Abstract
BEGINNING with a chapter on energetics, in which Ostwald is followed, the author treats in order the properties of gases, thermodynamics, physical change including the properties of solutions, chemical equilibrium and chemical change, Gibbs' phase rule, the effect of temperature on chemical change, and electrochemistry. A satisfactory feature is the free use of the calculus. The book is intended for students; under these circumstances the omission of all reference to original papers is, we think, a serious mistake. The method adopted is to give the theory of a phenomenon in mathematical form, following this up by a number of exercises illustrating the equation obtained. The exercises appear to be taken, as a rule, from the original memoirs dealing with the subject under consideration, and are doubtless useful; but in many cases the deduction of the equation is too much abbreviated to be easily followed, and the experimental basis of the theory is nowhere sufficiently fully considered. This tendency to put theory before experiment is especially objectionable in teaching.
Text-Book of Physical Chemistry.
By Clarence L. Speyers. Pp. vii + 224. (New York: D. van Nostrand Company. London: E. and F. N. Spon, Ltd., 1898.)
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Text-Book of Physical Chemistry. Nature 58, 344 (1898). https://doi.org/10.1038/058344a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/058344a0