782 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII. No. 437. 



terial placed before them by the physical 

 chemists. One is tempted to use a piscatorial 

 metaphor and to affirm that Hinds has nibbled 

 at the bait, Holleman has taken a good hold 

 on the hook, while Jones has swallowed line, 

 sinker and all. 



These books are intended for serious college 

 work, but the question must arise as to whether 

 they would be suited for beginners even in 

 college classes. In some of our colleges, most 

 of those entering have had some smattering 

 of chemistry, and a few have had really thor- 

 ough grounding in the fundamentals of the 

 science in the secondary schools. Yet in most 

 college classes there are those to whom the 

 subject is new. Just now it seems to be the 

 fad to introduce conceptions of physical chem- 

 istry into the elementary text-books, and in 

 one recently published the student meets the 

 theories of electrolytic dissociation and of 

 mass action during the first few weeks of 

 study, while descriptive chemistry is relegated 

 to a score or two of pages at the end of the 

 book. In spite of all that has been said to 

 prove that chemistry will never be a true sci- 

 ence until it can be treated on a purely mathe- 

 matical basis, it still remains the writer's 

 opinion that a knowledge of what is some- 

 times rather superciliously called descriptive 

 chemistry is fundamental to the thorough ac- 

 quisition of the science of chemistry. Natu- 

 rally it is not necessary, in gaining a knowl- 

 edge of descriptive chemistry, to found it upon 

 theories which are false and must be unlearned 

 at a later period; indeed, too much theory is 

 just what is not called for in studying descrip- 

 tive chemistry. But a student must have 

 some considerable familiarity with chemical 

 elements and compounds and with chemical 

 reactions before he can at all realize the bear- 

 ing of chemical theories. 



On the other hand, college students are sup- 

 posed to have a certain maturity and develop- 

 ment of mind, which should enable them to 

 handle a subject in a very different manner 

 from students of secondary schools. Theoret- 

 ically a purely inductive method may be the 

 most scientific, but practically the average 

 college student will weary of following the 

 arguments of a well-developed course of rea- 



soning three or four weeks long, and he will 

 lose his interest. If a partially deductive 

 method be used, if certain of the more prom- 

 inent lines of the fundamental theories are 

 sketched before him, he sees something of the 

 import of the phenomena he is studying, much 

 to his pleasure and his interest. This appears 

 to be clearly recog-nized by the authors of the 

 books before us. 



In Professor Hinds' ' Inorganic Chemistry ' 

 this idea is apparently carried to an extreme, 

 for the whole of the theoretical matter is pre- 

 sented before descriptive chemistry is touched 

 upon, but in this respect the book is not quite 

 so extreme as it seems at first sight, for in the 

 preface the author advises that the book is 

 not intended to be studied consecutively, but 

 lessons are to be taken alternately from the 

 two portions. He suggests a definite order, 

 which, however, any teacher may change to 

 suit his owa ideas. In this respect the book 

 takes on somewhat the character of an en- 

 cyclopedia, where each user may formulate his 

 own logical system for himself. A system, 

 this, which presents some advantages, but also 

 some drawbacks. 



This book is divided into four parts : ' In- 

 troduction,' ' Physical Chemistry,' ' Theoretical 

 Chemistry ' and ' Descriptive Chemistry,' and 

 the third part has two divisions — ' Statics ' and 

 ' Dynamics.' 



The Introduction is brief and contains a 

 short outline of the atomic theory and a de- 

 scription of the various divisions of chemistry. 



Part II. is a review of those portions of 

 physics which have a more or less direct bear- 

 ing on chemistry, with a few pages on crystal- 

 lography. The chapter on ' Interaction of 

 Solids, Liquids and Gases ' is perhaps the most 

 unsatisfactory one in the book. Osmotic pres- 

 sure is not even alluded to and the treatment 

 of solutions is very inadequate; indeed, the 

 whole chapter might have been written fifty 

 years sgo. The chapter on ' Changes of 

 Physical State ' is more modern and more 

 satisfactory. 



Under the head of ' Statics ' we have a dis- 

 cussion of atoms and molecules and their 

 properties, including the classification of 

 atoms, valence, acids, bases and salts, nomen- 



