Bechhold. Kolloide in Biologie und Medizin. Dresden, 1920.

Bechhold’s book is a concise encyclopedia. As a result, all questions are treated very briefly. Moreover, perhaps because the field of colloid physics and chemistry is at present developing very rapidly, many questions are handled in an already outdated form and the literature is insufficiently complete (for example, the connection of adsorption with surface tension, Brownian motion; in the question of the Lebenskurve of colloids the question of hysteresis is not discussed; Loeb’s works are presented insufficiently fully).

It should also be noted that Bechhold makes absolutely no use of the mathematical apparatus which has now fully acquired citizenship rights in such questions and which makes it possible to pass from general qualitative considerations to an exact formula.

In this respect Bechhold’s book compares unfavorably, for example, with Freundlich, Kapillarchemie, and Cassuto, Allgemeine Kolloidchemie.

The book can be recommended only for a preliminary, superficial acquaintance with the subject.
B. Ilyin.