THE WAR GASES, CHEMISTRY AND ANALYSIS.Dr. Mario Sartori, chemist of the Italian Chemical Warfare Service. Preface by Profenor G. Bargellini of Rome University. Translated from the second enlarged edition by L. W. Morrison, B.Sc., A.I.C. D. Van Nostrand Co.. Inc., New York City, 1939. xii 360 pp. 20 figs. 15 tables. 15 X 23 cm. $7.50 net. This is a hook on the munitions of chemical warfare, not on chemical warfare in general. The author says in his preface, "It is with the confidence of being able to contribute modestly to a wider knowledge of the war gases and in the hope of satisfying requests for a book which should contain all the purely chemical data, a t present published in the various manuals of chemical warfare in fragmentary or summary form, that I have collected in this volume all the best and most recent work published up to the present on the chemistry of the war gases." The author has done satisfactorily what he set out to do. Part I comprising thirty-two pages is general, considering the physiopatholoigcal, physical, and chemical properties which a substance must have to he of use as a war gas. These requirements are illustrated by many tables of toxicities, vapor pressures and other properties of actual war gases. The relation between chemical structure and aggressive action is discussed with reference to halogen, sulfur and arsenic atoms and cyan, nitro and other groups and the effects that these have in various structures on the effectiveness of the compounds. War gases are classified in several different ways, according to their physical properties, their tactical uses, or chemical properties. Part 11, comprising two hundred ninety pages takes up the war gases in detail, devoting a chapter to each of the following groups: halogens, divalent carbon compounds. acyl halogen compounds, halogenated ethers, halogenated esters, halogenated aromatics, aldehydes, halogenated ketones, halogenated.nitro compounds, cyanogen compounds, sulfur compounds, and arsenic compounds. In each group each compound is described, the amount of space given t o it depending upon its importance. For each there is a statement of its discovery and applications and then of the reactions by which i t can he prepared. The laboratory preparation is given, followed by the industrial manufacture, its physical properties, chemical reactions, and physiological effects. Each statement is hacked by a reference to the literature. There are about fifteen hundred references to articles by about six hundred authors. The hook is recommended to those who want to know what gases were used, how they were made, and what their effects are. E EMMET Rsm 203 EASTTnrnrv-T-D S-er
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The dictionary has been compiled with the aid of thirty-four collaborators in various fields of science. Their names are given. The author fully realizes that the 48,000 entries in the book do not make it a complete dictionary covering all these fields but has attempted to make the best selection possible to cover all of them and yet have a handy sized dictionary that is very usable and not complicated by too great a multiplicity of translations for each word. A useful list of five pages of ahhreviations is placed a t the end of the dictionary. This dictionary cannot replace such specialized GermanEnglish dictionaries for chemists as Patterson's with its 42.000 entries and more complete list of translations for each word, but i t can be a very useful and helpful additional source for the chemist interested in problems that overlap into other fields not chemical, and this is the condition with many problems today. The reviewer has found the dictionary useful in abstracting work for Chemical A brtracts in chemical fields that overlap into mycology and believes that this dictionary will he especially useful t o the biologist and to the chemist whose work reaches into the biological field. The book is well manufactured and bound and the printing clear. ODENE. SHEPPARD MONTANA ST~TB COLEOB BOZB~(AN. MONTANA
ExPERmENTs m PXYsrc.4~CHEMISTRY.Herschel Hzmt. Revised Edition. John S. Swift Company. Cincinnati, Ohio, 1939. v 95 pp. 67 figs. 21 X 27 cm. $1.90. This is a planographed manual containing directions for performing forty-five experiments. As the author states in the preface, the abject is t o provide an outline to guide the student in the laboratory and not a text an technic. The experiments are designed to be used with any class book. Data sheets and graph paper are included so that the records may be kept in the book or a separate report written up outside of the laboratory. The first five pages are devoted t o glas-blowing technic and good diagrams are given to illustrate the methods of performing various operations. Each experiment-is set up under the headings: information; questions; apparatus and chemicals: procedure. The information is sometimes presented too briefly to he of full value and in some cases the questions go beyond the scope of the experiments, hut the procedures are well written. The drawings are good, and many cuts were made from actual pictures of apparatus.
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BALTIUOBB. MARYLAND
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GERMAN-ENGLISH SCIENCE D I ~ I O N A RFY OR IN THE Acnrcm~mA~ BIOLOGI~.~L, , AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES. LO& De Vries, Professor of Modern Languages, Iowa State College. McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., New York City, 1939. x 473 pp. 12.5 X 18 cm. $3.00. The introduction of this hook points out that "Research within the various departments of science has gradually developed during these years into complicated interdepartmental problems. No entomological vocabulary, for example, can today dissociate itself from the many aspects of biology in general; even the physical sciences are embraced. Terms must be included covering not only entomology and the sciences into which it enters, such as embryology, cytology, physiology, morphology, genetics, ecology, hut also chemistry, physics, botany, and medicine, all of which enter into modem treatises on insects." The purpose of this dictionary is, therefore, t o 6l1 the need of many students and investigators in the fields of science for a dictionary that does not attempt to limit itself t o just one of these fields. The reviewer's experience for nearly the past ten yesrs as a member of the committee on German reading knowledge examinations for advanced degrees has fully confirmed the need for such a dictionary. Most particularly students in the biological sciences have shown their need for such a dictionary as judged by their performance on these reading knowledge examinations.
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V~sunr.OUTLINEOF GENERAL CHEMISTRY.Ralpk E. Dunbar, Ph.D.. Professor of Chemistrv.. North Dakota Amicultural " College. Longmans, Green and Co., New York City, 1939. 348 pp. 32 figs. 13.5 X 21 cm. $0.75. iv The author has attempted t o summarize in brief statements all of the information given in general chemistry. Twenty-one of t h e better known general texts are listed in the bibliography along with forty hooks on other phases of chemistry. The statements are grouped in forty-eight chapters, arranged in ahout the same order as they would appear in a text. For each substance, the outline is, approximately: Introduction, Occurrence, Preparation (laboratory, commercial), Physical Properties, Chemical Properties, Uses, Analytical Tests. The information includes some obsolete material and methods and very rarely omits an important item. For instance, the method for preparing b from N ~ I O J2NaI01-k , 5 N a H S O 3 4 3 N a H S O 4 2NaBOh In H20,used in Chile is not mentioned. The total amount of information is enormous, but it is condensed so much that this book should he used for the purpose for which it was written: outline, review, organization of information, and a supplementary text hut never as a principal source for an understanding of chemistry. Many of the statements would be utterly meaningless if not amplified by a teacher or a text. Structural formulas are shown for organic compounds. Model ~~~
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