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NEW BOOKS Zur Lehre von den Zustanden der Materie. B y P.P.uon ?Weimam. Vols. I and I I . zz X Ij cm; pp. v 190. Dresden: Theodor Steinkopff, I9I4. Price: 7 marks, paper.-The author has put into book form the articles which he has

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published in the last half a dozen years. The first volume contains the text while the second volume is a n atlas containing microphotographs of precipitates in different stages of crystallization. T h e author distinguishes five stages of supersaturation of sparingly soluble substances. I n the first stage, precipitation is very slow and large crystals are obtained in the course of years. I n the second stage good crystals are formed in a relatively short time. XVith increasing supersaturation we reach the third stage in which skeleton crystals precipitate. In the fourth stage we get a plastic or jelly-like precipitate, while the fifth stage gives a precipitate which cannot a t first be differentiated either by the microscope or the ultra-microscope. For barium sulphate produced by the interaction of manganese sulphate and barium sulphocyanate, the limiting concentrations for the five stages are approximately N/zoooo-~L~, 7000, A- 7ooo-AT 600, X, 600-0.7 j S , 0 . 7 jA-3-V, 3.V-7N. The author states t h a t he has studied over a thousand cases and has never found an exception. It must be remembered, however, that most people would consider the dilute solutions as colloidal suspensions, and t h a t there is also a question t o what extent the precipitates from the concentrated solutions are or are not hydrous. I n addition to a theory of precipitation the author has also a theory of peptonization. He considers that the precipitate first dissolves in the peptonizing agent and then precipitates again. On this basis, peptonization would apparently always mean the conversion of a fine-grained precipitate into a coarser one. I n fact, von Weimarn says, p. 6 7 , t h a t the necessary and sufficient conditions for peptonization are : I . The solid crystalline substance must be of so small crystals t h a t the physical and chemical properties vary with the size of the crystals. 2 . The peptonizing substance must have the power a t sufficiently high concentrations to form a stable, soluble, chemical compound with the substance which is peptonized. %hen the concentration of the peptonizing agent is sufficiently low, no such compound must be formed. 3. The medium in which peptonization takes place must have practically no solvent action on the substance to be peptonized when no peptonizing agent is present. This formulation has the great advantage of being definite. One knows exactly where the author stands and he is not juggling with words. So far as the reviewer knows the author is the only person who has ever dared to commit himself to a theory of peptonization. For this we owe him many thanks quite regard!css whether his theory proves t o be right in all details or not. It seems to the reviewer t h a t the author has not laid sufficient stress on the conditions of stability of a sol and that he, therefore, does not take sufficiently into account the importance of the adsorption of a specific ion in causing peptonization. The reviewer is also somewhat doubtful whether the particles in a sol are always

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coarser than those in a precipitate which can be peptonized. The fact t h a t a soap solution will carry rouge through filter paper indicates pretty strongly that a disintegration has taken place. U7ilder D . Bancroft Tables annuelles internationales d e constantes et donnee s numbriques. Edited by C h . Mauie. Vol. I I I , 1912. 23 X 28 c m ; p p . u $93. Chicago: Cniversity of Chicago Press, 1914. Price: $6.80. The indefatigable editor has succeeded in getting out a third volume of this valuable reference book. Though the field to be covered grows larger each year the editor has shortened the volume by one hundred and thirty pages. In the sections on chemical equilibria, reaction velocities and electrical conductivity, it has been found possible not t o give all the d a t a in full. This is a distinct improvement. The section on colloids has been cut down by eliminating data in regard to substances which are in themselves ill-defined or which have been obtained under cmditions which are ill-defined. Owing to special financial assistance it has been found possible to issue the sections on spectroscopy, radioactivity, electricity, magnetism and electrochemistry. metallurgy and engineering, mineralogy, and biology as separate pamphlets. T h e volume was completed before the European war broke out, so it is not known what effect this will have on the International Tables; but it seems probable that the financial support will be decreased to some extent and that the difficulties of compiling the tables will necessarily be increased enormously. 1Vilder D . Eazcroft

