tion of bonding hampers the discussion of

ionic, covalent, and molecular crystals.

BOOK
University Chemistry
Bruce H. Mahan, University of Cali-
fornia, Berkeley. Addison-Wesley
Publishing Co., Inc., Reading, Massa-
chusetts, 1965. xii + 660 pp. Figs,
and tables. 17X24.5 cm. 38.95.
The publication of a new introductory
chemistry text written particularly for the
serious student of science is certain to
See https://pubs.acs.org/sharingguidelines for options on how to legitimately share published articles.
REVIEWS
The approach is very much in
pounds.
the Berkeley tradition in that the macro-
scopic properties of matter are treated
before the discussion of atomic and molecu-
lar structure. This comes off rather well,
although at times in the first nine chapters
one gets the impression that the author
would like to be able to do more in relating
macroscopic properties to molecular struc-
ture.
The student is introduced to several com-
mon types of crystal lattice, but the failure
to define and use the unit cell detracts
somewhat from the presentation and
makes some of the numerical exercises
awkward. Liquids and Solutions (4)
again is excellent and the student’s
interest in the spontaneity of reactions is
aroused here. Chapters 5, 6, and 7—
Chemical Equilibria, Ionic Equilibria in
Aqueous Solutions, and Oxidation Reduc-
tion Reactions—are the best the reviewer
has seen in a general chemistry text.
Indeed, the discussion of solution equi-
libria is much better than that found in
most books treating this topic alone.
Chapter 8, Chemical Thermodynamics,
presents the first and second laws clearly
and proceeds to give a more quantitative
treatment of the solution phenomena dis-
cussed in earlier chapters. The use of

interest all teachers working with chem-
istry majors, students of engineering, or
any high ability group of students. In the
past five years, several such books have
appeared. A few have been radical de-
partures from the traditional, admirable
Downloaded via 139.167.193.163 on May 10, 2020 at 19:11:31 (UTC).
The most impressive feature of “Uni-
versity Chemistry” is that the first 11
chapters on principles are superbly
written. The author has unerringly
sensed the points where most students
have difficulty with conventional treats
elementary calculus begins here. Chemi-
cal Kinetics (9) gives a good introduction
to rates and their relation to mechanisms.
Since this follows the discussion of thermo-
dynamics, one does wonder why the discus-

