REVIEWS 689 



The book deals in a comprehensive fashion with the theory of equilibria in. 

 solution, colorimetry, theories of colour in their relation to the ionic theory, 

 chemical constitution and salt formation, the determination and use of indicator 

 constants, the theory of neutralisation and titration, and treats in a thorough- 

 going manner with the practical application of indicators, and last but not least, 

 Chapter VIII. gives a summarised list of the properties and absorption-spectra 

 of the principle indicators. 



The work bears evidence of careful compilation, and should gain for itself a 

 recognised place in the literature of the subject discussed. 



It should be studied by every one interested in the subject of indicators, and, 

 moreover, the numerous and well-printed tables and diagrams render it a most 

 useful reference book for the analytical laboratory. 



F. A. M. 



A Text-book of Inorganic Chemistry. By A. F. Holleman, Ph.D., LL.D., 

 F.R.A. Amst., Professor Ordinarius in the University of Amsterdam, etc. 

 Issued in English in co-operation with Hermon Charles Cooper. Fifth 

 English edition, completely revised. [Pp. viii + 521, with coloured table 

 of spectra, and diagrams.] (London : Chapman & Hall, Ltd., 1916. 

 Price 10s. 6d. net.) 



Prof. Holleman's text-books are, perhaps, better known and appreciated abroad 

 than in this country, but nevertheless they are so familiar that the issue of a new 

 English edition of his Text-book of Inorganic Chemistry calls for little comment, 

 save to congratulate the author and the translator on their continued success. 



Very many descriptive portions have been re-written, whilst the development 

 in the direction of physics and physical chemistry such as atomic weights and 

 atomic structure, gaseous equilibrium and so on, furnish new material. Although 

 the translator hails from America, we are glad to note that "sulphur" continues 

 to remain itself, and has not been converted into "sulfur" — a contraction which 

 grates somewhat on the ears of British readers ; nor do we have to suffer from 

 "thru'' and other Rooseveltian innovations; on the other hand the spelling of 

 ''aluminium" has been abandoned for "aluminum," which may or may not be 

 desirable, but looks curious to unaccustomed eyes. 



As regards new matter one may note that the Haber process is discussed on 

 page 173, but would be all the better for a diagram of the plant used in the 

 process, which, after all, represents one of the greatest advances in applied 

 chemistry, whilst it is somewhat surprising that the processes of Ostwald, or 

 Frank-Caro — by which many hundred thousand tons of nitric acid are made each 

 year in Germany by the oxidation of ammonia — are dismissed in a three-line 

 paragraph at the bottom of page 190, and, in fact, we are told on page 175 that, 

 in the combustion of ammonia, only traces of ammonium nitrite and nitrogen 

 dioxide are formed, no mention being made of the influence of catalysts nor of 

 Ostwald's interesting theory on the subject. We venture to think that by the 

 time a new edition of this book is issued it will be necessary to replace fig. 36 on 

 page 188 (the production of nitric acid) by a diagram of the ammonia-nitric acid 

 contact plant. 



The statement also on page 191 that the Chile nitrate fields "bid fair to be 

 exhausted in ten years" is hardly in accordance with the most recent statistics, 

 according to which they have a century or more before them ; if they cease to be 

 worked it will be due to the competition of synthetic nitric acid and not to the 

 exhaustion of the fields themselves. Under Iron again one looks in vain for the 



