The Fundamentals of Chemical Thermodynamics. Part I: Elementary

of mathematical tables and formulas. This handbook is highly recommended, especially to those who do not have easy access to monographs and other type...
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erences and the sensitivity of each test. He will also find an extensive list of solutions used in inorganic, organic, and biochemical analysis. In the field of thermodynamics and thermochemistry, excellent tables have been compiled. They include specific heats, heats of fusion, heats of formation, and heats of combustion, as well as a list of free energies. In this category, it is noteworthy that the units of the respective constants are clearly defined. Indeed, a clear definition of units and statements of the sources of data are characteristic of this handbwk throughout. A section of the book is devoted to definitions of pharmaceutical terms and preparations. The appendix contains what appears t o be a well-chosen list of mathematical tables and formulas. This handbook is highly recommended, especially to those who do not have easy access t o monographs and other types of specialized literature in chemistry and its allied sciences. R. LEGAULT T R 8 U m B P S I T I OW CHICAW

CHIC*.^, ILLINOIS

E X P E R I ~ N T APHYSICAL L CHEMISTRY.Professors Farrington Dan& and J. H m r d Mathews and Associate Professor John Warren WiUiams, all of the University of Wisconsin. Second edition. McGraw-Hill Book Company. Inc., New York City. 1934. xix 499 pp. I40 figs. 14 X 20.5 cm. $3.50.

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T o attempt a revision of this well-known and excellent work within five years is somewhat akin to gilding the lily. Nevertheless, a real improvement can be noted. The b w k has been largely rewritten. Sixteen experiments have been omitted and nine added. Several others have been modified with a view to increased accuracy. The correlation between the first and second editions in the matter of omissions, additions, and modifications is set forth in a compact table. The book has been enlarged by the addition of twenty-four pages. The chapter on the electrochemistry of gases has been omitted and that on electrotitrations has been condensed into the chapter on electrochemistry. Excellent chapters on errors and on vacuum tubes have been added. One wishes some of the omitted material might have been retained, such as the studies on ozone and nitrogen peroxide production. Particularly t o be commended is the addition of material on the glass electrode, several quantitative colloid experiments, a study on heavy water, and an improved treatment of capacitance measurements. Experiment 56 on the determination of heat of reaction by E.M.F.measurements remains essentially unchanged. I t seems that this experiment might be improved by using two-phase amalgams rather than solid metal electrodes. I t is unfortunate that an experiment on the moving bouedary method for determininn transference numbers has not been included. Some simple modification of IlacImei' precision apruratus should afford satisfactory results. (See L. G. L o z c s w u ~ rT~m , s JOLTNAL. 11, page 420.) The plan of the book remains the same. There are three main sectians-laboratory experiments, apparatus, and miscellaneous operations. Each experiment is discussed as follows: theory, apparatus, procedure, calculations, practical applications, suggestions for further work, and references. Throughout the whole book, in fact, there is an abundance of literature references, mostly of recent date. Necessary tables, including logarithms. are present. The book is very well written and the format excellent. T o sum up, this work should prove indispensable t o the instructor and the advanced student. For undergraduates of reasonable intelligence, background, and initiative, it merits very serious consideration as a working or reference manual of the highest order. The whole aim of the authors is concisely stated in the preface: "As in the first edition, the development of the student has been considered of greater importance than the conMALCOLM M. HARING venience of the, instructor."

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THE FUNDAMENTALS OF CHEMICAL THERMODYNAMICS. PARTI: ELEMENTARY THEORYAND APPLICATIONS.PART11: THERxonYNmcnr. FUNCTIONSAND THEIRAPPLICATIONS.J. A. V. Butler, DSc. (Birmingham). Lecturer in Chemistry in the University of Edinburgh. The Macmillan Company, New York City. Part I. 1928. xi 207 pp. 51 figs. 12 X 19 cm. $3.00. Part 11. 1934. ix 271 pp. 43 figs. 12 X 19 cm. $3.00.

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These two little volumes have been developed by Dr. Butler as the fruit of several years' experience in teaching thermodynamics. I n Part I he has "tried to present the subject in a logically precise, yet simple form, having in mind not only the student who intends t o specialize in Physical Chemistry, but also that class of chemistry students which har only a very moderate knowledge of mathematics and little sympathy with mathematical methods." There are nine chapten, dealing with: the &st law, the second law, changes of state, solutions, homogeneous gaseous reactions. the galvanic cell. electrode potentials, concentration cells and activities, and electrolysis. The treatment is fairly elementary in character but presupposes an acquaintance with the elements of calculus. Thus the second law is discussed with emphasis an "maximum work" and without reference to the concept of entropy. Most of the derivations, such as that of the Clausius equation, are based on cyclic processes. The notation employed is largely that of Lewis and Randall. Part I1 represents a more advanced treatment of the subject, obviously for students who are specializing in physical chemistry. It has been developed for a second course, designed to follow that using Part I. This volume, however, is "tolerably complete in itself and could be read by anyone who has an elementary knowledge of the laws of thermodynamics." It contains eleven chapters, dealing with: the thermodynamical functions (including entropy), the thermodynamics of perfect gases, the third law, applications t o solutions (six chapters), the thermodynamics of surfaces, and the phase rule. The developments are carried through by the use of the "functional" or Gibbsian method, which has been popularized in recent years by Lewis and Randall's Thermodynamics. On the whole, the two volumes are well mitten and the subject matter has been judiciously selected. Throughout both parts the applications of thermodynamics to chemical problems have been duly emphasized. A number of numerical examples. especially in Part I, are presented and solved in the text. These and the problem sets, placed a t the end of most of the chapters, contribute much t o the value of these hooks for teaching purposes. Another strong feature of Part I1 is that the discussions have in many cases been carried right up t o the developments of the present year. However, Chapter 111on the third law of themodynamics constitutes an exception t o this statement: unfortunately here the developments practically cease with the year 1926 and several of the entropy values in Table 111 (page 44) should now be revised for precise calculations. Inevitably a few errors, typographical and otherwise, have also crept into Part 11. The reviewer was shocked to find plus signs before the term pdv in the equations on pages 19 and 20, where obviously subtraction is called for. The same error ap-pea= in equations 50 and 52 on page 26. The treatment of pages 20&210 in the chapter on the thermodynamics of surfaces is also rather unsatisfactory, and equation 223 (p. 210) is incorrect. All things considered, however, Dr. Butler must be congratulated on his preparation of two very teachable little books. The first in particular will prove very attractive t o many college teachers who desire to present t o their physical chemistry students a brief introduction t o chemical thermodynamics without the use of entropy. Whether or not, in a more advanced course. a rather small volume like Part I1 is preferable t o such an excellent and authoritative treatise as that of Lewis and Randall remains a question for the individual teacher. GEORGES. PARKS