JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION physician, and a teacher but who in the vigorous years of his youth devoted much of his time and energy to social and political reform in his native Ireland. In "Brennglaser als Hilfsmittel ohemisohen Forschens," by Rudolf Winderlich, one l e a r n that Priestley's discovery of oxygen by the decomposition of red mercuric oxide was dependent on his having a fine, and fairly large, mounted condensinglens with the use of which the temperature of decomposition could be reached. Lavoisier employed such a lens for the same purpose. Tenney L. Davis' "Pulvis Fulminans" ends with an account of its preparation about 1830 by Samuel Guthrie who "in the backwoods of upper New York state manufactured fulminating powder and sold i t to hunters and sportsmen for priming their firearms." Guthrie incidentally used the same proportions of niter, carbonate of potash, and sulfur recommended by Charas in the late seventeenth century. The seventeenth century marks the decline of alchemy and the heginning of chemistry. "Sir Kenelm Digby, Alchemist, Scholar, Courtier, and Men of Adventure" by Wyndhrtm Miles, is the story of an important figure of this period. Dighy failed to make his fortune as a multiplier but his laboratory in Gresham College, later the scene of the experimental demonstrations of Robert Hoake for the meetings of the newly founded Royal Society, aroused muoh interest in chemistry in London. Sir Isaac Newton ("Was Newton an Alchemist" by R. J. Forbes) "was not a 'gold-maker' like the worst types of medieval and later alchemists. He was an adept like Boyle, Locke, and any of his contemporaries interested in chemistry." Newton did, however, devote a large part of his time a t Cambridge to the experimental study of metals and their alloys; this firsthand knowledge of metals made possible Newton's outstanding service to the government as master of the mint. In the early seventeenth century the Protestants from Lorraine did a great deal to further the development of chemistry in Paris and the account of the activity of these physicians is given in "Some Seventeenth Century Chemists and Alchemists of Lorraine," by Denis I. Duveen and Antoine Willemart. The article, "History of Ambergris in India between about A.D. 700 and 1000," by P. K. Gode, is a short, scholc~rlyessay on this interesting substance. The importance of catalysis to modern industrial chemical processes cannot be overemphasized, yet how many physical ohemists realive that two French chemists in 1806 presented the first paper on the subject to the French Academy and that the discussion was on the lead-chamher process for the manufacture of sulfuric acid. Excerpts from the original paper are quoted in "D&ormes et Clement DBcouvrent et Expliqnent la Catalyse," by Pierre Lemay. Whenever one thinks about the history of catalysis one calls to mind Ostwald and the famous Leipzig laboratory. In the last decades of his life Ostwald's energy was directed to investigations in the philosophy of science and his contributions in this field may some day outweigh his reputation as the organizer of physical chemistry. "Some Personal Qualities of Wilhelm Ostwald Recalled by a Former Assistant," by Edmund P. Hillpem, will be read with pleasure by all who are familiar with Ostwald's talents and interests. The reviewer enjoyed most the paper on the lahoratory in Munich, where Bseyer, weary with work on indigo, turned his attention to the constitution of cyclic and unsaturated hydrocarbons; where the two Fischers, Otto and Emil, synthesized paramsaniline from triphenylmethane; where Thiele and Willststter served their apprenticeship, WillstBtter later succeeding the beloved Baeyer. There is a plate showing two pictures of the ruins of the once renowned laboratory. There are remarkably few errors. "Tyrocinium Chymicum," by Beguin, referred to in the article by Tenney L. Davis was nrint,ed Otto Fisoher was not the first - ~ = - - in~ 1612. ~ ~not~ in~ 1608: ~ brother of Emil but his first cousin. The book ends with a name index to volumes one and two and a page of corrections for volume one. ~
BIOCHEMISTRY IN RELATION TO MEDICINE
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C. W. Carter, Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford, England, and
R. H. S. Thompson, Professor of Chemical Pathology, Guy's Hospital Medical School, University of London, England. Long442 pp. 36 figs. mans, Green and Co., New York, 1949. xi 26 tables. 14.5 X 22 cm. $5.
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T m last decades have witnessed a tremendous expansion of our knowledge of the chemical processes that go on in living tissue and continually increasing applications of this knowledge into the actual practice of medicine. This pmes a difficult problem to the writer of a textbook of biochemistry for medical students. Not only must he present the fundamental principles and experimental methods of biochemistry but also the dynamic aspectsof the suhject by which biochemical knowledge may he applied to the problems of the clinic. In this reviewer's opinion, few, if any, recent textbooks, including this book, have successfully attained these objectives. The present volume contains somewhat abbreviated chapters on physical chemistry, the chemistry of carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, followed by chapters on enzymes, biological oxidation, hemoglobin, and chapters concerned with metabolism, nutrition, and function. At the end of each chapter, m experimental section 1s included. The experiments are based on those carried out in medical and physiology courses a t Oxford, and are included "in the hope that by presenting both theoretical and practical aspects of the subject side by side m,e may be able to bridge this gap which too often exists in the student's mind." The identification of biologically important substances, special techniques, the preparation of special reagents and physicochemical constants are given in four appendixes. Throu~hontthe text the authors have referred to original papers in the litirature and to the contributions of many investigators, as is evidenced by an 18-page bibliography a t the end of the book. Verv few references to ~ublicationslater than 1945 amear .. in this bibcography. Depending an the reader's concept of how biochemistry should be presented to medical students, he will be pleased with certain parts of this book and infuriated by other parts. In view of the title of the book, it is surprising that so little emphasis is given to the chemistry and action of the hormones. One looks in vain for an adequate discussion of the adrenal or ovarian hormones. The isolation of tbvroxine is incorrectlv recorded in the historical introduction.
F. A. CAJORI Unm~nsrrrOF C o m ~ b n Somor. o OP MEDIOZNE DENPER. CO%OR*DO
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THE PHYSICAL PRINCIPLES OF THE QUANTUM THEORY
Werner Heisenberg, Professor of Physics, University of Leipzig. Translated by Carl Eckart and Frank C.Hoyt. Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1949. 183 pp. 14 X 21 cm. $2.50.
THE NATUFIE OF PHYSICAL THEORY P. W. Bridgman, Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, Harvard University. Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1949. 138 pp. 14 X 21 em. $2.25. THE THEORY OF GROUPS AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
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Hermonn Wey1, Professor of Mathematics, University of Gottingen, Germany. Translated from the revised second edition by H. P. Robertson. Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1949. xrii 422 pp. 3 diagrams. 14 X 21 am. $4.50.
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TAESE three books are reprintings of the original works into popular-price volumes.
