Introduction to modern inorganic chemistry

192 cIearIy drawn graphs and diagrams. SI units are used and a -useful conversion tabie is given on page 128; the treatment of cells at equilibrium follows the IUPAC convention_ The author quite properly states that the student need not adhere to the actual ordering of materia1, obviously aware of their reluctance to face up to the Debye-HtickeI theory! A seIection of some nineteen misceIIaneous problems and their solutions concIudes the text together with a bibliography and index. Perhaps the author could have given a Iittie more discussion of the DebyeHiickel potentials and a few (qualitative) remarks on the results of more recent (and more rigorous) statistical mechanical treatments; he suffices by’ giving the Robinson and Stokes extension to higher concentrations. Nonetheless this little volume, at a reasonable price, is a useful first and second year degree text. R. W. Introduction to Modern KAY,

Intertext

Inorganic Chemistry, by K. M. MACKAY AND R. A. MAC-

Books, London,

2nd edition,

1972, pp. xiv+305,

price &.OO.

This volume is the second edition of a well known and widely used book and, consequently, the authors have set out to maintain the standard set in their first edition. They have up-dated the text to keep pace with the “changes of emphasis in teaching inorganic chemistry” and have accordingly expanded material on general properties of transition elements; reaction mechanisms at silicon; d orbita participation in main group chemistry and spectroscopic methods. A new appendix (C) covers the determination of point groups and provides some ideas on the applications of symmetry theory. This new appendix is directed at honours students who need the ability to place molecules in their point groups in studying group theory. Character tables are added for more advanced readers wishing to pursue the subject. The text is now fully converted to SI units and, as a whole, provides a valuable source of information for those studying chemistry as part of a more general course, as well as for honours students. .I. w.