Lehrbuch der Chemie

Abstract

THE author of a compact text-book of organic chemistry lays himself open to criticism because his selection of subject-matter can never meet with complete approval of other teachers and writers on the subject. Stressing fundamental principles and including only such descriptions of compounds as he deems necessary for the purpose of illustration, his work will probably be judged as lacking in subject-matter, a fact of which the author is fully conscious, realizing that, in its forty volumes, the present edition of Beilstein's "Handbuch" is still incomplete and when finished will only deal with the subject-matter of organic chemistry up to 1919. The literature of organic chemistry must be much greater than that of any other experimental science, and this literature takes little or no account of the vast amount of information obtained through detailed investigations by large industrial organizations. The rapid growth of this literature makes the writing of new text-books of organic chemistry increasingly difficult, and the justification of their publication should lie in the up-to-date treatment of classical organic chemistry and the careful choice of subject-matter to illustrate the general principles.

Lehrbuch der Chemie

Von Prof. Walter Hückel. Teil 2: Organische Chemie. Pp. xvi + 602. (Leipzig: Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft m.b.H., 1937.) 18 gold marks.