Page 25 - Vogel's TEXTBOOK OF QUANTITATIVE CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
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PREFACE TO THE FlFTH EDlTlON
We consider ourselves most fortunate to have had the opportunity to continue
the collaboration we enjoyed over the previous Fourth Edition of Arthur 1.
Vogel's Textbook of Quantitative Inorganic Analysis and to prepare this
Fifth Edition.
It will not have gone unnoticed by readers familiar with earlier editions that
the title has now been altered to Vogel's Textbook of 'Quantitative Chemical
Analysis'. This has been done because the growth and development of analytical
chemistry has now totally blurred the boundaries which rather artificially existed
between inorganic and organic chemistry. As a result we have made a deliberate
policy to incorporate a number of useful organic analytical applications and
experiments in the new text. It says much for the foresight of Dr Vogel that he
clearly anticipated this development as in the Third Edition he incorporated
organic fluorescence and an introductory chapter on infrared spectroscopy, and
we have built upon this basis. As a result this volume is a far more substantial
revision than that which was given to the Fourth Edition and we believe that
it will be of value to an even wider readership in both academic and industrial
circles.
One change that will be evident to many chemists is the deletion of normalities
and equivalents from the body of the text. This has been done because current
teaching and al1 Our external contacts indicated that there was little long-term
benefit in retaining them. However, there are many older readers who still
employ this system and because of this we have retained a detailed explanation
of normalities and equivalents as an Appendix.
The other changes we have made are almost too numerous to list separately
in a Preface. As far as possible al1 subject areas have been up-dated and numerous
references given to research papers and other textbooks to enable the reader to
study particular topics more extensively if required.
Part A, dealing with the Fundamentals of Quantitative Chemical Analysis,
has been extended to incorporate sections of basic theory which were originally
spread around the body of the text. This has enabled a more logical development
of theoretical concepts to be possible. Part B, concerned with errors, statistics,
and sampling, has been extensively rewritten to cover modern approaches to
sampling as well as the attendant difficulties in obtaining representative samples
from bulk materials. The statistics has been restructured to provide a logical,
stepwise approach to a subject which many people find difficult.
The very extensive changes that have taken place over recent years and the
broad application to organic separations necessitated a major revision of Part C
covering solvent extraction and chromatographic procedures. These particular