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A Laboratory Guide to the Study of Qualitative Analysis. B y E . H . S . Bailey a n d H a m i l t o n P . Cady. Seventh Edition. I j X 21 c m ; p p . v 280. Philadelphia: P . Blakiston’s Son b Co., 1914. Price: $ I . 2 j net. The fifth edition has been reviewed ( I O , 2 2 3 ) . The present one differs from it only in a few places, some changes having been made in the separation and identification of iron, aluminum, chromium, manganese, zinc, nickel, and cobalt. Since every other page is blank in the body of the text, there are not so many pages of reading matter as one might expect from the size of the book. T h e reviewer was distinctly interested in a broader statement of Berthollet’s Law, p. 9. “ T h e conditionswhichfavor reactions are that two or more of the ions shall unite to form either a compound which passes out of solution, or that they shall unite t o form a compound which is only slightly dissociated.” T h e first condition is the one usually given of the formation of an insoluble or volatile substance. T h e second covers such cases as the addition of hydrochloric acid t o a sodium acetate solution or the addition of potassium cyanide solution t o silver cyanide. One valuable feature about the manual is t h a t stress is laid on the reversibility of reactions. E’ilder D. Bancroft

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Von Nostrand’s Chemical Annual. B y J o h n C. Olsen. Third edition. 13 X 19 c m ; p p . 669. X e w Y o r k : D . Van Avostrand Co., 1913. Price: $ 2 . j0. The third edition of this chemical handbook presents a much neater appearance than the old edition. It is printed on a good quality of thin paper and contains an unusually large number of useful constants, chemical formulae, and properties. I t contains, respectively, the following tables : Atomic IVeights, the Periodic System, Specific Gravity of Gases, Physical Constants of the Ele-

ments, Factors and Logarithms for Direct and Indirect Gravimetric TVork, Various Factors for 1701umetric Analysis, Various Constants for Oils, F a t s a n d Waxes, Gas Analytical Determinations, Physical Constants of Chemical Compounds, Specific Gravity Tables, Vapor Pressure and Boiling Point Tables, Equivalent Weights and Measures, and a number of tables giving the thermochemical changes for chemical reactions. A classified bibliography of books published since 1909 with price of the books and the place of publication is given a t the end of the volume. Tables are arranged in a clear-cut manner, and the index serves as a ready guide to these tables. T h e actual values given are, in general, probably more accurate than those of handbooks published heretofore, and while not containing as many facts as the “Chemiker Kalendar,” it contains the facts better arranged and with an index. The mass of useful facts in this volume is probably as great as in that of the “Chemiker Kalendar.” Charles W . Bennett

The Spectroscopy of the Extreme Ultra-Violet. 23 X 16 cnz; $ I . jo.-This

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B y Theodore Lyman.

S e w I’ork: Longmans, Greeiz 3 Co., 1914. Price: book is one of a series of monographs on physics edited by J . J. 18

Thomson. The author is the best person to speak authoritatively on the subject because he took lip the work where Schumann was forced to drop it and has carried it on in an admirable manner. The book is divided into two parts, the first dealing with the ultra-violet and the second with the extreme ultra-violet. I n the first part the chapters are entitled: photometry in the ultra-violet; absorption of solids and gases. I n the second and more important part, the subject is treated under the headings: apparatus and methods of investigation in the extreme ultra-violet; absorption of solids and gases; emission spectra of gases; emission spectra of solids ; photo-electric and photo-abiotic phenomena; the limit of the spectrum I t seems t o be fairly well established, p. 1 7 , that the limit of the solar spectrum is independent of the altitude between sea-ievel and 9000 meters. I t is evident, therefore, that the absorbing agent must either possess a n extremely steep absorption curve or reside in the very uppermost layers of the earth’s atmosphere. The author inclines to the view, p. 2 2 , that the absorbing agent is ozone, though he considers that this is not yet established definitely There is an interesting paragraph on p. g r . “After the work with the [aluminum] spark in hydrogen was completed, a n investigation by Lenard on volume ionisation renewed the interest in the nature of the aluminum spark in air. It has been shown that the ability to produce volume ionisation by light increases in the Schumann region with decrease in wave-length; in fact, some investigators go so far as to assert that the phenomenon only occurs when light on the more refrangible side of A1400 is employed. Now Lenard obtained very strong ionisation when he used a very powerful spark between aluminum terminals, and his results indicated that the effective light lay in the extreme Schumann region. On consulting the data for the aluminum spark in hydrogen, it was obvious that no strong lines existed in the extreme ultra-violet. Unless, therefore, lines are to be found in the spectrum of the aluminum spark in air which were not present with the spark in hydrogen, Lenard’s results could not easily be explained Kew experiments were accordingly undertaken with t h e

