Abstract
(1) MR. DONINGTON'S volume is a very interesting attempt to combine a practical course on modern lines with a descriptive text-book. The arrangement of the matter is distinctly original and has been carefully thought out. Discussion of more abstract topics, such as the atomic theory, Avogadro's hypothesis and valency, is postponed to a late stage in the book, while no chemical formula appears until p. 283. The preference thus given to a more descriptive treatment of the science is all to the good in an introductory class-book of this kind. In the early chapters the author deals very appropriately with the physical operations and physical properties which are used in the purification and characterisation of individual substances, such as solution, crystallisation, distillation, determination of melting points and boiling points, measurement of volume and density of gases. The first topics of a definitely chemical nature to which the reader is introduced are “acids and alkalis,” “neutralisation,” “rusting” and “burning,” “active and inactive constituents of air,” “elements and compounds.” It must not be supposed that this descriptive treatment involves the suppression of the quantitative aspect of chemical changes. On the contrary, the author contrives in the earlier part of the volume to introduce the pupil by the way to the fundamental quantitative facts of chemistry.
(1) A Class-Book of Chemistry.
By G. C. Donington. Pp. xi+399. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1911.) Price 3s. 6d.
(2) Chemistry for Matriculation.
By Dr. G. H. Bailey H. W. Bausor. Pp. viii+548. (London: W. B. Clive, 1910.) Price 5s. 6d.
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P., J. (1) A Class-Book of Chemistry (2) Chemistry for Matriculation. Nature 86, 345 (1911). https://doi.org/10.1038/086345a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/086345a0