Abstract
THE choice and arrangement of the subject-matter of this book is fairly satisfactory. It includes the laws of chemical combination, the atomic hypothesis, the gas laws, vapour density, the specific heat of solids and the periodic system. The second part contains a fuller discussion of the properties of gases and the critical phenomena, the connection between chemical constitution and the boiling point, volume, refraction and rotation of liquids, and the properties of solutions. The third part deals with thermo- and electro-chemistry and the nature of solutions of salts. The fourth part treats of chemical equilibrium and the velocity of reactions. The treatment of this subject-matter does not, however, appear to be distinguished by any striking originality or other special merit which would warrant the translation of the book. On p. 2, the law of constant proportions is stated thus: βIn order to form a substance, it is always necessary to have the same elements united in the same proportions.β This is much the same as saying that any two samples of the same kind of matter have the same composition. As Mr. Hartog pointed out in these columns, a correct statement of the law of constant proportions should emphasise the view, upheld by Proust, that the proportions in which two substances combine alter per saltum, and that there is not (as Berthollet believed) a series of compounds of all intermediate compositions bridging over the gaps.
Outlines of Physical Chemistry.
By A. Reychler. Translated by John McCrae, Ph.D. Pp. xvi + 276. (London and New York: Whittaker and Co., 1899.)
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Outlines of Physical Chemistry. Nature 60, 197 (1899). https://doi.org/10.1038/060197a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/060197a0