Outlines of Theoretical Chemistry

Abstract

THE principal value of a review of a new edition of a well-known book is to inform the reader of the review of the features in which the new edition differs from the old. In the present instance the author claims: “a fuller treatment of limiting densities and vapour pressures; a brief description of the latest and most accurate method of measuring heats of vaporisation; a more comprehensive treatment of crystal structure and the methods of X-ray analysis; an enlargement of the section treating of the absorption of light and its bearing on chemical constitution; a thorough revision of the chapter on the elementary principles of thermodynamics; a more discriminating treatment of the phenomena of osmosis; the inclusion of the concepts of fugacity and activity in connexion with the subject of vapour pressures of dilute solutions; a fuller discussion of the theories of emulsification and gel formation; an enlargement of the sections devoted to adsorption and the methods of preparation of colloids; a more detailed account of the theories of catalysis; the treatment of the more important practical applications of conductance and electrometric methods in separate sections in the respective chapters devoted to electrical conductance and electromotive force; the simplification of the treatment of hydrolysis; the adoption of a uniform and consistent system for the representation of galvanic cells, thereby connecting their polarity with the direction of current-flow; a fuller treatment of both the hydrogen electrode and oxidation and reduction cells; the rearrangement and enlargement of the chapter on electrolysis and polarisation; a brief presentation of the quantum theory together with its application to the principle of photochemical equivalence; an outline of Baly's fascinating and suggestive researches in the field of photosynthesis; and lastly, the complete revision of the chapter on atomic structure.”

Outlines of Theoretical Chemistry

By Dr. Frederick H. German. Fourth edition, revised and partly rewritten. Pp. xiii + 728. (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1927.) 18s. 6d. net.