is impaired by occasional repetition, by frequent inaccuracies in equations and structural formulas. and bv a number of twoeraohical errors. The book affords interesting reading to anyone who wishes to familiarize himself with synthetic resins, although a knowledge of organic chemistry is necessary for a proper understanding of it. It will be chiefly of interest, therefore, t o the more advanced college student and to the resin chemist as a source of general information as well as a convenient reference book.
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HANDBUCR nER METALLPHYSIK. 11. Die Heterogenen Gleichgewichte. Rudolf Vogel, University of G6ttingen. Akademische VerIagsgese11schaft,Leipzig, 1937. xxiii 737. 491 figs. 16 X 24 cm. Paper covered. RM. 66, bound RM. 68.
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Professor Vogel has added another excellent monograph on the phase rule t o the rather long list which has appeared before, beginning with Bancroft's Phase Rule (1897) and including volumes by Rooeeboom and Schreinemakers, Tammann, Clibben, Findlay, Blasdale, and others. The general plan of the book is not unlike that of previous writers, beginning with one-component systems and ending with those of four components. I t ismuchmoreelaborate in its presentation than, for instance, Findlay, which has become rather a standard work in this country, but it is much less of an encyclopedia of the subject than the great work begun by Rwzeboom. Although writing primarily for those interested SYNTHETIC RESINS AND ALLIED PLASTICS. Edited by R. S. in metals, the author has wisely not limited himself to metallic Morrell, in collaboration with T. Hedley Barry, R. P . L. systems. Perhaps the chief difficulty which students find in studying the Britton, and H. M. Longton. Oxford University Press, Lonphase rule is with the diagrams which have been developed t o don, 1937. r 417 pp. 14 X 22 cm. $11.00. represent the very great variety of possible changes in phases A comparison of this volume with its predecessor, NATURAL when a system containing more than one component is subjected AND SYNTRETICRESINS. published in 1926, reveals many to changes in pressure temperature and concentration. Such diaimprovements, reflecting the growth of the synthetic resin grams are a kind of short-hand, peculiar t o the subject, and their industry during the intervening ten years. I n the earlier meanidg is by no means always self-evident. Moreover, a numbook, for example, sixty-nine pages were devoted to a discus- ber of different ways may often be used, and are used, by dzerent sion limited almost entirely to the phenol-formaldehyde, ureawriters to represent the same facts. The author recognizes this formaldehyde, coumarone-indene, acrolein, and furfural resins difficulty very clearly and while he continually uses diagrams. and the ester gums. The present volume not only ampli- some of which are exceedingly complicated, his explanations in
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