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colloids, and (3) cement. This volume brings the subject matter up-to-date and gives a good picture of the state of the science at this time. However, the work is more factual than critical. There are some errors in the book and authors’ names are sometimes misspelled. The complete three-volume set on inorganic colloid chemistry constitutes an important addition to the English works in the field of colloids. Investigators in the many phases of the subject will find Professor Weiser’s contribution both useful and valuable. L. H. REYERSON.
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257 pp. Physicochemical Ezperimenls. BY ROBERTLIVINQSTON.70 figures; xi New York: The Macmillan Company, 1939. Price: $2.25. The avowed primary object of this attractive appearing laboratory manual is to set forth a course illustrating basic principles. In addition, the experiments and procedures have been so chosen as to give the student familiarity with the more common and important apparatus and techniques. In the conduct of the experiments and treatment of results, a quantitative point of view is fairly uniformly maintained. The practice of having apparatus set up in advance for the student is regarded by the author as justifiable when the apparatus is complicated, but he feels that ‘(its general use seems ideally adapted to discourage any initiative or sense of responsibility which the student may possess.” Accordingly the apparatus and procedures are described and illustrated in sufficient detail so that the student should be able to set up and carry through the experiments himself without much assistance. The details are, however, not of such a character as to rob the work of interest. A useful feature of the book is the inclusion of general directions for performing a number of laboratory manipulations which have utility apart from that in the experiment under discussion. These include such things as the method of setting a Beckmann thermometer, the preparation and use of a thermocouple (incidentally more ice is needed on the cold junction, Fig. 48), use of the tablet press, use of the polarimeter, and the like. Frequent references are given to other books for further details. Another useful feature is the inclusion, occupying the first fifty pages, of a good, simple discussion of computing methods and the theory of errors of measurement. These matters should be studied a t some time by every science student. Forty-one experiments arc described, a number of which are new, a t least to the reviewer. Under each experiment is given a brief statement of the more pertinent theory involved, with definite references to well-known texts for more complete treatment. Then follows a list of apparatus and materials, and an apparently adequate section on procedure. Finally the treatment of results is briefly indicated with, however, most details of this matter intentionally left to the student. Those who have need of a laboratory manual of physical chemistry should certainly give consideration to this book. ROSCOE G . DICKINSON.
The Fine Structure of Matter. Volume I I , Part II: Molecular Polarization. By C. H. DOUQLAS CLARK, D.Sc., A.R.C.S., A.I.C., D. I.C. ;Assistant Lecturer in Inorganic Chemistry in the University of Leeds. 14.5 x 22.5 cm. ; lxxii 241 pp. ; 35 figures. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1938. Price: $4.50. This second of the three parts which constitute Volume I1 of A Comprehensive Treatise on Atomic and Molecular Structure treats primarily refraction, dielectric constant, and dipole moment and their relation to molecular structure and, in so
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doing, discusses molecular association, adsorption, electric double refraction, and molecular fields, devoting a brief chapter to the latter subject. The book is handicapped a t the start by the fact that i t treats nothing in the literature published after the latter part of 1934, being, in consequence, already four years out-of-date in the presentation of a subject which has developed largely during the past twelve years. Although the references are by no means complete for the period covered, such emphasis is placed upon the abstracting of papers, about a thousand references being given, that many of the pages read like highly condensed versions of an abstract journal. The material is often not well correlated and sometimes appears quite undigested, little or no distinction being made between obsolete and inaccurate data and new and dependable information. For a description of methods of measuring dielectric constants reference is made t o a review published twelve years ago. The statement is made a t the bottom of page 227 that the dielectric constant “diminished with increasing pressure,” while i t would certainly be expected to increase with increasing pressure and was actually fo’und t o do so in the work with reference to which this statement is made. It seems unnecessary to complicate our phraseology with “relaxion time” instead of the generally used “relaxation time”. The most important step in the derivation of the Clausius-Mosotti expression on page 257 is omitted, as is the derivation of the Debye equation, which seems t o present little mathematical difficulty. On page 269 abnormalities in the behavior of acetic acid vapor, which were actually caused by molecular association, are attributed to a statistical distribution of the molecules among different vibrational states, as erroneously proposed in the original paper, while, on page 349, a subsequent paper by the same author is reported as attributing the same abnormalities to changing degree of association. The interchange of the us@l ordinates and abscissae in plotting the polarizations of liquid mixtures against concentrations is sligbtly confusing to one accustomed to the common procedure, but the use of old data which show onIy approximately the form of the curve for benzene-alcohol mixtures is open to more serious criticism. On page 343 in a table of the moments of the alkyl halides the values given increase markedly from methyl to ethyl in the fluorides and chlorides and decrease slightly in the bromides and iodides. The author concludes “there is no appreciable increase in dipole moment with increasing chain length, except possibly from methyl to ethyl in the fluoride and bromide series,” although his figures show a slight decrease in the bromide series. Actually, the data in the literature, available even in 1934, show a considerable increase in moment from methyl to ethyl in all four series. On page 347 i t is stated that no noticeable dependence of moment on temperature was found in diethyl succinate, while, actually, a large variation with temperature was observed in solution. In the table of disubstituted benzenes on page 361 the moment of the amino group is incorrectly treated as acting in the plane of the ring. These and other inaccuracies are far more serious than the not always avoidable slips, such a8 writing the formula of methyl alcohol as CHIOH in figures LX and LXI or giving the number of a figure incorrectly as on page 320. No one can fail t o approve of the aim of this treatise and the reviewer is certainly cognizant of the many difficulties that beset the path of its author and is sympathetic with his efforts to overcome these difficulties. Unfortunately, i t is not possible t o report that these efforts have been successful in this second part of the second volume. The book cannot be recommended to the beginner became of its lack of clarity and occasionally of authority and accuracy in the presentation of the material. The reader havingsome knowledge of the subject will almost certainly find facts and references that have previously escaped his attention, but he will probably find more in the course of a day or two spent with a good abstract journal. CHARLES P. SMYTH.
