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the new Volume I contains some 50 pages more than the old, i t is about half as thick; the quality of the paper and the binding are much improved. There are author and subject indexes. LEE IRVINSMITH.
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103 pp. New York: Pitman Publishing Corporation, 1947. Essays in Rheology. vii Price: $3.00. This little book is a compilation of a series of papers presented a t the 1944 Oxford Conference of the British Rheologists Club. The Club was established in 1940 under the presidency of Professor Sir Geoffrey Taylor for the discussion of problems relating t o the deformation and flow of matter. The first chapter, “The Rheology of Metals, Polymers and Liquids,” was prepared by G . W. Scott Blair on the basis of papers read by E. Orowan (“The Plasticity of Metals”), R . F. Tuckett (“The Rheology of Polymers”), and A. G. Ward (“The Liquid State”). The present status of inquiry in these fields is reviewed in a simple and easily understandable form, with emphasis on the descriptive and qualitative aspects, rather than on the more difficult mathematical and physical aspects, although the latter receive adequate attention for a book of this scope. Other interesting chapters include “The Relationship Between Compression and Shear Tests”; “The Time Variations of Stress and Strain”; “Rheological Nomenclature and Symbols”; “Theology and Medical Science”; “Rheology and Kava1 Problems”; “Rheology in the Fine Arts.” An appendix on the “Ordinate Method of Exponential Analysis” should prove useful for those interested in the quantitative analysis of relaxation phenomena. This easily readable little hook is a contribution of value not only for the specialist, but also for the non-specialist who wishes to orient himself in the field of rheology. JOHNG . KIRKWOOD.
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Handbook of Chemistry. By S . A . LANGE. Sixth edition. xiv 1767 271 pp, of mathematical tables and formulas. Sandusky, Ohio: Handbook Publishers, Inc., 1946. Price: $7 .oo The first edition of this book was published in September, 1934, and contained 1556 pages. The present edition contains 2038 pages of material of use t o chemists with 16 pages of prefaces, acknowledgments, and table of contents, and an index of 28 pages. I n order to appreciate the extent of the material in this sixth edition and the care and work required to get this material together, one must spend many hours browsing through the hook. After these hours have been well spent, the reader will come to the conclusion that Lange’s Handbook of Chemistry is to the chemist what the unabridged edition of the dictionary is to the student of English literature. To compile a book of the scope of this handbook without error would not fall within the realm of probability, but one has to search diligently to find errors. For instance, on p. 662 the compound vinylamine, CHI . C H , K H * , is listed, and a footnote is given t h a t this product is actually ethylene imine, CHz.CHz.SH.
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The formula for this latter compound should be written C H 2 . C H z , h H . The compound vinylamine has not been prepared and should be omitted from the list of organic compounds. The printing, the paper, and the binding are excellent. €I. H . BARBER.
Methods of Vilarnin Assay. Prepared and edited by the Association of Vitamin Chemists, Inc. 189 pp. S e w York: Interscience Publishers, Inc., 1947. Price: $3.50. This hook admirably fills the need for a compilation of tested methods of vitamin assay applicable t o and tested with E great variety of materials. As stated in the preface, “the methods described here are the result of the pooling and interchange of information on analytical technics, and thus represent the combined knowledge and experience of many persons. Only such methods have been included as have been successfully applied to a
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variety of foods and other materials by several committee members.” As a result of such collaborative effort the methods given can be used with confidence. In addition, various sections of the book have been reviewed by men in whose laboratories analytical work on the various vitamins is in progress. The first chapter deals with sampling for vitamin analyses. One chapter each is devoted to the following: calorimetric and ultraviolet absorption methods for vitamin A; chromatographic and solvent partition methods for physiologically active carotinoids; thiochrome and fermentation methods for thiamine; fluorometric and microbiological methods for riboflavin; microbiological method for niacin; visual titration method and colorimetric methods with 2,6-dichlorophenolindophenoland 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine, respectively, for ascorbic acid. For each of the various methods one procedure is outlined in great detail, including sample calculations. Comments on individual steps are extensively interspersed between the directions for the various manipulations of the procedures. At the end of each rhapter there is a brief section on the applications of the given methods t o various biological materials, followed b y a selected bibliography. .Methods of bioassay for vitamins have apparently been purposely omitted from this volume. Methods for vitamins D, E , K, for biotin, folic acid, p-aminobenzoic acid, inositol, choline pantothenic acid, and pyridosine are referred to only through a selected bibliography. The methods presented in this volume are given in such detail that personnel with relatively limited analytical training should be able to apply them for routine work. Few crrors or misprints have been noted: on p. 100 the statement that “riboflavin is reversibly reduced to a leuco base, a dehydro compound,” should be corrected to read “a dihydro compound”; on p. 118 reference (48) is given to an important paper by Strong but this reference is not included in the bibliography. In view of the extensive use of photometric and spectrophotometric measurements in the methods published, a brief discussion of photometry and spectrophotometry would be a desirable addition to this book. Also, in the section on the chromatography of carotinoids it would be well to state clearly the relative position on the adsorption column of the various carotinoids. Methods of V i t a m i n Assay is well organized and clearly written. I t should be available in every laboratory wliere work on vitamins is in progress. I t is t o be hoped that future editions of this book will include methods on other vitamins.
M. 0. SCHULTZE. .Iftinographs on the Progress of Research in Holland. The WeL Purijkation of Coal Gas and Siniilar Gases b y the Staatsmijnen Otto Process. By H . A . PIETERS AND D. W. VAN KREVELEN. 55 pp. Amsterdam and Xew York: The Elsevier Publishing Company, Inc., 1947. This volume is No. 15 in a series of Monographs on the Progress of Research in Holland During World War 11. This book deals with past and current methods of removing hydrogen sulfide from manufactured gases and presents developments of the Otto process, which usrs an ammonium hydroside solution as a scrubbing medium plus a newly employed method of regeneration of elemental sulfur from the hydrogen sulfide so removed from the gas. In eight chapters it presents, successively, a review of liquid puriiirat ion procrsses. with comparative flow diagrams; a description of the Staatsmijnpn-Otto process; the constitutiorrand properties of the iron cyanide complex which is employed HS the catalyst o r oxygen (marrier in the second stage of the S.hf.0.process, for the wnversion of the HS--ion to sulfur and H+ ions; the general principles of gas absorption largely BY outlined in T. Ii.Sherwood’s Absorption and Ertraction (1937); experimental data and discussion of the velocity of ahsorption of hydrogen sulfide in the S.M.O. process; a discussion of the velocity of oxidation of the absorbed hydrogen sulfide, in terms of the HS- concentration, the concentration of the catalyst, the osygen pressure, and the concentration of dissolved salts [(SHai:S04, SH,Cl] in the absorpticn medium, with a comparison of laboratory arid industrial plant values for capacity factors; a discussion of by-reactions leading to polysulfide, thiocyanate
