A Text-book of Organic Chemistry

Abstract

THIS work furnishes an excellent elementary account of the principles of organic chemistry. An introduction treating of the general theory of organic compounds, including the subjects of constitution, isomerism, physical properties, &c., is followed by the detailed description of the various classes of compounds and their relations to one another, the fatty compounds being first discussed, and then those belonging to the group of aromatic substances and to the pyridine group. The treatment of the various compounds in “series,”all the hydrocarbons of the fatty series—paraffins, olefines and acetylenes—being, for example, fully described before any of their halogen derivatives or of the alcohols are discussed, cannot be commended from the point of view of the novice to the science, for whom the book is avowedly designed. This evil is, however, largely compensated for in the present work by the clear language invariably employed, and more especially by the frequent introduction of semi-diagrammatic tables showing the connection between various related series, such, for example, as the glycols, hydroxy-acids and dibasic acids.

A Text-book of Organic Chemistry.

By A. Bernthsen, formerly Professor of Chemistry in the University of Heidelberg. Translated by George McGowan, Ph.D., Demonstrator in Chemistry, University College of North Wales, Bangor. (London: Blackie and Son, 1889.)