Abstract
THE welcome appearance of a second edition of this two-volume treatise on physical chemistry has clearly demonstrated both the practicability and the usefulness of Prof. Taylor's somewhat novel experiment of attempting to produce a text-book by the co-operative efforts of different individuals a practice usually reserved for dictionaries and tomes of a more encyclopædic character. Whilst the first edition was a good treatise, this second edition is better. Apart from the inclusion of new matter and the adjustment of stress on importance of what may be termed personal factors in the various chapters, the volumes, on the whole, are much more evenly balanced. We note, for example, the growth of uniformity in the treatment of the theory of solutions and of reactions taking place therein, a more minute analysis of the problems of the kinetic theory of gases, and a very desirable extension of the treatment of colloidal systems. Dr. Dushman's chapter on the quantum theory and atomic structure is really a remarkable production both for clarity and scope.
A Treatise on Physical Chemistry: a Co-operative Effort by a Group of Physical Chemists.
Edited by Prof. Hugh S. Taylor. Second edition. In 2 volumes. Vol. 1. Pp. xv + 852 + 48. Vol. 2. Pp. xii + 9011766 + 48. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1931.) 30s. net each vol.
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RIDEAL, E. A Treatise on Physical Chemistry: a Co-operative Effort by a Group of Physical Chemists . Nature 128, 429 (1931). https://doi.org/10.1038/128429a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/128429a0