Abstract
The fact that successive editions of Dr. Hofmann's “Inorganic Chemistry” have been issued in 1917, 1919, 1920, and 1921, is sufficient evidence of the popularity which it has achieved in German-speaking countries. The scope is very similar to that of English text-books of similar price, although it differs from these in containing a large amount of matter in small type and very few illustrations. Characteristic features are the postponement to the end of the book of a series of special subjects, which include explosives, co-ordination-compounds, the structure of crystals, radio-active substances, the structure of the atom, and the distribution of the elements. The theoretical introduction is therefore extremely brief, and the periodic classification of the elements is discussed in the body of the book without any reference to atomic numbers or isotopes. In view of the scantiness of the illustrations it is remarkable to find six figures given up to pictures of burettes, pipettes, and measuring flasks and cylinders in a section dealing with caustic potash. The seven plates which illustrate the flame-spectra of the elements, the line-spectra of the principal gases, and the absorption spectra of the rare earths are, however, excellently reproduced, and form a very pleasing appendix. It is, however, doubtful whether English readers will care to face the handicap of a foreign language in order to obtain instruction which they can assimilate with much greater ease from textbooks in their own language.
Lehrbuch der anorganischen Chemie.
Prof. Dr.
Karl A.
Hofmann
Von. Vierte Auflage. Pp. xx + 751 + 7 Tafeln. (Braunschweig: F. Vieweg und Sohn, 1922.) 300 marks; 24s.
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Lehrbuch der anorganischen Chemie . Nature 110, 695 (1922). https://doi.org/10.1038/110695b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/110695b0