Chemistry

Abstract

SYMBOLS and formulæ have been used incessantly from the early days of alchemy down to these modern times in which a radiating atom of sodium is represented by the scheme ²S/2 - ²P/22. The title selected by the authors therefore provides them with a convenient excuse for drilling a bore-hole through the whole of the strata in which the history of chemical theory is embedded. The samples which they have extracted are naturally not the same as if they had been concerned with the general history of chemistry, and many obscure details are brought into the light of day; but the reader will find that the atomic and molecular theories, the earlier and later theories of molecular structure, including stereochemistry and co-ordination, fall within the scope of the volume, as well as the modern electronic theory.

Symbols and Formulæ in Chemistry: an Historical Study.

By Prof. R. M. Caven Dr. J. A. Cranston. (Manuals of Pure and Applied Chemistry). Pp. ix+220. (London, Glasgow and Bombay: Blackie and Son, Ltd., 1928.) 15s. net.