Chemical Notes for the Lecture Room, on Heat, Laws of Chemical Combination, and Chemistry of non-Metallic Elements

Abstract

ON reading this volume the author's intention is plainly manifest; the book has been written principally for the use of students preparing for the matriculation examination at the University of London. It has been written as concisely as possible, rendering the task of “cramming” the subject more easy of attainment. For such a purpose we certainly can recommend this book; but for beginners who wish to study chemistry we think it has several faults. One of them is that such a comparatively large amount of the book is devoted to the subsidiary subject, Heat, almost a quarter of the text being thus occupied. The article on thermometers, for instance, occupies no less than nine pages, which strikes us as being rather out of proportion to the remainder of the book. A second fault is the almost complete absence of any such details as would enable a student to repeat the experiments mentioned in the text. This we think is a fault which would tend to make the beginner get up his subject parrot-like, a method which is certainly not to be desired. The chemistry of the non-metallic elements only occupies eighty-five pages of this volume; the definitions and laws of chemical combination occupy another thirty-eight pages. The explanations, in the majority of instances, are clearly expressed, the facts of the case being stated in as few words as possible. A few of the definitions can scarcely be considered good; one, in particular, is “that a compound of any non-metal with a metal is a salt of a metal.” This would, of course, include such bodies as antimonetted and arsenetted hydrogen, hydride of copper, and so on. The definitions of acids and bases, too, are weak. It may almost be inferred that such is the case, by the manner in which the author uses the term acid; N₂O₃ is called nitrous acid; I₂O₅ iodic acid, and, in the same line, HBrO₃ bromic acid; B₂O₃ boracic acid, and so on. There is one thing which the author tells us which is a curiosity in chemical history. On page 38 it is stated “some few of the elements receive their symbols from the names given to them by the ancients—e.g. Iron (Fe.) from Ferrum, Sodium (Na.) from Natrium.” We certainly were under the impression that Sodium was discovered in 1807 by Sir Humphry Davy. A number of questions are appended to the book which will be found very useful to those employed in teaching.

Chemical Notes for the Lecture Room, on Heat, Laws of Chemical Combination, and Chemistry of non-Metallic Elements.

By Thomas Wood Pp. 181. (London: Longmans, Green, and Co.)