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Most of the information is taken onenlv oublica. from eovemment tions, or the brochures of the Household Finance Corporation. of Chicago, Illinois. The chapter on cosmetics-for which there is so great a need and so genuine a demand for constructive information, especially in schools, is pathetically inadequate. I n contrast t o the fairly complete, factual presentations on many of the other classes of products, the information here is meager, and i t vapors off into such generalities as "...organic ingredients of a highly toxic nature" (in deodorants: no names. no tests): and ". . .trulv , horrible and pitiful consequrnces" (of the antiquated metallic hair dyes; rcfutcd repeatedly by competent and reputable authorities). It also furthers the fiction that the medical brethren and the professional crusaders constitute the best sources of information on cosmetics-fhe implication being that with their published laboratory findings, which may be scientific and correct enough, both educators and the public should swallow their free-lance deductions and inferences. which are freauentlv both unsci. entific and incorrect. Of decidedly doubtful vnluc, if not patentially dan~erous,is another impliration that the patch test (for the determination of allergic substances) can be utilized with equal success for cosmetic substances in general. I t is a t least singular t o see this myopic and distorted view vf a vast industry, t o which the author, in another personal manifestation, would like t o sell large quantities of proprietary raw materials. Any chemist should know certain tests which are better than many of those described throughout this bwk, and almost anyone with some technical knowledge should be able t o circumvent the nou-debatable errors; but i t would probably be di5cnlt for consumers themselves to follow these directions for their own protection unless they are withm easy reach of a fairly good supply of chemicals. Of considerable value would be an appendix listing all the chemicals mentioned in the tests, with the proper concentrations and the average amounts required, and the approximate cost of assembling such a collection. MOD *.OR YOURMONEYis a nice looking book, but i t would be better reading if it were edited in just one idiom. Predominantly American in presentation, yet printed in England, the resultant conglomeration of the customary variations in spelling, the pointless quotation marks, and the occasional colloquialisms (obviously thrown in as a sap t o British readers), ranges all the way from merely incongruous t o downright funny. However, it marks a t least a gaod step in the right direction, and those that know bow t o use it--esneciallv teachers of chemistrv. .. "renerd science, and home economics, who are intrrcsted in furthering t h education ~ of consumers-will find this book a valuable compendium to keep at hand and c o n d t frequently.
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sections have been revised and rewritten t o a considerable ~. extent, thusaddingsumecighty-eight pages to thir ncmer volume. A new supplcm:nt of four chapters, dsignated as Part 11, by Ilugh Graham deals wlth scveral biological aspects of organic chemistry. The 6rst part of this volume contains the following chapters: Organic Chemistry in the Twentieth C e n t m . Some Carbohydrate ~oustitutions,The Sesquiterpene ~ r & ~ The p , Diterpenes and Triterpenes, Rubber, Recent Work on the Alkaloids, The Anthocyanins, The Chlorophyll Problem, The Depsides, Some Theories of the Natural Syntheses of Vital Products, Some Cases of Isomerism in Cyclic Compounds. The Dipheuyl Problem. New Organo-Alkali Compounds, Other Cases of Abnormal Valency. Structural Formulae and Their Failings. Some Applications of Electronics t o Organic Chemistry, and Some Unsolved Problems. The second part, by Hugh Graham, dealing with biological subjects contains the following chapters: The Bile Acids and Sterols, The Cardiac Aglucones, The Hormones, and The Vitamins. Separate name and subject indexes are provided for thir supplement. Dr. Graham has given a judiciously selective account of the important advances in the field of the topics covered, and one which shows how spectacular the achievement has been. The several chapters are written mostly as independent units. There is a hannv ... balance between tooics of constitution and theory. Frequent, yet limited and wellchosen, rcferenccs to the literature arc included as an aid to those desiring to delvc further into thc topics treated. The volume shows a remarkably broad acquaintance with recent developments in organic chemistry, and a clear insight into their interpretation. I t is not t o be expected that a volume of this size can adequately and completely cover all of the recent and important developments in organic chemistry. Progress during the past few years in this domain has outstripped the most sanguine anticipations of the last decade, but the very nature and contents of this book makes it of particular importance in an understanding of a t least a portion of this progress. One of the chief functions of such a volume is t o guide and direct students in a further study of the several topics treated. In this respect the authors have succeeded t o a remarkable extent. This volume should be of particular value t o graduate students for honors and readmg courses, t o busy organic chemists, and t o chemists in eeneral who wish a brief.. reliable. and vet , r~presentativeand comprehcnsivc survey of developments outside of their own specinltics. This volume maintains the high standards of prcvious editions and should find a hparty welcome among progressive chemists. ~
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RECENT ADVANCESIN ORDANIC CAEMSTRY. Volume 11. Alfred W. Stnuart, D.Sc., Professor of Chemistry in the Queen's University of Belfast. Sixth edition. Reissue with additional Reader in Organic Chemistry chapters by Hugh Grakum. D.Sc., in the Queen's University of Belfast. Longmans, Green and Co., New York City, London and Toronto. 1936. aiv 519 pp. 2 plates. I table. 14 X 21.5 cm. $8.50.