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grating spectroscope; they yielded more interesting results than any of the pre, . Near X1300, TTith the spark ‘ n ,air, vious attempts of this character. there is a group of strong lines not observed with the aluminum spark in hydrogen. I t is to this group that the ionisation effects observed by Lenard are largely to be attributed.” The author does not give any reason for the appearance of these lines in air; b u t it seems to the reviewer that they should be attributed t o some reaction taking place in air and not in hydrogen. Another interesting paragraph is to be found on p. 1 0 7 . “ T h e statement t h a t indkect experiments on the extension of the spectrum are not conclusive has obviously no reference to the extremely important work of Lane, Friedrich, Knipping, and the Braggs. They have established the fact that the X-rays are a form of ether vibrations whose wave length is of the order of one Xngstrom unit, or about one n’ne-hundredth that of the shortest wave length obtained by the direct method. There is thus a gap of about nine hundred units between the shortest known waT’e lengths which have been directly measured and the region 0‘ the X-rays. I n this gap the behavior of light towards solid and gaseous substances suffers a profound change I n the Schumann region the general opacity of matter t o light is the most important characteristic; in the region of the X-rays, its transparency ‘s a most striking phenomenon. The alteration in the behavior of matter toward light is intimately connected with the vast increase in frequency. I t will probably necessitate a considerable change in the methods of investigation if the gap in question is to be successfully bridged. “An example of the direction in which this change of methods is likely to take place is furnished by the recent work of Dember. He has produced X-rays by the bombardment of photo-electrons whose speed was acquired in falling through a difference of potent’a’ of the order of twenty rolts. He has estimated the wave-length of the rays by means of the Planck-Einstein formula, CY = hn. T h e value he obtained is 745 .&ngstrom units, a figure strikingly near to the present limit of the spectrum from the concave grating. The result is very interesting and important, b u t the estimated wave-length cannot be accepted without reservation until the Planck-Einstein formula has been more fully established for a wider range of frequencies.” W i l d e r D . Bancroft ,

Lehrbuch der physikalischen Chernie. B y Karl Jellinek. T‘ol. I . 16 X 25 cm; p p . t’ii 732. Stuttgart: Ferdinand E n k e , 19x4. Price: paper, 21 m a r k s . It is the author’s plan to write a n exhaustive treatise on physical chemistry from the viewpoint of the physicist rather than of the chemist. T h e first volume deals with the properties of gases and includes also a long section on the properties of liquids. The manuscript for the second volume is finished; it includes: the rest of the work on liquids; properties of solids; properties of dilute solutions and colloidal solutions of non-electrolytes. The third volume is to be devoted to a discussion of ether, electrons, ions, atoms, molecules. The fourth volume will probably be the largest of the four because it is to include chemical statics and dynamics, mechanochemistry [?I, thermochemistry magnetochemistry, electrochemistry, and photochemistry. It is an overwhelming task t h a t the author has set himself and it is to be hoped that he will emerge from the struggle a victor. In the present volume one hundred and forty-five pages are devoted to a

