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Introduction to qualitative organic analysis
Nov., I925.]
BOOK REVIEWS.
703
Gases, Van der Waal's Equation of State, Mean Free Path, Equipartition of Energy, Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics, Entropy and Probability, Specific Heats of Solids, Theory of Quanta. The publishers are rendering American students of science a real service in issuing a series of excellent translations of important foreign works on physical science. There are many such works still unavailable to American readers and the field is fertile and intellectually highly profitable. It is to be hoped that the publishers will find it expedient to make the list a long one. LUCIEN F~. PICOLET. INTRODUCTION TO QUALITATIVE ORGANIC ANALYSIS. By Dr. Hermann Staudinger, Halle a.S. Translated by Walter T. K. Braunholtz, Ph.D. x v i - i i 2 pages, small 8vo. New York, D. Van Nostrand Company, 1925. Price, $2.50. This is not an elementary treatise, at least not of the usual form. It deals rather with classes of compounds than with individual ones. Its plan is to enable the student to detect organic compounds as they may occur in mixtures and identify them without elementary analyses. The field is a large one and one of the most difficult tasks is to determine what shall not be included. The author, in his preface, states that most books introductory to organic chemistry from the practical side lay stress on synthetic work. This is, indeed, the most attractive to students, and considering what organic synthesis has accomplished and how necessary to the welfare of Britain and America is the cultivation of this phase, most teachers will be inclined to give preference to that type of book. The work is of German origin, and Germany is the country in which the activity in all departments of organic chemistry has been most successful and extensive. It is natural, therefore, that teachers should wish to find new lines of effort. So far as the general character of the work is concerned, there is no need for criticism. The author's qualifications are unquestioned, and the translator has done his task well. The book has no index, which is a serious defect. There is, it is true, an elaborate table of contents, but a comprehensive index would have been of much aid. The table of contents could then have been much abbreviated. . HENRY LEFFMANN. TABLES AND GRAPHS FOR FACILITATING THE COMPUTATION OF SPECTRALENERGY DISTRIBUTIONBY PLANCK'S FORMULA. By M. Katherine Frehafer, Associate Physicist, and Chester L. Snow, Draftsman, Bureau of Standards, assisted by H a r r y J. Keegan. Miscellaneous publication of the Bureau of Standards, No. 56, for sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. Price, thirty-five cents. The spectral-energy distribution of an illuminant is readily determined by matching it in color with a so-called "black body." The temperature to which this "black body" is brought in order to produce the color match is readily determined with suitable laboratory equipment and the energy distribution in the visible spectrum is readily computed from the Planek formula which expresses energy in terms of wave-length and absolute temperature. The tables and
BOOK REVIEWS.
703
Gases, Van der Waal's Equation of State, Mean Free Path, Equipartition of Energy, Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics, Entropy and Probability, Specific Heats of Solids, Theory of Quanta. The publishers are rendering American students of science a real service in issuing a series of excellent translations of important foreign works on physical science. There are many such works still unavailable to American readers and the field is fertile and intellectually highly profitable. It is to be hoped that the publishers will find it expedient to make the list a long one. LUCIEN F~. PICOLET. INTRODUCTION TO QUALITATIVE ORGANIC ANALYSIS. By Dr. Hermann Staudinger, Halle a.S. Translated by Walter T. K. Braunholtz, Ph.D. x v i - i i 2 pages, small 8vo. New York, D. Van Nostrand Company, 1925. Price, $2.50. This is not an elementary treatise, at least not of the usual form. It deals rather with classes of compounds than with individual ones. Its plan is to enable the student to detect organic compounds as they may occur in mixtures and identify them without elementary analyses. The field is a large one and one of the most difficult tasks is to determine what shall not be included. The author, in his preface, states that most books introductory to organic chemistry from the practical side lay stress on synthetic work. This is, indeed, the most attractive to students, and considering what organic synthesis has accomplished and how necessary to the welfare of Britain and America is the cultivation of this phase, most teachers will be inclined to give preference to that type of book. The work is of German origin, and Germany is the country in which the activity in all departments of organic chemistry has been most successful and extensive. It is natural, therefore, that teachers should wish to find new lines of effort. So far as the general character of the work is concerned, there is no need for criticism. The author's qualifications are unquestioned, and the translator has done his task well. The book has no index, which is a serious defect. There is, it is true, an elaborate table of contents, but a comprehensive index would have been of much aid. The table of contents could then have been much abbreviated. . HENRY LEFFMANN. TABLES AND GRAPHS FOR FACILITATING THE COMPUTATION OF SPECTRALENERGY DISTRIBUTIONBY PLANCK'S FORMULA. By M. Katherine Frehafer, Associate Physicist, and Chester L. Snow, Draftsman, Bureau of Standards, assisted by H a r r y J. Keegan. Miscellaneous publication of the Bureau of Standards, No. 56, for sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. Price, thirty-five cents. The spectral-energy distribution of an illuminant is readily determined by matching it in color with a so-called "black body." The temperature to which this "black body" is brought in order to produce the color match is readily determined with suitable laboratory equipment and the energy distribution in the visible spectrum is readily computed from the Planek formula which expresses energy in terms of wave-length and absolute temperature. The tables and