Abstract
THE parts of Gmelin's new “Handbuch” which deal with lithium and bismuth, like the earlier parts, show abundant evidence that a painstaking and exhaustive review of the literature up to July 1926 has been made. Following the general plan of the work, the parts open with notes on the history and distribution of the elements. Then follows a comprehensive survey of their physical, electrochemical, and chemical properties, and a similar scheme is adopted in dealing with compounds of these elements with such other elements as precede them in the scheme (see NATURE, Mar. 5, p. 346). That the search through the literature has been thorough may be inferred from the fact that the description of one salt alone (lithium chloride) occupies fifty pages and contains detailed numerical data relating to hydrates, to solutions in water and in organic solvents and to complex ammine-chlorides. A summary of recent work on the atomic dimensions, atomic structure, and isotopes of lithium is given, whilst the radioactive isotopes of bismuth are fully described in a special section, which includes not only detailed references to recent papers but also a synopsis of the general literature on the subject.
Gmelins Handbuch der anorganischen Chemie.
Achte vönlig neu bearbeitete Auflage. Herausgegeben Von der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft. Bearbeitet von R. J. Meyer. System-Nummer 19: Wismut und radioaktive Isotope. Pp. xxii + 229. 33 gold marks. System-Nummer 20: Lithium. Pp. xxiv + 254. 37.50 gold marks. (Berlin: Verlag Chemie G.m.b.H., 1927.)
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Gmelins Handbuch der anorganischen Chemie . Nature 120, 186 (1927). https://doi.org/10.1038/120186b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/120186b0