Bibliography

It should be noted that the translation of the second part of Eucken’s third edition, supplemented and revised by A. N. Frumkin, is better than the original. Electromotive forces, potentials, and adsorption can be recommended in A. I. Frumkin’s presentation.

The last chapter is devoted to the laws of quantum mechanics. This part has been shortened in comparison with the third edition. It begins with the Franck and Hertz experiments, after which the law of equivalence follows.

Very little space is given to photochemistry. A considerable part of the chapter is devoted to spectra. Wave mechanics is accommodated on the last 19 pages of the book. This is far too little to give a proper understanding and an opportunity to assess the importance of the methods of the new mechanics for questions of chemical bonding, etc.

For reasons of economy of space, the chapter on radioactivity has been omitted altogether; it has fallen outside the author’s field of view.

As a novelty it should be noted that almost every chapter ends with problems and examples for practice.

Under our conditions, the new, partly abridged Eucken as a textbook for higher educational institutions is unsuitable. Since Eucken is poorly suited to us for graduate students and scientific workers, we believe that a course in chemical physics better corresponds to its purpose.

I should like to draw attention to one more circumstance. Eucken is very reluctant to cite non-German authors. Nothing, for example, is written about Parachor, and Segden’s name is not mentioned. The English and others likewise do not remain in debt. In one fairly good textbook of physical chemistry, Nernst is not mentioned in the exposition of the third law of thermodynamics. It is very regrettable that many foreign books are marked by the stamp of national bias to the detriment of scientific objectivity.

Ya. K. Syrkin

J. HENGSTENBERG u. KARL WOLF, Elektronenstrahlen und ihre Wechselwirkung mit Materie, Lpz., Akad. Verlagsges., 1935, 236, 12, 182 Abb. (Hand- u. Jahrbuch der chemischen Physik, Hrsg. von A. Eucken u. K. L. Wolf. Db. 6 Abschnitt. I A. Mk. 24).

J. HENGSTENBERG and KARL WOLF, Electron Beams and Their Interaction with Matter.

Within a short interval of time, entirely new methods for studying matter have undergone powerful development—methods that have already penetrated even into factory practice. Among the new methods a special place is occupied by the study of the structure of matter by means of electron beams, successfully competing with the long-used method of X-ray analysis. In connection with this there arose a need to present the modern doctrine of electron beams and their interaction with matter in a form accessible not only to the narrow circle of specialist physicists, but also to workers who study the structure of matter directly, first and foremost to chemists.

The book under review belongs to a series of books intended to present new methods employed in chemical physics. The authors have sought to give as complete a description as possible of the theoretical foundations of the new method, as well as of its numerous practical applications. Taking into account that the future reader is a trained chemist previously little acquainted with this branch of physics, the authors from the very beginning give a survey of the classical and new theories of electron beams, starting with Lenard’s first work on cathode rays and ending with an exposition of Dirac’s theory of the electron. Despite its great conciseness and brevity (34 pp.), the survey is at the proper scientific level and is very useful.

This is followed by a survey of experimental methods for obtaining electron beams; the survey is filled with a large number of useful practical indications.

The part devoted to the theory of the interaction of electron beams with matter is less successful. This is explained by the fact that such a complex question

Bibliography

cannot be set forth on 50 pages with sufficient completeness. A reader unfamiliar with the specialized literature will have difficulty reading this part. For a specialist it is not without consequence because of its brevity. On the other hand, the last section of the book, occupying the second half and devoted to experimental materials on the passage of electron rays through matter, is very substantial and successfully presented. A worker in a laboratory for electron analysis of materials will be able to find in this section answers to many questions that arise in his everyday work. Experiments on the scattering of electrons by individual particles, by crystals, and, finally, questions connected with the dissociation of molecules after impact by electrons, are described in detail.

A large number of photographs, tables, and curves makes this part of the book very valuable. Since in our country the practice of electron rays is acquiring ever greater significance every year, one can only wish for the appearance of this useful book in a Russian translation.

Yu. Rumer

ARTHUR EDDINGTON, Prof., New Pathways in Science. Messenger lectures. L., Cambr., Univ. Pr., 1935, X, 333, 1 p., Sh. 10, 6.

ARTHUR EDDINGTON, New Pathways in Science.

Eddington’s books, devoted to a profound analysis and bold generalizations of modern physics, are always of great interest. Like Jeans, Eddington possesses that scientific pathos and flight of thought which make his books absorbing and arouse in the reader admiration for the power of the human mind and for the successes of modern science. He is not a dry scholar able to expound his thoughts only before a narrow circle of specialists, but knows how to find words and images accessible to a broad audience. His latest book is the most successful in this respect. In it he sets forth his scientific and philosophical credo and defends it with all the passion of a convinced man.

Eddington stands wholly in a philosophical position hostile to us—that of idealism. Since Eddington reflects views that have a great influence on the physical thought of the West, his views deserve serious analysis in our philosophical literature. One must wish that some one of our Marxist physicists, standing at the level of contemporary scientific development, would undertake this task. Eddington’s philosophical views are set forth in the first chapter of the book under review. It is curious that Eddington’s views meet, it is true, with weak but nevertheless some opposition from various thinkers who, on the whole, stand on Eddington’s positions. He devotes the last chapter of his book to an analysis of the discussions with his opponents.

Beginning with the second chapter, Eddington, in broad, vivid strokes, gives a picture of contemporary views on the nature of matter. His images are vivid and easily remembered. The language is rich and abundant, and the reading of these sections of the book gives deep satisfaction. Approaching the questions of the ether, Eddington reconstructs his half-hearted position. He recognizes that all attempts of the past century to establish the mechanical properties of the ether (its density, elasticity, discrete structure, etc.) were not crowned with success. Instead of drawing from this the only correct conclusion—that the conception of the ether is merely an auxiliary means for describing phenomena connected with real matter, a means useful only at a certain stage for the phenomenological picture—Eddington goes so far as to say that the ether is in general not material, that the concepts of ether, space, and field are identical concepts, having only three words for their expression.

In the following chapters there is an exposition of modern physical theories connected with quantum physics and the crisis of determinism. Here too Eddington openly takes a point of view hostile to us, endowing the electron with the miraculous properties of knowing what the neighboring electron intends to do.