NA TURE 



^57 



THURSDAY, MAY 2^, 1916. 



CHEMISTRY FOR STUDENTS AND 

 GENERAL READERS. 

 (i) A Text-book of Elementary Chemistry. By 

 Prof. A. Smith. Pp. x -r 457. (London : G. Bell 

 and Sons, Ltd., 1915.) Price 5s. net. 



(2) A Laboratory Outline of Elementary Chem- 

 istry. By Prof. A. Smith. Pp. 152. (London : 

 G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1915.) Price 25. net. 



(3) A Text-book of Inorganic Chemistry. Edited 

 by Dr. J. Newton Friend. Vol, viii. : The Halo- 

 g'ens and their Allies. By Dr. G. Martin and 

 E. A. Dancaster. Pp. xviii + 337. (London: 

 C. Griffin and Co., Ltd., 1915.) Price los. 6d. 

 net. 



(4) Modern Chemistry and its Wonders. By Dr. 

 G. Martin. Pp. xvi + 351. (London: Sampson 

 Low, Marston and Co., Ltd., 191 5.) Price 

 js. 6d. net. 



(i) 'T'HOSE who have used, and appre- 

 ^ ciated the merits of. Prof. Smith's well- 

 known " Introduction to Inorganic Chemistry " 

 will study with interest his new "Text-book 

 of Elementary Chemistry " and the " Labora- 

 tory Outline " which has been written as a 

 companion to it. The published work of the 

 author, and the brilliant results that have followed 

 from his experimental researches, are a sufficient 

 guarantee of the authenticity and accuracy of the 

 statements of which the book is comp>osed, and 

 there is no lack of novelty in the range of sub- 

 jects or in the facts which are quoted as illustra- 

 tions. A perusal of the book has left in the mind 

 ot the reviewer some feeling of disappointment 

 that the author has consented to be bound by the 

 narrow restrictions involved in the compilation of 

 one of the smaller elementary text-books. So 

 many fascinating subjects are dealt with that one 

 cannot help regretting again and again that a few 

 lines in the text have had to carry a load which 

 might well have been distributed over a page or a 

 chapter. Thus the allotropy of sulphur, the con- 

 stitution of water, the chemistry of petroleum, 

 starch and sugars, enzymes and fermentation, 

 the fixation of nitrogen, radioactivity and the 

 inert gases of the atmosphere, pottery and 

 cement, colloids and adsorption, fats and soaps, 

 explosives and artificial silk, are all touched upon 

 very briefly as illustrating the fundamental laws 

 of chemistry or its applications to everyday life. 

 Facts and observations such as these are amongst 

 the most valuable assets of the lecturer, who can 

 use them at his own discretion to cover with flesh 

 the bony skeleton on which his subject is built 

 up ; some teachers at least will feel disappointed 

 when they have to compete with a text-book in 

 which the dr\- bones are already so amply covered 

 with flesh. The attention of English teachers may 

 be directed to the brief description given on pages 

 207 and 208 of the Frasch process of mining 

 sulphur at the new township of Sulphur, 

 Louisiana, where a quarter of a million tons of 

 sulphur are pumped up every year in a molten 



state from beneath a quicksand with the help of 

 superheated steam. 



The book is illustrated by means of a series of 

 simple, but very effective, line-drawings; there 

 are also full-page portraits of Lomonossoff (the 

 great Russian chemist, 171 1— 1765, whose for- 

 gotten work has been rediscovered to modern 

 chemists by the aid of Prof. Smith himself), 

 Mayow, Ramsay, Perrin (a charming and lifelike 

 portrait), and Becquerel ; a full-page illustration is 

 also given erf C. T. R. Wilson's photographs of 

 fog-tracks from radium. The British edition con- 

 tains two additional chapters, on the laws of 

 chemical combination and the periodic classifica- 

 tion of the elements, which have been added at the 

 suggestion of Mr. H. A. Wootton, the senior 

 science master at Westminster School. 



(2) The " Laboratory Outline " calls for little 

 comment, as it has been arranged to harmonise 

 with and to illustrate the subject-matter of the 

 "Text-book." Those who adopt the text-book 

 will be glad to base their course of laboratory work 

 on the " Laboratory Outline," and will find there 

 an ample selection of suitable experiments and 

 suggestions. 



(3) Dr. Friend's new "Text-book of Inorganic 

 Chemistry " promises to be a very valuable addi- 

 tion to chemical literature. Vol. viii. is the second, 

 out of nine volumes, to reach the stage of publica- 

 tion, and as it is the first volume to deal system- 

 atically with an important group of elements, it 

 may be regarded as establishing the kind of trea:t- 

 ment that will be adopted throughout the series. 

 The general result is extremely satisfactory, and 

 will provide for English readers an even more 

 useful guide to the literature of inorganic chem- 

 istry than they will find in the familiar Conti- 

 nental works of Moissan and Abegg. The chief 

 features of the book, which arrest attention imme- 

 diately, are the references given at the foot of 

 almost every page to show the authority for the 

 statements made in the text, and the generous 

 treatment given to the physical properties of the 

 various elements and compounds ; manufacturing 

 processes, such as the preparation of gaseous and 

 of liquid chlorine, are also described in sufficient 

 detail for an intelligent appreciation of the various 

 operations which are involved. A wholly unneces- 

 sary prejudice is created in the introductory pages 

 by numerous quotations from earlier publications 

 of one of the authors, including in one instance an 

 actual claim for priority ; but this feature disap- 

 pears as soon as the chapter on fluorine has been 

 passed, and has no influence on the real utility of 

 the book. Now that the supply of books and 

 journals from the Continent has been so largely 

 curtailed, it may be hoped that English chemists 

 will take the opportunity of adding to their 

 libraries the volumes of this most useful and 

 creditable English text-book. 



(4) It is difficult for a professional worker in 

 any subject to review accurately a popular exposi- 

 tion of the "wonders" which form the familiar 

 material of his "daily. round and common task." 

 The best criticism of such a work is obviously 

 that of the general reader, for whom it is in- 