sion is based entirely on collision theory

in their aims and exciting for the teacher ments and has by a few additional words with no reference to transition-state
to read, but they have proved to be very or a slightly different method of deriving
theory. The discussion of «-particle
difficult for the student to follow. Most an equation lowered the barrier to under-
scattering in Chapter 10 is much more
authors have been less daring and have standing appreciably. This is a text lucid than that usually found in physical
tended to present those topics which were which not only will appeal to the teacher and advanced inorganic texts. Other
treated in the physical chemistry course of for its scope but more importantly will be
early experiments, the Bohr model, the
15 years ago taking into account, of one that the students will enjoy.
Uncertainty Principle, and the wave
course, the students’ background. Chapter begins with a very good re-
1
mechanical model are all discussed.
Professor Mahan has written an ex- view on stoichiometry. Gases (Chap. 2) Hydrogen-like wave functions are pre-
cellent book which belongs in the second treats their properties, introduces kinetic sented. The nature of chemical bonds is
category, but which in addition is quite theory, and is about the best to be found discussed briefly in Chapter 11, although
successful in applying chemical principles in a beginning text. Chapter 3, The much of the material on bonding and
to the study of the structure and reactions Properties of Solids, is not quite up to par, molecular structure is presented in the
of selected inorganic and organic com- since the postponement of the considera- later chapters of “descriptive” chemistry.
The correlation of the material in different
chapters is excellent, numerical examples
are extensive, and good problems follow
—Reviewed in this Issue- each chapter.
The place where authors of general
chemistry texts so often seem to falter is
in the application of the chemical princi-
Bruce H. Mahan, University Chemistry
ples to systematize the properties and
J. R. Partington, A History of Chemistry. Volume 4 reactions of the elements and their com-
Leon Velluz, Vie de Berthelot pounds. In fact, some current texts for
the general chemistry course do not even
Nobel Lectures in Chemistry. Volume 3, 1942-1962 attempt this. Professor Mahan has done
Wolfgang Kirmse, Carbene Chemistry quite well, although the reviewer did not
find the last six chapters as exciting as the
David A. Shirley, Organic Chemistry first eleven. They treat Chemical Peri-
J. F. DanibUi, K. G. A. Pankhurst, and A, C. Riddiford, editors, Recent Progress odicity (12), the families of the elements
in Surface Science. Volumes 1 and 2 (13-15), Organic Chemistry (16), and
The Nucleus (17). The discussion of the
Malcolm Dixon and Edwin C. Webb, Enzymes
elements and their compounds is nicely
Martin D. Kamen, A Tracer Experiment: Tracing Biochemical Reactions with built around a consideration of molecular
Radioisotopes structure and of energetics. The ma-
Kenneth F. O'Driscoll, The Nature and Chemistry of High Polymers
terial on structure is timely, and in addi-
tion to the usual examples, such molecules
Robert S. Knox and Albert Gold, Symmetry in the Solid State as PCL, SF4, SF6, NaF2, and the isoelec-
tronic (valence shell) BrF4_ and XeF4 are
Clifton E. Meloan, Elementary Infrared Spectroscopy
considered. Much of the material on the
J, Grundy, Stereochemistry: The Static Principles energetics of species present in solution
Andre J. de Belhune and Nancy A. Swendeman Lord, Standard Aqueous Electrode seems to have been drawn from Latimer’s
“Oxidation Potentials” and is often not
Potentials and Temperature Coefficients at 25° the best available currently. The se-
Clifford A. Hampel, Encyclopedia of Electrochemistry quence of stability Constanta for halide
E. H. E. Pietsch and the Gmelin Institute, editors, Gmeiins Handbuch der Anor- complex ing of lead(II) on p. 498 appears
a bit strange, because it includes a typo-
ganischen Chemie. 8. Auflage, System Nummer 16, Phosphor, Teil B
graphical error made in the 2nd edition
(but not in the first) of “Oxidation Po-
tentials.” The chapter on organic chem-
istry treats selectively some of the most
Volume 42, Number 6, June 1965 / 345
interesting aspects of modern organic
chemistry. For example, the addition of
halogen acids to olefins is examined,
Markovnikov’s rule is given, and then the
mechanism of the reaction is considered to
rationalize this rale. The book ends with
a short chapter on the nucleus which will
probably be more exciting to the Berkeley
students than to most.
This text should certainly be considered
by all instructors of well prepared students
of above average ability. It does a
superb job of presenting the important
principles of chemistry and is as successful
in applying these to the systematization of
the chemistry of the elements as any book
available. About the usual number of
errors for a first edition are to be found.
Sometime during the final stages of pro-
duction, the title of this book was changed
from “General Chemistry” to the more
impressive and less descriptive “University
Chemistry.” One of the reviewer’s col-
leagues (a UCLA man) suggested that a
more timely title would have been "Multi-
versity Chemistry.”
R. Stuart Tobias
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis
A History of Chemistry. Volume 4
J. It. Partington, University of London.
Macmillan and Co., Ltd., London,
1964. xxxi + 1007 pp. Figures. 17
X 25.5 cm. $42.
This volume is the fourth and last in
Professor Partington's monumental work
although the first, dealing with chemistry
from antiquity to a.d. 1500 has not yet
appeared. It is said to be in press. Vol-
ume 3, dealing principally with the
eighteenth century was reviewed in this
Journal, 41, 231 (1964). Part one (565
pages) of Volume 4, which brings the
subject to approximately 1860, follows
the same type of biographical organization
that was used in the previous volumes.
A somewhat more topical organization
is found in parts two through five which
deal, respectively, with physical chem-
istry, organic, inorganic, and radiochem-
istry. Even within the chapters of these
last parts, however, the treatment is still
strongly biographical. As indicated in
