RECENT BOOKS COKEFOEMATION PROCESS AND PHYSICO-CHEMICAL PROPERTIES oa COALS. W . S~urietoslawski,Professor of Physical Chemistry a t the Institute of Technology of Warsaw, Poland. Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in America, Herald Square Press, New York, New York. 1942. viii 145 pp. 16 X 24.5 cm. $3.50. The treatment of the subject matter in this monograph is unusual but welcome in coal technology and r d e c t s the training and experience of the author in physical chemistry. T o most Americans, familiarity with the work of Polish investigators is limited to abstracts. so that the present work has special significance in summarizing the results of the investigations carried out in the Coal Division of the Chemical Research Institute a t Warsaw during the past twenty years. While individual American coal technologists will undoubtedly take exception t o some of the views expressed by the author on the various complex phenomena discussed, divergent opinion should lead t o further research to clarify the issues. The present reviewer has found this book very suggestive of new problems for experimental investigation. The author has also included proposals lor new methods of coke manufacture and far the production of semicoke from coals not generally regarded as suitable for this purpose. The use of unusual phraseology and terminology should be pardoned generously in the case of one not writing in his native language, and particularly in this case where the new ideas presented adequately compensate the reader. H. H. LOWRY
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TBIS CITEMICALAGE. WiIliam Hnynes. Second Edition. Alfred A. Knopf, New York City, 1942. x 401 xxivpp. 18 figs. 2 charts. 15 X 23 cm. 83.50. One new chapter entitled, "Chemicals on Active Service" has been added as the enlargement of the book "This Chemical Age" in the second edition, revised and enlarged. The short discussion of wood as a substitute for metals is a worth-while addition. The revision consists of the correction of errors a ~ ~ e a r i nine the earlier edition. For review of first edition.
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THEFOODYOUEAT,A PRACTICAL GUIDETO HOMENUTRITION. Samuel and Vidette Glasstone. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma, 1943. 277 pp. 18 figs. 6 X 9 cm. $2.25. A physical chemist and a plant physiologist-housekeeperhave collaborated in writing this semipopular hook on today's most popular subject-nutrition. A general outline of the energy requirements of the body and a description of the digestive processes are given in a pleasant informative style. The essential constituents of a balanced diet are discussed in some detail with enough historical background t o interest the lay reader in the development of our knowledge of nutrition. Menu planning is related t o nutritive needs in a very practical way and a useful outline translates the recommendations of the National Research Council into terms of common foods. The advice on low cost diets is timely. The authors attempt t o present both sides of controversial subjects. They succeed pretty well in avoiding the danger of approaching the faddist fringe-a feat which takes careful balancing in any popular book on foods. The physiological chemist may find some generalizations with which t o disagree but on the whole this is an accurate presentation of good dietary practice. The book is attractively printed and hound. MARIONFAY W o r n ' s Mmrcnr. COLLBG~ ow PBIINSYLV~ ~ D ~ D L P PBNNSYLYANI& - ,
OUTLINES OP F'XYSICALCHEMISTRY. By the late Fruterick H. Gelman and Farrington Daniels,Professor of Chemistry in the University of Wisconsin. Seventh Edition. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, 1943. xii f 691 pp. 166 figs. 15 X 22.7 cm. 83.75. The seventh edition of this well-known text, for which, after the death of the senior author. Dr. Daniels is solelv . resoonsible. . appears under the new titleof "physical"instead of "theoretical" chcmiwy; and the familiar red hinding has been replaced by a hlnck cover with the title stamped on a blue-green background. The new edition, appearing six years after its predecessor, is vastly improved and the changes made and the rearrangement of the subject matter will, no doubt, meet with general approval. Some chapters have been partly or wholly eliminated and the contents have been embodied in existing chapters or discussed under new headings. The sequence of topics has likewise undergone changes. After an introductay chapter on fundamental concepts, gases are discussed; then crystals followed by physical properties and molecular structure. The treatment of elementary thermodynamics has heen enlarged and is discussed in three separate chapters entitled: Heat, Work, and Heat Capacity; Thermochemistry; Thermodynamics. This setup enables a full discussion of the chapters which follow, an liquids, solutions, solutions of nonvolatile solutes (including electrolytes), and colloids. Under chemical equilibria, both homogeneous and heterogeneous equilibria are discussed. The phrase rule and its applications take up a new chapter, Phase Diagrams, containing a number of new figures, some of which are incorrectly drawn (e. g., Fig. 87, h and i). This should also be said of the lattice diagrams for ZnS and CuzO (p. 52, Fig. 21). h e might wish that the author had eliminated the sulfur diagram, that hardy perennial which first appeared forty years ago in Findlay's "Phase Rule" and has since been copied by practically every author of a textbook on physical chemistry. This figure (p. 319) is sadly distorted, and becomes even more so when students reproduce i t from memory! The lower triple point, 0, has a pressure of less than 0.01 mm. and the upper triple point, C, a pressure of 1280 atm.! A more recent example, such as the HsO diagram a t high pressures from Bridgman's work might well have been substituted. Electrical conductance is followed by electromotive force and this in turn by ionic equilihria, where all possible applications of the mass law to electrolytes are treated in a systematic way. The all-important relation between free energy and maximum electric work is, unfortunately, still expressed as in the previous edition. I n student papers or blackboard work this invariably becomes - A F = nPZ where F means free energy and a Faraday a t the same time and E is the same E that is used elsewhere for energy. The reviewer is strongly in favor of the suggestion, repeatedly made, to represent the "Gibbs" free energy by G and designate the energy by U,as was done years ago. Perhaps some day chemists, physicists, and engineers will agree on using the same symbols. The remaining chapters, including the one on chemical thermodynamics, do not di5er materially from the corresponding ones in the sixth edition. I n spite of the inclusion of new material dealing with the electron microscope, chromatography. and polarography and more rigorous derivations of important equations, such as the relation between vapor pressure and osmotic pressure, the number of pages has increased only by thirty. This increase is largely due t o the incorporation of numerous problems (the reviewer counted well over 100) worked out in detail. This admirable feature which distinguishes this edition from most of the current texhooks, and e m from the previous edition (which contained barely a dozen solved problems) will he greatly appreciated hy students and no less by their teachers, whose task will he considerably lightened.
