Abstract
A HEARTY welcome may be extended to this valuable work of reference, which does for inorganic chemistry much more than Beilstein's famous hand-book has done for organic chemistry. It is no mere guide to the recognition and characterisation of the compounds with which it deals. Its aim is beyond this, and its scope is more general. In a word, the editor endeavours to make use of the vast accumulation of physico-chemical data of the past twenty years, and to incorporate them in the descriptive portion of the work, exercising a critical selection of the material employed and giving at the same time due consideration to theoretical connections and outstanding problems. The periodic system has been adopted as the basis of classification, and the portions of the work already issued deal with the elements of the second, third, and fifth periodic groups respectively. Here it may not be out of place to protest against an aggravating instance of the Teutonic passion for subdivision. The work is to be issued in eight separately paged and indexed volumes, dealing with the eight periodic groups, together with a ninth volume of a general character. One might, therefore, reasonably expect that the numbers of the volumes would correspond to the group numbers of the elements described. Instead of this, we find the elements of the fifth group described in vol. iii., section iii., those of the fourth group presumably in vol. iii., section ii., and so on. Whether the elements of group 6 will be found in vol. iii. section iv., or in vol. iv., section i., remains for the present a subject of agreeable speculation.
Handbuch der anorganischen Chemie.
Herausgegeben von Dr. R. Abegg. Band ii., Abt. ii. Pp. ix + 700. Price 24 marks. Band iii., Abt. i. Pp. x + 466. Price 17 marks. Abt. iii. Pp. xiv + 876. Price 24 marks. (Leipzig: R. Hirzel, 1905–7.)
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Handbuch der anorganischen Chemie . Nature 77, 25 (1907). https://doi.org/10.1038/077025a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/077025a0