(1) A Comprehensive Treatise on Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry (2) A Dictionary of Applied Chemistry (3) Text-book of Inorganic Chemistry

Abstract

THE third volume of Dr. Mellor's great treatise JL deals with the two triads, copper, silver, gold, and calcium, strontium, barium. In a work of reference the order in which the elements are taken is of less importance than in a text-book, but the scheme adopted in this volume has certain disadvantages. By considering the alkaline earths as a group, the author has been able to bring together on one page the ternary diagrams for the systems CaO - CaCl2 - H2O, and SrO - SrCl2 - H20, and in general has secured the advantage of being able to describe the strontium and barium salts as variants of the more familiar calcium salts; but this close association of the metals of the three alkaline earths makes it all the more remarkable that the element magnesium is not even included in i the same volume, so that magnesite and calcite are separated as widely as possible from one another. The interpolation of copper, silver, and gold between the alkalies and the alkaline earths is, of course, a concession to the law of octaves as expressed in Mendeleeff's series of thirteen short periods.

(1) A Comprehensive Treatise on Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry.

Dr. J. W. Mellor. Vol. 3: Cu, Ag, Au, Ca, Sr, Ba. Pp. x + 927. (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1923.) 63s. net.

(2) A Dictionary of Applied Chemistry.

Sir Edward Thorpe. Vol. 4: L-Oxydisilin. Revised and enlarged edition. Pp. viii + 740. (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1922.) 60s. net.

(3) Text-book of Inorganic Chemistry.

Dr. J. Newton Friend. Vol. 9, Part 1: Cobalt, Nickel, and the Elements of the Platinum Group. By J. Newton Friend. (Griffin's Scientific Text-books.) Second edition, revised. Pp. xxv + 367. (London: C. Griffin and Co., Ltd., 1922.) 18s. net.