Books A Useful Monograph for the Practicing Trace Metal Analyst Selected Methods of Trace Analysis: Biological and Environmental Samples. Jon Van Loon, xix + 357 pp. John Wiley & Sons, 605 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016. 1985. $55
Reviewed by Paul Mushak, Department of Pathology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C. 27514 This useful and very readable monograph will be of particular value to those practicing analysts who daily wrestle with problems peculiar to trace metal and metalloid analysis. Its usefulness, of course, will vary with the degree of sophistication and experience of laboratory staff in trace metal measurement. This book has 12 chapters, covering general material (chapters 1-4) and specific discussion of analyses by matrix type (chapters 5-10). Chapter 11, on the better methods of chemical form-specific analyses, and chapter 12, which discusses what lies ahead in developments, add considerably to the text's overall value. Chapter 11 responds to the growing recognition that it is often not the total level of a metal contaminant but rather the amount of some specific chemical form that relates to the agent's biological, toxicological nature. As the author admits, this particular work is meant to cover the topic in a very practical way, with minimum emphasis on theory and maximum attention to useful descriptive details. The discussion of the types of instrumentation used in the methods is also limited. The author assumes that many laboratories are restricted to a limited number of instrument systems, specifically atomic absorption and atomic emission spectrometric approaches. Hence, virtually all specific methods described involve one or the other of these atomic spectral techniques. The main body of the monograph, which deals with specific analytical procedures (chapters 5-10), is broken down by the type of analytical matrix in which the element occurs. Because each type of sample has its own handling and processing methodologies and associated problems, there is logic to this approach. Furthermore, this organizational approach recognizes that many laboratories are restricted
in the types of sample media routinely handled. Reasonable care seems to have been given to the selection of published procedures to be described for each element and matrix in chapters 5-10 and to the form speciation techniques in chapter 11. Selection of methods, however, involves subjectivity on the part of the author. Hence, some readers might disagree that the methods selected for a given element or matrix were any better than others. This monograph is laid out in a crisp, unpretentious style that poses few barriers to readers' grasping the gist of the material. In summary, this is a useful and practical work for both the trace analysis laboratory interested in expanding its activities and the relative newcomer, who will find the general sections of additional value.
High Performance Liquid Chromatography in Biochemistry. A. Henschen et al., Eds. 638 pp. VCH Publishers, 303 N.W. 12th Ave., Deerfield Beach, Fla. 33442. 1985. $88
Reviewed by Phyllis Brown, Department of Chemistry, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, R.I. 02881 This is a well-written and well-edited volume by authorities in the field. The editors state in their preface that "the time . . . seems right for a selfcontained appraisal of the technique with special regard to its application in biochemistry." In addition, they state that "in this book, it has been our aim to give an introduction to the theoretical and instrumental principles of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), followed by a detailed treatment of its application to the various groups of compounds of biochemical interest." These aims are very worthwhile; however, they are not new. There are many books available that give an introduction to the theoretical and instrumental principles of HPLC, and one book was published in 1973 specifically on biochemical and biomedical applications of HPLC. If this book had presented more material on the latest developments in the applications of HPLC to
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biochemistry, it would have been much more valuable to the biochemist who uses chromatography. The lists of references at the end of the chapters are lengthy and comprehensive; however, most of the references are from the literature prior to 1981 with relatively few references from 1982. Although lag time in the publication of most books is an inherent problem, it is unfortunate that there was at least a three-year lag between the time when the chapters were submitted and publication of the book. Rapid advances in HPLC over the past five years have made some of the separations discussed in the book almost obsolete. Great strides have been made in many areas useful to biochemistry such as chiral, preparative, microbore, and "fast" HPLC separations, new solid supports, and novel bonded phases as well as computerization and new methods of optimization of resolution. On the historical side it should be noted that in the chapter on nucleobases (chapter 9), even though there is a lengthy bibliography, the pioneering work done by the Oak Ridge Group and by Horvath and Lipsky is not acknowledged. Organizing a book like this is difficult because of the many factors involved (e.g., types of substances, sample matrices, disease processes in-
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