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This advanced and comprehensive treatise in organic chemistry, first published in 1908, has undergone numerous periodic revisions until 1927when the fifth edition, in two volumes, made its appearance. The 6rst volume contained essentially that type of fundamental material concerning which there seemed t o be general agreement among organic chemists. The second volume was devoted t o newer and indefinite topics where developments and investigations were in progress, promising additional and significant information. The sixth edition of Volume I1 appeared in 1931. This. as well as the present reissue of ~ o l u & 11, contains considerable new material devoted t o the diteroenes and triteroenes. . . the problems presented by the decalins and other fnsed-ring systems and the peculiar isomerism of the diphenyl derivatives. Other
C A E ~ S T Roa YFOODAND NUTRITION. Henry C. Sherman, Mitchill Professor of Chemistm. Columbii Universitv. Fifth edition. The Macmillan Co., New York City. 193f. x 614 38 figs. 13 X 20 cm. 8.00.
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The purpose of this hook is "to present the principles of the chemistry of food and nutrition as an integral part of the study of chemistry and with reference t o the food requirements of man, and the considerations which should underlie our judgment of the nutritive values of foods and the choice and use of food for the advancement of nasitive health." The favorable rcccption which former editions hare received and the fact that a fifth edition has become nrcpsrary are ample proofs that the author has succeeded in accomplishing his purpose. The general plan which characterized the fourth ,edition has been adhered t o in the present edition, with the exception that the number of chapters has been increased from twenty-four t o twentv-seven. Chanter I X of the former edition.. entitled "Conditions Governing Energy 3letabalism and Total Food Requiremmts." hns been expnndcd into two chapters in the new ~~
edition which are entitled, "The Basal Energy Metabolism Regulation of Temperature, and Spffific Dynamic Action" and "Total Energy Metabolism and Food Requirement." Two new chapters have been added, vie.. "Food Economics in the Light of the Newer Knowledge of Nutrition" and "Food Chemistry and Human Progress." In the latter chapters the author discusses. in a practical way. the important problem of correlating food prices with food values and the importance of proper nutrition in relation to longevity. In general, the entire hook has been rewritten and brought up to date. The author has the remarkable ability of choosing the most important and significant material, and of condensing a mass of valuable information into a relatively small space. without doing so at the expense of clarity or scientific accuracy. The reviewer can do no more than repeat what he wrote in reviewing the fourth edition of this excellent book, vie., "Dr. Sherman's new text will commend itself to every teacher and student who desires a well-printed text containing a wealth of chemical and nutritional information interpreted by an outstanding teacher and research worker."
Chariot of Antimony." his "Last Will and Testament," and "Twelve Keys.'' The sixth chapter deals chiefly with the musical alchemist, Count Michael Maier, and with the emblems which illustrate his writings, particularly the Atalankz Fugiens which contains both symbolic pictures and alchemical music. The seventh and last chapter discusses the Vividarium Chyminrn and Hortulus Herrnelicus Flosculis Philosophoru++t of Stolcius and the Philosophia Rcfornzata of Mylius, and compares their emblems with those of Maier. Read finds that all of Stolcius' emblems from I to XCIII may be "traced back to works published by Lucas Jennis at Franldurt, between the years 1618 and 1622, and written by Maier or Mylius." An appendix contains an essay on "The Music in Atehntn Fugims," by F. H . Sawyer, together with several of the fugues arranged in the modern manner for choral singingalso a Glassary, and Bibliography and Notes. T h e book is handsomely made and profusely illustrated, with a colored frontispiece. sixty-three other plates, seventeen figures, and additional small pictures. I t will appeal alike to scholars and to readers of
EXELWB TO CHBMISTRY. An Outline of Alchemy, its Literature and Relationships. John Rend, Ph.D., M.A., Sc.D., F.R.S.,
ORGANIC CHEMISTRY. F. G . Mann and B. C. Sounders PRACTICAL Cambridge University. Longmans, Green and Co., New York City. 1936. xiii 403 pp. 66 figs. 13.5 X 21.5 cm. $3.60.
