REGENT BOOKS

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REGENT BOOKS INTKODUCTION TO SEMIMICRO QUALITATIVE CHEMICAL ANALYSIS. Louis 3. Curtman, Professor of Chemistry, The City College. The College of the City of New Yark. The Macmillan Company, New York, 1942. x 377 PP. 39 figs. 14 x 22 an. 8.75. Qualitative analysis on a semimicro basis is becoming inneasingly popular in the analytical field. To produce the present text, a well-known author has devoted much personal research to the problem of modifying a macro scheme to provide a practical course on a semimicro scale. This has involved a reduction to as Little as one-twenty-fifth in amounts employed, and the introduction of specialized techniques. Particular emphasis is placed upon these techniques, which are carefully described and well illustrated by numerous diagrams and photographs showing operations and semimicro apparatus. The reagents employed are mostly inorganic, only a few of the commoner organic reagents heingused. In addition t o the systematic.analysis. preliminary experiments are provided, and in Part I1 the important reactions occurring in the analysis are presented and discussed in the light of the theory taken up in an earlier section of the hook. Part I of the text, comprising some 115 pages, is given over t o a thorough discussion of theoretical principles, including the structure of compounds, theory of ionization, chemical equilibrium, solubility product, complex ion formation and oxidationreduction. Rather more formal elementary physical chemistry is introduced than some may wish, hut as much of this is in finer print, it need cause little difficulty. Many numerical problems with answers are given to test the student's understanding of the principles presented. The answers to these problems invariably have proved t o be correct. In addition, Part I11 is devoted to those calculations which are primarily of analytical interest. Both the valence-change and the ian-electron methods of writing and balancing redox equations are described. Tables of sollblities and solubility products, of the properties of inorganic eompounds, and of Logarithms are included in this hook, which is well printed and attractively bound. This text offers a full, well-rounded treatment of the subject. and should be considered by all those seeking a text in semimicro qualitative analysis. W. W. RUSSELL

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interspersed among the numbered ones. These tables, which vary in length from only a few lines to as much as four pages, are well arranged and contain much useful summarized data as to nomenclature, properties, reactions, and methods of preparation. Helpful review questions, frequently of a problem nature, are given at the end of each chapter. The first chapter (19 pages) deals with the nature of matter, the types of linkages in molecules, the role played by electrons in these linkages, and the activation of molecules for reactions. This theoretical material is applied repeatedly throughout the book in explaining the behavior of different types of compounds and in explaining the mechanism of reactions. By the end of the year the student should have become quite familiar with such terms as "resonance," "resonance hybrid," "the dative bond." "electron density," "electrometric shift," and the other terminolow of electronic structural organic chemistry. Considerable stress is placed upon the etymology of many terms which the organic chemist so frequently accepts without considering their origin. In striking contrast, there are prsctically no biographical data of any of the numerous organic chemists mentioned by name. The only thumbnail sketch observed by the reviewer is that of Alfred Nobel (p. 270). No reading references t o the original literature are supplied to guide the more thorough students, although there are occasional references to other texts and to a few journal articles, chiefly to substantiate or to indicate the source of specific statements in the text. Considerably more material than can be covered in the usual one-year course in organic chemistry has been included, but there is little to guide the beginning student as t o what may be considered important and what may not. There are relatively few cross references in the body of the text. A great deal of information as to specific details of laboratory and commercial methods of preparation and yields as well as a multitude of specific industrial uses are included. Much of this information could have been obtained only by close attention to the current technical literature. There is no apparent indication that organic chemistry is playing an important part in World War 11. Thus a long list of organic chemicals produced from petroleum (p. 91) includes neither butadienenar toluene. The binding and typography are excellent. The book is very well put together and singularly free from errors, although the statement that "coke has a high ratio of hydrogen to carbon" (p. 94) is an obvious error that wasoverlooked. This book should be of use not onlv as a textbook~~~far the seriom student in a formal course in organic chemistry, hut should also be valuable as a reference book for the industrial or research chemist. ~~~~

O a c m c CHEMISTRY.G. Albert Hill, Professor of Organic Chemistry, Wesleyan University, and Louise Kslley. Professor of Organic Chemistry. Goucher College. The Blakiston Company. Philadelphia. 1943. viii 919 p p 16 figs. 71 tables. 15 X 23 cm. WOO. The authors of this textbook have succeeded admirably in carrying out their expressed aim to "develop a balanced presentation of the thecretical asnects of orwnic - chemistrv..of the nronerties, merhods of prepamrim, and reactionr of organic compounds. nf the I. IT.C rystrm of nommclalure and its rclatlon to earlier sysrems, and of the physiolup.lral r f f t r t s and rhc uscr of organic substances." The traditional sequence of presentation of the organic compounds :s closely adhered to: aliphatic compounds (ahout 500 pages); aromatic compounds (210 pager)-followed by brief sections devoted to alicyclic compounds, heterocyclics, and alkaloids. This is followed by a single chapter (27 pages) on "The steroid i group; plant pigments; vitamins" and a final chapter (11 pages) on "Polymerization." There is also an exceptionally complete index (59 pages) with the more important references indicated in boldface type. Included in the text are seventy-one numbered tables of data in addition to several similar unnumbered tables

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CHEMISTRY.M . Cannon Sneed, Professor GENERALINOROANIC of Chemistry, and I. Levis M a y m r d , Assistant Professor of Chemistry, in the School of Chemistry. University of Minnesota. First Edition. D. Van Nostrand and Company, Inc.. New York. 1942. xviii 1166 pp. I80 figs. 1.39 tables. 15 X 22 cm. $4.50. "This hook is more extensive in its scope than most inorganic chemistries." With this masterpiece of understatement the authors commence one of the most ambitious literary efforts in the history of American inorganic chemistry. Monumental is a word seldom applicable to a text for beginners in any subject. but this hook will long he remembered as a milestone in chemical education. The choice of topics is standard, with the addition of chapters on "Types of Compounds." "Thermochemistry." "The Further

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