Transactions of the Society of Rheology. R . R . MYERS. Editor. Volume 9. P a r t 1. 462 pp. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1965. $14.50. T h e first contribution in this volume is “The Empty Column,” written by W. J. Wiswesser some years age to iliustrate the difficulty of knowing the importance of a new idea. Subjects covered in this volume are steady state melt flow, capillary flow, stress-strain relations. viscosity, glass transition temperatures, creep and recovery, deformation, viscoelastic behavior, and other flow properties of polymers, viscous fluids, and other viscoelastic materials. These papers were presented at the Society of Rheology Meeting, October 26-28. 1964: additional papers from this meeting are included a5 abstracts. Language and Machines-Computers in Translation and Linguistics. Publication No. 1416. 124 pp. Sational Academy of Sciences-National Research Council. Washington, D. C. 1966. 34.00. This report was prepared by the Automatic Language Processing Advisory Committee of the National Research Council to describe the state of development of application of computers in linguistics and automatic language translation. Over the past 10 years or so. the Department of Defense, the National Science Foundation, and the Central Intelligence Agency have supported projects in the automatic processing of languages, or! more specifically and primarily, mechanical trnslation. Financially. support by DoD, CIA, and NSF has amounted to almost $20,000,000 (see Appendix 16, pages 107-112). T h e last two paragraphs of this report are conclusively pertinent: “If ever a machine-aided simulation of total linguistic analysis-synthesis becomes possible, it will not be because of adherence to the type of linguistic theory widely current around 1950. “There can be no doubt that the disappointingly slender computer results realized on the basis of such theory must have been important in shaking a t least some inquisitive linguists out of their contentment. If machine translation had various negative results, this was one that was potent in a singularly fruitful way.” The committee concluded that “there has been no machine translation of general scientific text, and none is in immediate prospect. The contention that there has been no translation of general scientific text is supported by the fact that when, after eight years of work, the Georgetown University M T project tried to produce useful output in 1962, they had to resort to postediting. The postedited translation took slightly longer to do and was more expensive than conventional human translation.“ This report is “must” reading for those interested in MT. Magnetic Susceptibility. L. N . Mulay. 132 pp. John Wiley & Sons, 605 Third Ave., New York. X . Y. 1966. $2.95 This paperback book is a reprint with minor additions from “Treatise on Analytical Chemistry,” edited by I. M. Kolthoff and P. .J. Elving, Part 1, Volume 4, pages 1751-1883. and which was titled “Analytical Applications of Magnetic Susceptibility.” VOL. 7. No. 1. FEBRUARY 1967
The Sallicylates. A Critical Bibliographical Review. Edited by M. H. J. SMITHand P. IC. SMITH.xiv + 313 pp. John Wiley & Sons, 605 Third Ave., F.Y.10016. 1966. $10.00 One of the series of critical reviews published under the auspices of the Institute for the Study of Analgesic and Sedative Drugs, this book is a sequel to the monograph of the same title by Gross and Greenberg which was issued in 1948. Its primary aim has been to present a series of balanced appraisals of those aspects of research on salicylates which have attracted most interest since 1948. The Chapters are: Absorption. Metabolism, and Excretion of Salicylates; Metabolic Effects of Salicylates: Interactions with Endocrine Systems: Salicylate Analgesia: Anti-Inflammatory Activity of Salicylates: and Toxicology.
Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemical .halysis. Vols. 2 and 3. FOSTERDEE SNELL.Editor-in-chief: CLIFFORDL. HILTON.Executive Editor. xi + 769 pp. (1’01. 2 ) and xi + 845 pp. (Vol. 3). John Wiley & Sons, 605 Third Ave.. New York, N . Y . 10016. 1966. $35.00 (subscription): $45.00 (single copy). Volume 2 covers Field Emission Microscopy to Optical Activity; Volume 3 covers Paper Chromatography to X-ray Methods of Analysis, and includes the Index to Volumes 1-3. The analysis of specific materials will begin with Volume 4. T h e first three volumes are concerned with methods and techniques. Each method or technique has been written by an authority. Of particular interst to readers of this Journal is the write-up (17 pp.) on Literature of Analytical Chemistry by D . R. Gaskill of Mobil Chemical Co. Also in the article on Mass Spectrometry, the use of an edge-notched punched card for calibration data is shown. and in the article on Infrared Spectrometry sources of reference data are given which use various methods for data storage and retrieval. Effective Writing. H . J. TICHY. xvii + 3.37 pp. John Wiley & Sons, 605 Third Ave., New York. S . Y . 10016. 1966. $5.95. Every professional writer, technical editor, or teacher of writing seems to have a pet scheme for “making” good writers, assuming, of course. that writers are made, not born. And each seems to have a compulsion for writing “the book.” Although the result has been a plethora of books on writing. and specifically on technical writing, several of the books have been excellent. This book is in the excellent class. This book is excellent not so much for what it says, but for how and for the order in which it says what should be said. Most outstanding are the many good illustrations of writing which emphasize the points Professor Tichy makes. The book helps the writer to plan and to start writing, to write more efficiently and comfortably. to recognize bad habits, to revise and edit. and to improve sentence style and one‘s use of words. There is a 32-page section on grammar, which is well presented with excellent examples. 59