Professor of Chemistry in the United College of St. Salvatar and St. Leonard in the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. The Macmillan Co.. 60 Fifth Avenue, New York City. 327 pages. Illustrated. 16 X 24 cm. $5.00. 1937. xxiv
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This is a textbook of practical organic chemistry which would require three or four afternoons per week throughout the school While Professor Read's hook does not pretend to offer an year. T h e book is divided into five parts: methods and manipuexhaustive account of the early history of chemistry, it neverthe- lations (36 pp.). preparations (164 pp.). reactions and identificaless succeeds admirably, better than any other single book with tions of organic compounds (79 pp.), quantitative analysis which we are acquainted, in conveying a correct understanding (77 pp.). and enzyme reactions (20 pp.). There is also an of the theories of early chemistry and alchemy, of their probable appendix on preparation of reagents. first aid, tables, etc. origins, of their nature and development, and of their affiliations. This volume is based "largely on the authors' experiences in It is these afFliations, the extra-chemical involvements of early the teaching of practical organic chemistry to very large classes chemistry, which constitute its avowed subject-matter. Neces- of students at Cambridge University. For such classes experisarily expounded in their relations to chemical and alchemical mental directions involving the utmost economy of chemicals theories, they illuminate the theories with a light which cannot and apparatus and also of the students' time are obviously otherwise be thrown upon them. The book in consequence is required." This clearly justifiable aim has led the authors to characterized by an exceptionally accurate insight into the base many preparations on a scale which precludes the possibility effectiveprocesses of the early history of chemistry. We see the of rigorous purification of materials by the student. That is to continuity of ideas, not the discontinuous flickering of a series of say, the student may obtain a liquid which boils a t approxibiographies. mately the same temperature as diethylmalonate, for example, The first chapter, "An Outline of Alchemy," discusses briefly and then assume that he has actually prepared the indicated the difficulty of defining alchemy, the evidences for its Chinese compound. The authors have included many test-tube experiorigin, the early practice of metallurgy in Egypt, the imitative ments in their text. arts of the Alexandrian chemists and the "transmutation by The description of most of the experiments and particularly color" theory of Hopkins, the Islamic era, the European era, and of the preparations is preceded by a short account of the theothe era of phlogiston. retical considerations involved. There is evidence throughout The second chapter on "The Literature of Alchemy" contains the bwk, of the truth of the statement in the introduction, to sections on alchemical manuscripts, the "Sum of Perfection," the effect that the experimental work described has been repeatthe Emerald Table of Hermes, the "New Pearl of Great Price," edly checked by the authors. Seldom, if ever, has the reviewer the alchemical hieroglyphics of Nicholas Flamel, the Splendor seen a laboratory manual which gave so definite evidence of the Solis, early practical chemistry (distillation and metallurgy), first hand experience of the authors with the work that they alchemical literature of the seventeenth century, symbols, describe. The d-iptions are very complete and precise. emblems, and cryptic expressions, the hylozoistic conception in The apparatus described for determining carbon, hydrogen, alchemy, the relations of alchemy to astrology, the masculine and nitrogen by combustion is very much out of date. The bindand feminine principles, and the religious element in alchemy. ing of the book is a disgrace to the publisher. T h e reviewer The third chapter discusses the Philosopher's Stone in a was shocked by the statement in the foreword by Sir Willism manner wbich makes intelligible the language, the diagrams. Pope: "Thus the centric formula for benzene advanced by and the symbolic pictures by which the alchemists were accus- Armstrong in 1887 is still the best expression of the properties of tomed to represent its preparation and properties. this hydrocarbon." The fourth chapter describes the "Hermetic Museum" and In the opinion of the reviewer there are few, if any, better Michael Maier, editor of the T r i W Aureus, and two of the three textbooks of practical organic chemistry than this volume by "nurslings of the wealthy art," Thomas Norton of Bristol and Messrs. Maun and sunders. John Cremer, Abbot of Westminster, who are represented by Hoaren ADKINS tracts in Maier's collection. The fifth chapter discusses the UNIVBBSI~Y DP W ~ C O N S I N third member of the triad, Basil Valentine, and his "Triumphal MADISON, WCSCONUN
