August io, 191 1] 



NATURE 



i77 



NEW TEXT-BOOKS OF CHEMISTRY. 

 I Course in Qualitative Chemical Analysis. By 

 Prof. C. Baskerville and Dr. L. J. Curtman. Pp. 

 ix + 200. (New York: The Macmillan Co.; Lon- 

 don: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price 6s. 

 net. 



(2) Elementary Chemical Theory. By J. M. Wadmore. 

 Pp. xi + 275. (London : Methuen and Co., Ltd., 

 n.d.) Price 3s. 6d. 



(3) Physikalisch-Chemische Praktikumsaufgaben. By 

 Prof. G. Kiimmell. Pp. vii + 71. (Leipzig and 

 Berlin : B. G. Teubner, 1910.) Price 1.60 marks. 



(4) Inorganic Chemistry. By Prof. F. S. Kipping, 

 F.R.S., and Prof. W. H. Perkin, F.R.S. Pp. xiv + 

 750. (London and Edinburgh : W. R. Chambers, 

 Ltd., 1911.) Price ys. 6d. 



(5) Outlines of Experimental Chemistry. By Dr. 

 E. B. Ludlam and H. Preston. Pp. iv + 95. 

 (London : Edward Arnold, 1910.) Price 2s. 



1 \ T first sight the volume on qualitative analysis 

 •/*- by Messrs. Baskerville and Curtman appears 

 to follow the old, familiar arrangement, in which 

 individual tests are followed by simple schemes of 

 separation. But on closer inspection one comes across 

 at the end of each scheme a series of notes in small 

 print, which seem to us to be the really valuable part 

 of the book. These notes, whilst they destroy to 

 some extent the apparent simplicity of the analytical 

 tables, acquaint the student with facts which he 

 usually has to lr-arn from experience, viz. that 

 reactions are modified by their environment and that 

 few separations are quite complete. Anomalous re- 

 sults are thus anticipated, and the pitfalls, into which 

 a belief in the infallibility of tables often leads, are 

 avoided. Importance is attached to careful manipu- 

 lation, and to the use of solutions of known strength 

 for examination, so that the student may become accus- 

 tomed to forming a rough estimate of the composition 

 of a mixture. It should be added that the book does 

 not profess to teach manipulation, and there are no 

 detailed descriptions of apparatus or laboratory opera- 

 tions. 



(2) This is a book on chemical theory for use in 

 schools, that is, one dealing with laws and hypotheses 

 in an elementary way. Such a study naturally implies 

 a fairly extensive quantitative as well as qualitative 

 knowledge of chemical facts. Assuming that the 

 schoolboy knows his facts, such a book as Mr. VVad- 

 more's should be of real assistance to him in systema- 

 tising his information. Moreover, the emphasis laid 

 on quantitative results and the method of plotting 

 them as curves is a process which should be early 

 assimilated. On the other hand, such a book as this 

 will have to be used with the utmost discrimination, 

 for it is not every schoolboy, even in the higher forms, 

 who will be in a position to grasp the real significance 

 of Pasteur's work on asymmetry, the meaning of 

 optical activity, the use of the phase rule or the 

 nature of osmotic pressure. 



The subjects on the whole are well selected, and 



the material is put together in a simple and attractive 



form. We have one criticism to offer. Some of the 



historical references are so curtailed as to be quite 



NO. 2l8o, VOL. 87] 



valueless, and might, for any purpose they serve, be 

 omitted. " He [Marignac] was misled by the errone- 

 ous hypothesis of an English doctor, Prout " ; but 

 what the erroneous hypothesis was is not stated. "It 

 occurred to no one, however, to make a special inves- 

 tigation of this point [constancy of composition] till 

 . . . Berthollet denied it"; but what Berthollet's 

 views were, or why he denied it, is left untold. 

 "Attention was originally directed to this [diffusion] 

 by the chance observation that hydrogen could escape 

 through a fine crack in a gas jar." This was cer- 

 tainly not the chance observation, and it would have 

 been remarkable if anything else had happened. It 

 may be true that Dalton's quantitative results were 

 inaccurate; but it is a novelty to read that he 

 "cooked" them (p. 12). 



(3) This small volume of seventy pages is intended, 

 as its name indicates, to serve as a practical guide to 

 physical chemistry. It contains exercises in chemical 

 statics and dynamics, thermo-, photo-, and electro- 

 chemistry, the latter forming nearly half the volume. 

 No fault can be found with the arrangement or char- 

 acter of the exercises ; but it may be doubted if the 

 meagre descriptions of the operations would enable 

 any student to carry out a single determination with- 

 out either previous experience or the constant super- 

 vision and help of the demonstrator. In short, the 

 descriptions afford little more than might be found in 

 any ordinary text-book in which these subjects are 

 discussed. A comparison with such a book as Dr. 

 Findlay's at once reveals its shortcomings in the air- 

 important matter of descriptive detail. 



(4) This is practically two books, an elementary and 

 a more advanced text-book, which are published 

 separately, and also in one volume. The first, or 

 elementary part, covers the subject-matter required by 

 the matriculation examination of London University ; 

 the second part is intended for students who are 

 working for a pass degree. The object, so the authors 

 state in the preface, of thus combining two stages of 

 a student's chemical course, is to avoid the necessity 

 in which a student entering a college finds himself of 

 procuring a different and much larger text-book. For 

 the advanced book usually takes him back to the 

 beginning of the subject in which "some of the new 

 matter which he requires is scattered here and there 

 in the earlier chapters dealing with the non-metals, 

 most of it is contained in the chapters on the metals, 

 but in both cases there is generally the further diffi- 

 culty that it is not differentiated from the more ad- 

 vanced matter required in his third year." 



It is no doubt true that the schoolboy has to go 

 to some expense in stocking his library with more 

 advanced text-books when he enters on a university 

 course. This seems almost inevitable, and the pro- 

 cess necessitates a certain discontinuity of treatment, 

 and, to some extent, a repetition of previous informa- 

 tion. It has obvious disadvantages no doubt, but also 

 perhaps less obvious advantages. It is with the object 

 of avoiding the former that the authors have developed 

 their method, and it may be admitted at once that it 

 is extremely well done. To give examples : the sub- 

 ject of solution is discussed in a simple elementary 

 manner in an early chapter of part i., in which the 



