Book excerpt: The growth of inorganic chemistry during the last 50 years has made it difficult for the student to assimilate all the factual information available. This book is designed to help by showing how a chemist uses the Periodic Table to organize and process this mass of information. It includes a detailed discussion of the important horizontal, vertical, and diagonal trends in the properties of the atoms of the elements and their compounds. These basic principles can then be applied to more detailed problems in modern inorganic chemistry.