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discussion of some of the fundamental principles of physical chemistry. The next section, of two hundred and seventy pages, deals w t h the gaseous state, after which comes a chapter on the condensation of gases. A third section of nearly two hundred and fifty pages deals with the density, compressibility, thermal expansion, specific heat, viscosity, heat conduction, surface tension, and vaporization of liquids. There is also a very elaborate bib’iography and a rather inadequate index. The book contains portraits of Helmholtz, Clausius, Kelvin, and Boltzmann. The volume is dedicated to Chwolson and is evidently intended to come half-way between Chwolson’s Physics and Ostwald’s General Chemistry. The first volume does not really enable one to tell how successful the author is to be. To the reviewer i t seems as though the book were more purely a text-book of physics than Chwolson’s, b u t the difference will probably come out more clearly in the later volumes. I n many places the author discusses matters in great detail; in others he is concise to the point of obscurity. The unfortunate student, who wonders why the nature of the tube has no effect on the capillary rise, will get very little comfort or enlightenment out of the paragraphs on pages 610 and 618. Throughout the book the author seems to be more interested in the things we think we understand than in the ones t h a t we know we don’t. The author classifies the S e r n s t heat theorem as the third law of thermodynamics, p. 158, and gives as a formulation of i t t h a t “there is no process taking place on a finite scale, by means of which a system can be cooled to the absolute zero.” On this basis the first law of thermodynamics postulates the impossibility of a perpetual motion machine of the first class, the second law postulates the impossibility of a perpetual motion machine of the second class, while the third law, so-called, postulates the impossibility of reaching the absolute zero. The author defines physical chemistry, p. IO, as the science which attempts t o explain the more complex chemical phenomena by means of the simpler physical phenomena. He considers t h a t physical chemistry tries to apply the experimental and theoretical methods of physics to chemical phenomena. On p. I I he says: “1X’hile research in physical chemistry from 1890 to 1905 was concerned chiefly in developing the field opened up by the great theories [of Guldberg and Waage, Gibbs, van‘t Hoff, Arrhenius, and Nernst], a new period dates from the discovery by S e r n s t in 1906 of the third law of thermodynamics, which is very closely related to Planck’s quantum theory (1900). This new period of physical chemistry is also characterized by the putting of the atomic theory on a firmer basis and by the development of the theories of radiation and of electrons.” W i l d e r D . Bancroft

Evolution of Sex in Plants. By John J f e r l e Cozdter. 19 X 14 cm; p p Chicago: The C‘wicersity of Chicago Press, 1914. Price: $1.00 net. The headings of the chapters are: asexual reproduction; the origin of sex; the differentiation of sex; the evolution of sex organs; alternation of generations; differentiation of sexual individuals; parthenogenesis; a theory of sex. In the first chapter the author says: “ I n any discussion of the evolution of sex i t is necessary to consider asexual reproduction. The extent to which asexual reproduction occurs among plants is probably not fully appreciated. In many

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of the lower thallophytes sexual reproduction is unknown, and in all plants exhibiting it there are also asexual methods of reproduction. I t is probably true, taking the plant kingdom as a whole, t h a t the multiplication of individuals is greater by asexual t h a n by sexual methods. It is obvious, therefore, that sex is not a n essential feature of reproduction. Historically it was the last method of reproduction attained among plants, and when it appeared it did not replace the older methods, b u t was added to them. “ T h e significance of sex, therefore, is not to secure reproduction, b u t to secure something in connection with reproduction that the other methods do not. I t is necessary to keep this fact in mind in considering the origin and real function of sex. Our conceptions of sex have largely been determined by its place in the life histories of the higher animals, in which it has become the only method of reproduction. I t is difficult, therefore, to think of it as having any function apart from reproduction. Even among the flowering plants, which represent the culmination of the plant kingdom, and which would have eliminated asexual reproduction if it was eliminated a t all among plants, reproduction by tubers, bulbs, and cuttings, as well as the universal occurrence of microspores (pollen grains) and megaspores, testify to the fact that asexual reproduction is not even a declining method.” The primitive gametes are only swimming spores greatly reduced in size. Though they are small, motile. pairing cells which give rise to nuclear fusion, these things are not peculiar to gametes (p. 135). “If pairing and nuclear fusion are not peculiar t o gametes, although universally displayed by them, what is the essential feature? The only answer t h a t can be made is that gametes are pairing cells whose nuclear fusion results in the production of a new individual. This means t h a t in addition to possessing mutually attractive substances formed in connection with low metabolism, gametes possess nuclei so constructed t h a t when the two fuse a new individual is initiated. This does not mean that neither gamete can produce a new individual alone, for parthenogenesis would contradict this. I t means that a new individual can only be produced after the nuclei have fused. I n other words, the essential feature of sexuality must lie in the peculiar structure of the nuclei of the sexual cells. \Vhether this peculiar structure is chemical or physical or both, must be a matter of opinion based on no direct evidence. I t is reasonable to suppose that it is a problem belonging t o the overlapping regions of physics and chemistry. . . . “In conclusion, the impression one obtains of sexuality as a method of reproduction is that it represents photoplasts engaged in reproduction under peculiar difficulties that do not obtain in reproduction by spores or by vegetative multiplication, and that its significance lies in the fact that it makes organic evolution more rapid and far more varied.” TVilder D . Buncroft

