JOURNAL OF CHEMICAt EDUCATION
390 motions through the crystsl. The emphrtsis throughout is on metals, but the same principles obviously apply to other solids. The only applications considered in any detail are those to crystal growth and to grain boundaries in metals. The author realkes, of course, that dislocations are of paramount importance in the field of mechanical properties-strength, plastic formation, work hardening, etc-yet he avoids the theoretmal treatment of these subjects. "Instead of reviewing current speculations (or adding others), [he has] tried to give the student and prospective researcher a sound foundation that will enable him to attack these problem successfully and eventually bring them from the area. of speculation into the area of applied science." This book is clearly written and admirably illustrated by many line drawinwings. Many pertinent exercises are included. Advanced students interested in the physics of metals should find it very useful, either for individual study or as a textbook for a c o m e in dislocation theory. The reader is assumed to he familiar with elementary calculus, but not with crystallography, beyond the most fundamental ideas. The publisher's job, like the author's, has been well done.
the current presentation of new and timely methods and madifications." Sometimes one procedure is given, rarely three. Any worker in the clinical field realizes there is need for a guide. Unique tests with unique equipment are often offeeredto the market which could well he rated in a book of standwd procedurea. Small volumes such as this one, only listing the methods found in standard texts that are approved by the Committee, and giving in detail new modifications or methods not available in such standard texts when they have been approved, might he bound in cheaper paper covers. A discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of such methods would be a grest help to clinical technicians. A reader might also be interested in knowing why the particular modifications of existing standard methods have been adopted. It is a stupendous undertaking to establish standard procedures for all workers. VIOLA BOMMERMEYER S * r Dmao. Cn~rrosarh
MAURICE L. HUGGINS E * s n c * ~KODAXCOMPANY ROOHEBTER. NEW YDRH
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SOILS AND FERTILIZERS
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Firman 6. Bear, Professor of Agricultural Chemistry, Rutgers University; Research Specialist in Soils. New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station. Fourth edition. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1953. dii 420 pp. I01 figs. 157tables. 15.5 X 23.5cm. $6.
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T m s is a completely revised textbook designed for use in beginning courses in soils for students in general agriculture. It pmticularly stresses the relationship existing between soils and crop production and the conservation of one of our major n a b u r d resources, the soil. For the serious student majoring in mils it is lacking in the advanced phases of scientific and technical details, The subject matter is well documented with tables and graphs of data plus many illustrations. E. A. FIEGER Lonrsl*~aST*TEUNIYERBIT~ BATONROUOE.L O U I B ~ N A
STANDARD METHODS OF CLINICAL CHEMISTRY. VOLUME I
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COMPREHENSIVE INORGANIC CHEMISTRY. VOLUME n: COPPER, SILVER, AND GOLD
Edited by M. Cannon Sneed, Professor of Chemishy, J. Lewis Maynard, Professor of Chemistry, and Robert G. Brasted, Associate Professor of Chemidry, University of Minnesota. D. Van Nostrand Cc., Inc., New York, 1954. x 248 pp. 16 X 23.5cm. $5.
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THISbook, by James W. Laist, covers the descriptive chemistry and the extractive metallurgy of the "coinage metals" with near equal space devoted to each topic. The fact that much of the chemistry of these elements is concerned with mining operations explains this division. An introduction gives tabuhtions of the physical, chemical, and nuclear properties of this triad and brietly characterizes their chemistry in t e r m of electronic structures. Each element is then individually treated on the basis of its history, natural occurrence, recovery processes from oms, commercial alloys, and the chemical properties of the metal and its alloys. The writing is clear and the book is adeauatelv - Bled with references and necessarv illustrations. The utility of this nonthermodynamio treatment is as a reference text in undergraduate inorganic courses. The advanced research worker will prohably consult the better known systematic treatises. However, the captivating style of the hook will draw the lay "popular science writer" to it as a source of information.
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EDWARD D. GOLDBERG Scmms I ~ s ~ m m r oOPn OCEANOORAPAY L* JOLL*, C*LIIORNIA
The American Asenciation of Clinical Chemists. Editor-in-Chief, Miriam Reiner, Director, Chemistry Laboratory, Gallinger Municipal Hospital, Washington, D. C. Aoademic Preas, Inc., 142 pp. Illustrated. 16 X 23.5 om. New York, 1953. xii
$4.50.
