The Approach to Chemical Analysis [antikvár]

AUTHOR'S PREFACE Not many years ago a most eminent English organic chemist said to a student who wished for information on an analytical matter, "What! Waste your time on chemical analysis! Certainly not. You leave chemical analysis to those people whose business it is ". And there we have, in those pithy sentences, at least part of the explanation of the neglect of chemical analysis in academic circles not only in Great Britain but in many other countries. Chemical analysis certainly is a business, but it is much more than that: it is also a branch of the chemical profession, and demands for its successful prosecution a considerable knowledge of all branches of chemistry, considerable ability to organize and apply one's knowledge, and awareness of developments in the related fields of physics and biology. The author hopes in this book to provide chemists who have litde or no actual experience of chemical analysis with a picture of the way in which it has developed and of the means now in use for solving analytical problems. Acquaintance with the capabilities of modern chemical analysis is useful at some time to almost every chemist; a more thorough study not infrequently leads to work of very great interest and to positions of considerable responsibility. Chemical analysis has been defined as "an attempt to determine with the required accuracy the proportions in which any or all of the components of a mixture or compound are present". In the early days of chemical analysis a component was almost always an element, though often expressed as a basic or acidic oxide, and the history of analysis has been that of the gradual development of the concept of a component. The food analyst found information on the carbon and hydrogen content of butter quite insufficient; he needs to know die ratio of esters of short-chain fatty acids to long- vii