This Introductory Course of Quantitative Analysis has been prepared
to meet the needs of students who are just entering upon the subject,
after a course of qualitative analysis. It is primarily intended to
enable the student to work successfully and intelligently without the
necessity for a larger measure of personal assistance and supervision
than can reasonably be given to each member of a large class. To this
end the directions are given in such detail that there is very little
opportunity for the student to go astray; but the manual is not, the
author believes, on this account less adapted for use with small
classes, where the instructor, by greater personal influence, can
stimulate independent thought on the part of the pupil.
The method of presentation of the subject is that suggested by
Professor A.A. Noyes' excellent manual of Qualitative Analysis. For
each analysis the procedure is given in considerable detail, and
this is accompanied by explanatory notes, which are believed to be
sufficiently expanded to enable the student to understand fully the
underlying reason for each step prescribed. The use of the book
should, nevertheless, be supplemented by classroom instruction, mainly
of the character of recitations, and the student should be taught to
consult larger works. The general directions are intended to emphasize
those matters upon which the beginner in quantitative analysis must
bestow special care, and to offer helpful suggestions. The student
can hardly be expected to appreciate the force of all the statements
contained in these directions, or, indeed, to retain them all in
the memory after a single reading; but the instructor, by frequent
reference to special paragraphs, as suitable occasion presents itself,
can soon render them familiar to the student.
The analyses selected for practice are those comprised in the first
course of quantitative analysis at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, and have been chosen, after an experience of years,
as affording the best preparation for more advanced work, and as
satisfactory types of gravimetric and volumetric methods. From the
latter point of view, they also seem to furnish the best insight into
quantitative analysis for those students who can devote but a limited time to the subject, and who may never extend their
study beyond the field covered by this manual. The author has had opportunity to test the efficiency of the course for use
with such students, and has found the results satisfactory.
In place of the usual custom of selecting simple salts as material for
preliminary practice, it has been found advantageous to substitute, in
most instances, approximately pure samples of appropriate minerals or
industrial products. The difficulties are not greatly enhanced, while
the student gains in practical experience.
The analytical procedures described in the following pages have been
selected chiefly with reference to their usefulness in teaching the
subject, and with the purpose of affording as wide a variety of
processes as is practicable within an introductory course of this
character. The scope of the manual precludes any extended attempt to
indicate alternative procedures, except through general references to
larger works on analytical chemistry. The author is indebted to the
standard works for many suggestions for which it is impracticable to
make specific acknowledgment; no considerable credit is claimed by him
for originality of procedure.
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