Abstract
THE new edition of Prof. Stewart's “Recent Advances” provides striking evidence of the rapidity with which fundamental facts and theories of physical and inorganic chemistry have developed, since there is scarcely a single topic in the whole volume which could have been foreseen when the first edition of the book was issued. Thus, the foreground of the picture is now occupied by fine spectra and X-ray spectra, and the background by band spectra and Tesla-luminescence spectra? whilst the centre is devoted mainly to radioactivity, positive rays, and other aspects of the problem of atomic structure. Amongst these chapters on atomic physics, there are interpolated a few of a more chemical character, dealing with newly discovered elements, with various forms of active hydrogen, and with some new hydrides. This gives to the book the character of a very modern inorganic chemistry, but the inclusion of physical chemistry in the title is definitely misleading, since there is no reference of any kind to recent advances in this field (as it is commonly defined), with the exception of a belated chapter on “The Donnan Equilibrium”, which might have appeared in an earlier edition of the book, but is now wedged uncomfortably between chapters on “The Periodic System” and “Some Flame Reactions”.
Recent Advances in Physical and Inorganic Chemistry.
Prof. Alfred W. Stewart. Sixth edition. Pp. xi + 387 + 5 plates. (London, New York and Toronto: Longmans, Green and Co., Ltd., 1930.) 18s. net.
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Our Bookshelf.: Chemistry. Nature 127, 365 (1931). https://doi.org/10.1038/127365b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/127365b0
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