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Tae purpose of this volume is to check certain methods in common uae in clinical laboratories and to explain the scientific basis of each method. It is written for "countless laboratory workers, chemista and technicittns." It is to be comparable to the methods of analysis put out by the Association of Officid Agricultural Chemists. Each method has been used and checked by one or more of the member chemists. Volume I covers routine examinations: amylase, bilirubin, calcium, COXcontent, chlorides, free and total cholesterol, creatinine, glucose, lipase, phosphatases and inorganic phosphates, total proteins, albumin and globulin, prothrombin, sodium and potassium flame photometry, thymol turbidity, urea nitrogen, uric acid. Author and subject indexes are complete. The Editorial Committee decided on a collection of smaU it permits the volumes because "this insures great flexibility huance of handy volumes for use a t the laboratory bench and
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BIOCHEMICAL PREPARATIONS. VOLUME 3
Esmond E. Snell, Editor-in-Chief. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1953. viii 128 pp. 15.5 X 23.5cm. $3.50.
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TEE third volume of "Biochemical Preparations" advances substautiaUy the enviable reputation estabhhed by the preceding volumes of this significant work. The hook makes an immediate appeal to the teacher and research worker by setting forth, for each preparation, synonymous names, formula, and molecular weight; clearly written and easily followed equations presenting the principle of the method; names and addresses of contributors; concise and pertinent notes; and essential references to the litemtnr~ - . ....-.-. 'L'lrr ronsirlrrarion shirh is given to the ~rlcctionof srnrting marwials, pxrticularly in this field of biochrrnirrry, is in itsrlf arr iuvaluablc fraturr. Thc ~roredures,inrludinc ~ i s r of s ve.isrl;l and quantities of materials, are clear and easil~followed. The
JULY, 1954
391
breakdown into well indicated steps, followed by sections on properties and purity, provides for the experimenter exactly what he desires and needs. The use of the present tense, passive voice in giving directions is pleasing as well as adequate. The book carries a complete subject index and a list of 64 compounds of biochemical interest which have appeared in "Organic Syntheses" through Volume 32. Beginning in many cases with natural sources of materials, the book describes 26 preparations, including crystalline muscle phosphorylase, ribonuclease, diphosphopyridine nucleotide (DPN), triphosphopyridine nueleotide (TPN), pyridoxamine phosphate, pyridoxal phosphate, pmtoporphyrin dimethyl ester, d-isocitric acid, dl-isocitric acid laotone, dihydroxyfumaric acid, oxslaeetic acid, L(+) and D(-)lactic acids, sodium wketoisocaproate, D-glucose-&phosphoric acid, D-galacturonic acid, 82,5-dihydroxyphenyl-~~-aI%nine, Irisaleueine, n-isoleucine, b alloisoleucine, o-alloisoleucine, L- and DL-ornithine monohydrochlorides, L- and ~ b c i t ~ l l i (from n e ornithiue), ~citrulline(from I-arginine), bkynurenine, I.- and ~penicillaminehydrochlorides, elaidic acid, 2,4dinitraflualabeneene.
may disconcert the reader seeking information on a particular determination, since he may need to skim hack twenty or more pages to find their meanings. Reference to the index is frequently, but not always, helpful. In the same connection, methods in the appendix are preceded by cryptic symbols suggesting the preferred prior processing of the sample. The infrequent user of the book will devote too much time to finding the ineonspicuous table which allows him to decode these recommendations. Despite these minor inconveniences, the biologist or hiochemirt desiring to explore the applicability of histochemical methods to a specific problem may well turn first to Pearse's book. The treatment seems comprehensive, a conscientious effort is made to present the chemistry involved whenever possible, and the limitations and deficiencies of each procedure are critically discussed. Although frankly seeking to proselytise nonhistochemists, the author avoids exaggerated claims for his discipline. Accordingly, few among his converts should become disillusioned apostates. D. E. ATKINSON
EARL M. BILGER
FOAMS: THEORY AND INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS
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HISTOCHEMISTRY: THEORETICAL AND APPLIED
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A. G. Everson Pearse, Lecturer in Histochemistry, Postgraduate Medical School, University of London. Little, Brown and Co., 503 pages. 109 figs. 4 plates. 15.5 X Boston, 1953. viii 23.5 cm. $12.
