Recent Books

Science: The False Messiah. C. E. makes hydrogen" is undeniably a "false AYEES. Bobbs-Merrill Co., Indianapo- Messiah" and not likely to alleviate the lis. 1927. 296 oo. 14 X 22 cm. $3.00. lamentable unrexeneracv of civilization. -. A budget of paradoxes by a philosopher

turned journalist. A clever, amusing, and irritating book. Many people will enjoy it: few like it. In the course of his passage from Harvard to The New Republic he has

- The author's criticisms are often pertinent but among so many sweeping statements he is bound to hit i t right sometimes, and I doubt if the average is over the chance ratio of the theory of probabilities.

Unnnrr * cr ncEnrr -" ..... -. w..--u-.. acauired a universal skeuticism that in- fringes a t times on his own ideas. He is contemptuous of all science except the applicable, and he is afraid of that. He disbelieves in religion, and fears that science will usurp its former authority. "That creeds and churches are reformed only a t the expense of losing all their power. That when science has become supreme any attempt to rectify its formu- las will be persecuted as heresy."

In short Dr. Ayres is haunted by essen- tially the same apprehension as Samuel Butler of "Erewhon" and Mahatma Gandhi of India, lest the machines that man has made shall eventually enslave him. He sees the medieval social order that we have inherited from an agricul- tural age palpably dissolving before our eyes, and "it is the dissolution of civiliza- tion-the whole of it, and the only one we have." Divorce "is the last despair- ing gasp of an already doomed institu- tion." "The five-room bungalow, having abolished the tiesof blood, wipes out the tie of sacrament almost without effort."

And he sneers at the idea that science can ever serve as a guide to life or that the spread of enlightenment will advance the race. "For many years it has been known that two plus two make four. Yet civilization has not been regenerated. What are we to expect of the proposition that one proton plus two electrons makes hydrogen? Doubtless more of the same lamentable unregeneracy." The proposi- tion that "one proton plus two electrons

General Chemistry. A Cultural Course Based uuon the Texts of the Late Alex- ander k t h . James Kendall, F.R.S. Professor of Chemistry and Administra- tive Chairman of the Department of Chemistry of Washington Square Col- lege, New York University. The Cen- tury Company, New York. First Edi- tion, 1927. xxix + 676 pp. 13 X 24 cm. $3.50.

A number of revisions of the Smith text- books have been made by Professor Ken- dall and his collaborators to fit various requirements in the teaching of elemen- tary chemistry. This latest product is devised to capture and captivate those students who take chemistry, not for a professional requirement, but as a science elective-probably because they are try- ing to avoid mathematics and consider chemistry a lesser evil than physics. However, we quite agree with the author that "even the professional student will not be handicapped by the fact that he was given the opportunity to enjoy chem- istry during his first year."

As one upon whom the mantle of the late Alexander Smith has fallen, the author feels constrained to maintain the classic tradition in his presentation of the subject. In his own words, "any innovations con- sist rather in outlook than in content." In offering the cultural view of chemistry he has not found it necessary to omit the more difficult theoretical developments.

such omissions have been the chief reason for which the sterner chemists have damned previous attempts to humanize the science.

In the interest of culture and because of recent advances, chapters and sections have been added which, of course, were not present in the original Smith texts, and here the author has emerged from the shadow of his master. The chapter on atomic structure is unusually complete as well as clear and interesting. The chap- ters on plant and animal life and the chapter on synthetic products are per- haps the most valuable from the cultural viewpoint. A few pictures of noted scien- tists, a valedictory including a list of the winners of the Nobel Prize in chemistry, lists of medallists, the presidents of the American Chemical Society, and the in- spiring accomplishments of all thesesuch inclusions seem quite apropos since culture must presume a recognition of persons as well as a knowledge of their works.

At the end of certain chapters there are numerous references to recent hooks and journal articles. These are largely popu- lar in nature and, if the student could be persuaded to read a few of them, they would certainly stimulate his interest in chemistry. It is a t least to he hoped that they may be read by his instructor!

In general, this textbook is one which a chemist must feel that he would have liked as a student. It is particularly to he recommended as a reference hook to those instructors who wish to impress their students with a m m liberal view of chemistry.

HARVEY A. NEVILLE

Colloids. H. R. KRUYT, Professor of Physical Chemistry, University of Utrecht, Holland. John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1927. xi + 262 pp. 116 figures. 15 X 23 cm. $3.50.

This is an excellent text, well balanced, and the most modern of its size and type. Adsorption is clearly presented with quite a leaning toward the orientation theories of Langmnir and of Harkins. Capillary electrical phenomena receive rather exten-

sive treatment and, of course, Kruyt's own excellent work on flow potentials is well even.

The author has done notable work on the stability of colloids and it is an advan- tage to the reader to have this research summarized by Kruyt himself. Kruyt shows, for instance, how an emulsoid may he dehydrated by alcohol or acetone to the suspensoid state, sensitive to low ionic concentrations. Perhaps we might quibble OW the reference to hvdroxide sols as lyophohe colloids. The oxides of some of the metals such as fenic oxide are really noticeably hydrated although not com- parable to agar or albumin.

The author is more careful than most of us in using the symbols "m r" where we incorrectly write "lrp" for "millimicron." Kruyt's comments on Perrin's colloidal

atmosphere are sane and in general we are impressed by the soundness of his views. He takes sharp issue with Loeb on the overwhelming importance of $H values in a gelatin sol. By the use of certain other ions than hydrogen or hydroxyl he brings gelatin to an isoelectric point at varying Pa values. Biologist followers of Loch will do well to study carefully the con- vincing evidence presented by Kruyt. Yet Kruyt insists that Loeb's own views suffered a radical change from 1918 t o 1923 and would have been modified much more hut for his untimely death.

Illuminating views are also expressed in this book on the Donnan equilibrium and membrane notentials.

Phyzicicts and bi~logirtr will join colloid rhaniits in apprecinrm~ of this valu.dde - -

hook. H A R ~ ~ N. HOLWS

Principles of Organic Chemistry. DAVID E. WORRALL, Ph.D., Professor of Or- ganic Chemistry in Tufts College. Longmans, Green and Co., New York City, 1927. xii + 312 pp. 14 X 20 cm. $2.50.

Thewobject of the author, as set forth in'th<preface, was to prepare a small book on organic chemistry suitable as a text-