B y Tlzos. B. Stillmalt. 23 x 16 cm; Easton: The Chemical Pzrhlisizing Co., 1914. P ~ i c e :$ I ,zj.-This book gives a very clear account of the tests to be made in examining lubricating oils. Many of these tests are essentially physical chemical in nature, such as Examination of Lubricating Oils.

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the flash and fire test, and the determinations of viscosity and specific gravity. T h e author has not confined himself solely to questions of manipulation, T h e discussion of the flash test takes up the principles involved. L-nder the subject

of lubricating oils containing blown rape-seed and blown cotton-seed oils, p. 94, the author says: " I t is a peculiar fact, however, t h a t a mineral oil alone does not give as satisfactory results in lubrication (especially cylinder lubrication) as does a mixture of mineral and vegetable or mineral and animal oils, one of the primary causes being t h a t the viscosity of mineral oils diminishes rapidly a t high temperatures whereas the reduction of viscosity of vegetable and animal oils is very much less. If i t were not for this peculiarity between these two classes of oils, mineral lubricating oils could easily supplant (on the score of cheapness) all other oils used in lubrication." Wilder D . Bailcroft Handbuch der Mineralchemie. B y C. Doelter. Vol. I I , Part V I . IS x 25 cm; p p . 160. Dresden: Theodor Steinkopfl, 1914. Price: 6 . j o marks.This number deals with the aluminum and iron silicates. The evidence seems t o be conclusive t h a t no definite aluminum silicate is formed directly in the wet way. \Ye get merely mixtures of colloidal alumina and colloidal silica. -4t high temperatures definite compounds are formed and of course the colloidal precipitate may change in time under conditions to a definite compound, though nobody knows whether this actually occurs or what the conditions are. The experiments of Mellor and Holdcroft are cited, p. 83, to show t h a t kaolin breaks up above 500' into free alumina, silica, and water. IYhile this change seems very probable, the proof of it is not as satisfactory as one could like. There is a n interesting chapter on the chemistry of porcelain, the subject being discussed under the headings : kinds of porcelain; manufacture of pcrcelain; physical and chemical changes during the firing of porcelain; the properties of porcelain and the way they change with changing composition. There is a very pretty problem for somebody to work out, the reason for the color changes in topaz, p. 2 6 , when exposed t o radium rays, etc. Rontgen rays turn colorless topazes yellow and intensify the tint of colored topazes. Radium rays color white topazes orange and change yellow or pink topazes to a dark orange. The dark orange color is changed t o lilac by the action of ultraviolet light or by heating in air. When heated in sulphur vapor the dark orange topazes become green. Nothing seems t o be known as to the chemical changes. involved. Wilder D. B a m r o f t Taschenbuch fur Gerbereichemiker und Lederfabrikanten. B y H . R. Procter. Translated by Josej Jettmar. 12 X 15 cm; p p . v 248. Dresden: little book deals chiefly with the analytical Theodor S t e i n k o p f , IgIg.-This details in the leather industry as is shown by the headings: introduction; alkalimetry; testing water; unhairing, deliming and bating; qualitative testing of vegetable tannins; sampling and grinding of tanning materials; quantitative determination of tannin; testing the substances used in mineral tanning; analysis of formaldehyde and of salt; testing of soaps; oils and fats; testing for and determining grape sugar; analysis of leather; use of microscope; bacteriology a n d mycology. Wilder D. Bancroft

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