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THIS book is presumably addressed to two main groups of readers: those performing routine clinical histochemical determinations and t,hose research workers in other fields desiring to apply hi~tochemicaltechniques to specific problems. The reviewer is qualified to speak to and for only the second of these groups and will consider the book from their standpoint. The author calls in his preface for a wider application of histochemistry, and adds that such application depends on greeter awareness of the possibilities of available techniques. A main purpose of the hook, then, is to oompile for the nonspecialist information on the potentialities, limitations, and comparative advantages of individual methods. I t would appear that this
1. J. Bikerman, in collaboration with R. B. Booth, American Cyanimid Co., I. M. Perri, National Foam Co., and C.C. Cmie, Dow-Corning Corp. Reinhold Publishing Corp., New Y o 4 1953. 347 pp. 62 figs. 16 X 23.5 em. $10. ii
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' c T volume ~ ~ ~was written for scientists who intend to profit by foam or axe plagued by it, or last but not least, are interested in foam just hecauae foam is so interesting." The authors have made foam both interesting and practical. Mr. Bikerman has prepaxed the first eleven chspters de&g with the fundamental properties of foam as a colloid system. These properties are given basic treatment with ample reference to the prior literature. Mr. Perri describes the fire-fighting foams used so successfully by the Navy during the war, and now used by industry. Mr. Booth discusses froth flotation, the basisof an everinoressing use of foam for the henefioation of low grade ores or separation of chemical compounds. Mr. Currie surveys the literature on chemical antifoaming agents for the benefit of those plagued hy foams. This book is of interest to the colloid chemist for its basic treatment of foams and to the technologist who must use or destroy foam.
detailea directions for the recommended methods are grouped in KENNETH A. KOBE a n appendix. This organization seems a desirable one, a t least UwzveRamr OF T z n ~ s of the oacssional user. in that a eomnmsfrom - ~ - - the ~ - standnoint -~ A U ~ T I N~. e x ~ s tive discussion of the different methods for a given constituent need not be broken up by recipes and procedural directions. Xach description of a method in the appendix includes a brief statement of the results and degree of specificity to be expected, 0 BIOCHEMISTRY AND PHYSIOLOGY OF so that the more detailed treatmmt in the main text need not NUTRITION. 2 VOLUMES necessarily be consulted. Some portions of the book seem aimed only a t the needs of Edited by Geoffrey H.Bourne, London Hospital Medical Colroutine clinied ttchnicians, rather than a t those of the larger lege, England, and George W. Kidder, Amherst College. audience of workers in related fields whom the author hopes to Academic Press, Inc., New York, 1953. V d . I, xiii 569 pp. reach. The treatment of fixation appears rather inadequate, and $13. Vol. 11, xi 641 pp. $15. Illustrated. 15.5 X 23.5 om. seems to be limited mainly by the feeling that, since the clinical THISauthoritative work by 14 British and 14 American writers worker may generally receive samples already fixed in formalin, "it is better to become reconciled to the evils" of such is a timely publication, I t is practiedly a treatise on biochemfixation than to arrange for other processing. Other methods are istry, since it covers RO much of the dynamic aspects of the subtherefore not extensively considered. Certainly the nonclinical ject. The first two chapteri deal with historical aspects of research worker will have his procedures under more personal nutrition, especially the history of vitamin discoveries. Then fallows a group of chapters on metabolism of water, electrolytes, control. and he mav be as -ereatlv . in need of advice on hittion as carbohydrates, amino acids, protein synthesis, and lipids. The O I I his1ochrmic41 detcrrninnrion*. Simhrlv, n a t l b d r for iwrds are liwiwd to thoit, "\vhirh may he rwluirwl i u n,utinr dihgnos- biochemistry of the fat-soluble vitamins and of the vitamin B tit: hisacherniatry," and plant hisrt,rhvmiitr? is cutiwly :g~~nrcrl complex are each treated in a single chapter. A chapter by T. H. Jukes on vitamins and hematopoiesis disexcept for the historical section. The frequent use of abbreviations far reagents or procedures cusses the complex behavior of folio acid and related compounds, ~
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