A Comprehensive, Treatise on Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry

Abstract

THE writer of a ‘comprehensive treatise’ is in grave danger of being drowned by the torrent of information which flows in upon him as soon as he accepts the responsibility of taking cognisance of all the details of his chosen subject. It is almost a commonplace that the amount of readable matter in such a treatise (like the pressure of a gas) is inversely proportional to its volume. On this basis of calculation, it might be expected that a treatise on chemistry which has only reached Group IV. of the Periodic Classification in a seventh volume of 1000 pages would be intolerable in its dullness. It is therefore a welcome relief to find that the opening sentence of Dr. Mellor's new volume has the arresting character which one might expect to find at the beginning of a detective story. “In 1791, W. Gregor studied the black sands of Menacan, near Falmouth, Cornwall, and found some greyish-black granules which were attracted by a magnet.” The sleuth then sets to work to solve his riddle with the help of hydrochloric and sulphuric acids, ammonia and potash-lye, and finally brings in tincture of galls as a means of checking a possible alibi, and ends by confiding —to Crell's Chemical Journal instead of to his friend Watson—his conclusion in the following terms:

A Comprehensive, Treatise on Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry.

By Dr. J. W. Mellor. Vol. 7: Ti, Zr, Hf, Th, Ge, Sn, Pb, Inert Gases. Pp. x + 977. (London: Longmans, Green and Co., Ltd., 1927.) 63s. net.