REVIEWS 161 



Everyman's Chemistry. The Chemist's Point of View and his Recent Work 

 told for the Layman. By Ellwood Hendrick. [Pp. x + 320.] (London: 

 University of London Press, 1918. Price 8^. 6d. net.) 

 This is really quite a delightful and refreshing book, which hardened chemists 

 as well as non-scientific folk will read with zest and pleasure. It is a pity that 

 war conditions have necessitated fixing a price which will prevent one from buying 

 half a doi:en copies and distributing them among one's friends. 

 The preftce itself explains matters tersely : 



" The whole thing is, in a way, a sporting proposition between you, the reader, 

 and me. If I can hold your attention until you have read it through, I shall have 

 succeeded in my undertaking, and you will know something about the Ways of 

 Stuff as the chemist has to do with them. . . . You will not know how the chemist 

 works so much as you will of the way he thinks ; and instead of presenting him to 

 you as a superman with potentialities and powers beyond his kind, I have tried 

 to make it clear that his problems are very like those of a business man. . . . My 

 only stipulation is that you shall not attempt to read the book backward." 



It would serve no purpose to give a summary of the contents ; these the reader 

 must see for himself, but the titles of Chapters I, II, and III, "Chemical 

 Miseries " — including the salutary tale of Dr. Noyadont and how his chemical 

 knowledge saved his fellow Directors from catastrophe — "The Heart of the 

 Thing," and " Phases of Matter," will indicate the nature of the book ; or again, 

 Chapter VIII, "The Red-headed Halogens," in which Mr. Hendrick reminds us 

 that " we are wont to attribute to men and women having auburn hair a certain 

 quickness in response to a stimulus. This is a distinct quality of the halogens." 



There are one or two slight errors which might be corrected in a later edition : 

 on p 75 it is stated that in the manufacture of cyanamide " the extra carbon is 

 burned away in the heat " ; this is, of course, not the case ; also Germany is, not 

 was, the largest producer of cyanamide. On p. 149 some reference to rustless 

 steel should surely be included, and the formulas on pp. 284-5 f° r trinitro- 

 chlorbenzene and picric acid respectively are incorrect. 



These, however, are small points, and one can honestly wish the book a large 

 sale, and hope that this will not be Mr. Hendrick's first and last production ! 



F. A. M. 



An Introduction to the Study of Biological Chemistry. By S. B. Schryver, 

 D.Sc. Modern Outlook Series. [Pp. 340.] (London : J. C. & E. C. Jack, 

 1919. Price 6s. net.) 



" The aim of this new series is to present in readable volumes the results of the 

 most recent scholarship in all departments of human thought." 



The expectations raised by this statement of the publishers on the wrapper are 

 considerably modified by the statements of the author in his preface that " no 

 attempt has been made to deal with more than one part of the study of biological 

 chemistry — namely, that concerned with the structure of materials of which the 

 bodies of living objects are composed" and that in many parts the book "does not 

 differ markedly from an elementary text-book on organic chemistry." Accepting 

 the position thus taken up by the author, the book is well written and can be 

 recommended to those who desire to obtain an elementary knowledge of that part 

 of organic chemistry treated by the author. Nevertheless, one regrets that 

 the physico-chemical aspect has not been considered, and especially that the part 

 dealing with plant chemistry only occupies 15 pages as contrasted with 140 devoted 

 to animal chemistry. I. J. 



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