the review of Volume 3, this approach
leads to considerable fragmentation of
topics and a certain amount of repetitive-
ness.
The author continues his practice of
giving biographical information about
major chemists and includes bibliographic
lists of their publications while treating
their scientific contributions. The volume
is therefore a treasury of information
which can be garnered only piecemeal else-
where. However, the quantity of detail
falls off markedly in the later parts of the
book. This is natural since the number of
prominent chemists working at the be-
ginning of the twentieth century, and the
magnitude of their contributions, becomes
overwhelming.
Volume 4 has been announced as dealing
with the chemistry of the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries. In actuality, the
coverage of the nineteenth century is
quite satisfactory but that of the twentieth
346 / Journal of Chemical Education
is thin. This is easy to understand since
more has happened in the field of chem-
istry in the twentieth century than In all
previous centuries combined. Thus the
author has had to make arbitrary selec-
tions of what to include. His chemists
are mostly men who were born in the
nineteenth century and had generally
made their major contributions by the
first World War. Thus, one misses such
Nobel Prize winners as Karrer, Richard
Kuhn, A. Todd, Sanger, du Vigneaud,
Libby, Heyrovsky, and Ziegler. Many
other prominent chemists of the con-
temporary period receive no more than a
line or two (e.g., Pauling, Seaborg, Calvin,
R. Robinson, F. G. Hopkins, E. O. Law-
rence, Pregl), and others are not even
mentioned.
However, such shortcomings can readily
be forgiven. The kind of treatment given
earlier chemists would require still another
volume for the twentieth century alone.
Furthermore, in the modern period we
have available such bibliographic tools as
Chemical Abstracts, Poggendorff’s Bio-
graphisch-Literarisches Handworterbuch zur
Geschichte der exacten Wissmschaften,
and, for the nineteenth century, the Royal
Society’s Catalogue of Scientific Papers.
hence exhaustive bibliographies such as
Partington included for chemists living
before 1880 are not as essential.
Scholars in the history of chemistry
will be eternally indebted to Professor
Partington for this massive compilation.
His volumes will serve as a valuable start-
ing point for the initiation of new research
in the history of chemistry.
Aaron J. Ihde
University of Wisconsin
M adison
Vie de Berthelof
Leon Velluz, Academie des Sciences.
Librairie Plon, Paris, 1964. 251 pp.
Photographs. 14 X 19.5 cm. Paper-
bound. $3,
Marcellin Berthelot (1827-1907), em-
inent, French chemist and educator, was
noted especially for his work in organic
synthesis, reaction mechanisms, thermo-
chemistry, physiological chemistry, and
history of certain areas of the origin of
chemistry. He was minister of education
and later of foreign affairs. He died just
a few hours after his wife and following a
state funeral they were buried in the
Pantheon.
The present account of his life and ac-
complishments is written for the cultured
French reader. It relies heavily on let-
ters, newspaper accounts, etc., and gives
little detailed information concerning the
chemical matters. However, the copious
notes include biographical details of the
chemical personalities. There is much
discussion of French political matters.
The Bibliography includes very few non-
French items. The family photographs
are interesting. In short, there is little
here that would interest the average
American chemist.
Ralph E. Oesper
University of Cincinnati
Cincinnati, Ohio
Nobel Lectures in Chemistry. Volume
3, 1942-1962
Published for the Nobel Foundation
by the Elsevier Publishing Co. Ameri-
can Elsevier Publishing Co., New
York, 1964. xiii + 710 pp. Figs and
tables. 17 X 24.5 cm. $85. for set of
three volumes.
Nobel lectures have been published
each year in the language in which they
were presented. This new series pub-
lishes the lectures in the English language,
arranged in chronological order, according
to prize categories. The Nobel Founda-
tion and the publishers intend these vol-
umes for readers who wish to follow the
development of a certain field as reflected
in the Nobel lectures.
This volume covers 20 awards shared
by 27 outstanding scientists. In each
case the lecture is preceded by the presen-
tation speech and followed by a brief
biography of the recipient.
J. V. D.
Carbene Chemistry
Wolfgang Kirmse, Chemical Institute
of the University of Marburg, Germany.
With contributions by H. M. Frey,
Peter P. Gaspar, and George S. Ham-
mond. Organic Chemistry Monographs,
Volume 1, edited by Alfred T. Blom-
quist, Cornell University, Ithaca, New
York. Academic Press, Inc., New
York, 1964. viii + 302 pp. Figs,
and tables. 16 X 23.5 cm. $9.50.
In Volume I of its new series of mono-
graphs entitled “Organic Chemistry,”
Academic Press is offering a book which
will prove valuable to both the chemists
directly involved in the carbene develop-
ment and those seeking to make ac-
quaintance with the nature and extent of
the field. Dr, W. Kirmse (Marburg) is
well-qualified for the task as a student of
Professors L. Homer (Mainz) and W. E.
Doering (Yale); he has, in addition an
outstanding ability to collate and organize
a large body of knowledge, no mean feat
in the turbulence attending the growth
spurt of the past decade. This volume
fulfills the objectives of completeness and
clarity, and is up-to-date insofar as mod-
ern printing schedules permit (1963).
For many the highlights of the book
will be found in Chapters 11 and 12.
Chapter 11, Excess Energy in Carbene
Reactions, is written by Dr. H. M. Frey
(Southampton), a scientist who has con-
tributed much to this field, and who
presents here a concise authoritative
treatment of great import to the under-
standing of exothermic gas phase reac-
tions. Both addition and insertion reac-
tions of CH2 are highly exothermic
processes which produce excited molecules
in the primary processes, and secondary
products in competition with collisional
deactivation. The failure to understand
this competition explains the twenty year
lapse (1935-55) between the beginning of
the studies of CH3 and the present-day
understanding of its properties.
(Continued on page A4S6)