Abstract
IN Prof. Brönsted's book, which has been very well translated and is attractively printed, the bias is towards thermodynamics. Kinetic theory is also treated adequately and is used throughout the book to supplement the thermodynamics. The rather abstract mathematical form of most of the book will tend to make it hard reading for many students. There does not seem to be a single description of an experiment or a piece of apparatus in the book. The thermodynamics is rather unusual, reminding one of Ostwald's 'energetics', with its intensity and capacity factors and the suggestion that the second law can be deduced from the first. This makes the derivation of the fundamental results longer than usual. Once they have been achieved, the thermodynamic laws are applied by Gibbs's method, which the author considers to be the easiest way of attaining simplicity and rigour.
Physical Chemistry
By Prof. J. N. Brönsted. Translated from the Danish edition (1936) by R. P. Bell. Pp. xv+390. (London: William Heinemann, Ltd., 1937.) Price 12s. 6d.
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Physical Chemistry. Nature 142, 273 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/142273a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/142273a0