BOOK REV1EWS Commoner, Remarks on Some Physical Properties of Nucleic Acids by Julea Duchesne, Semiconductivity in Biological Molecules by D. D. Eley, On the Molccnlar Organization ci Biological Transdueing Systems by D. E . Green and S. Fleischer, Reapiratiun-Linked Meehanorhemical Changes in Mitochondria by Albert L. Lehninger, Psychophysics Considered a t the Molecular and Submolecular Levels by Francis 0 . Schmidt, The Complex Copper of Nature by Earl Frieden, Cancer and Necrosis Induced Selectively by Hydroearbans by Charles Huggins, Some Perspectives in Antispace Research in Biology by Herman M. Kalchar, Water by Irving M. Klotz, From Qumtum Chernist,rv to Oumtum Bioehemistrv bv by Michael Kasha. Each subject is treated in a factual and exciting manner. The book can be enjoyed by the general reader of science and will reward him by the easy style! the up-tc-date views, m d stimulating inaight into the future of biochemistry. This book is highly recommended t o biochemists and general readers in science.
these compounds. The germanium hvdrides and related camoounds are di-seussed in fourteen oseei. stsnnum hydrides in ten, and plun;buk hydrides in s. little more than two pages. Within theae pages eight tables of data. are inoluded. Many complete equations rtre presented, although by some oversight about a dozen equations lack all the products. The book is attractively made up, with each chapter introduced with a page (numbered) solely devoted to a large white H on a gray background overprinted with the name of the element. EDWINL A R ~ E N Universitv of Wisconsin Madison
Sister Madinette Hagan, Mundelein publishing college, chioago. carp., N~~ york, 1962. xiii + 189 pp. ~ i ~ ~ . ~ 13.5 ~ dx t19.5em. & ~ $6.50. ~ ~ . This is a. little hook: only 19.5 X 13.5
X 1.7 centimeters outside, and only 6
chapters in the middle of barely 200 pages inside. But it covers the subject matter of 319 references well. The first chapter Roy L. Iogi~dlydefines the area of inclusion eomPurdue pounds to be dealt with, and the other five Lafa~ette,Indiana successively discu~sthe structure, propertiea, preparation, use, and future of clathrates. Loeic would have out oreoaration before structure and &perti&, Hydrogen Compounds of the Group IV but the reverse works out satisfactorily. Elements The inclusion compounds were really a discovery of the 1940'9, although examples F. G. A. S t n e , Harverd University. PrenticeHall, Ino., Englewood Cliffs, were known earlier. From Bengen's urea New Jersey, 1962. 112 pp. Tables. adducts of n-alkyls, and Powell's quinol complex of argon, evolved the exciting 15.5 X 23.5 em. $5.25 revelation of a whole new set of solid subThe purpose of this short volume is to stances, in which flat, long, or small remedy the lack of attention by reviewers molecules are trapped in one, two, or three to the advsnces in the chemistry of dimension8 within the crystals of another. hydrogen compounds of silicon, gerResearchers, teachers, and students alike manium, tin and lead. The volume is not recognized that here was confirmation of designed to be comprehensive, but is to the entire imaginary world of molecules. provide the reader with a. survey of the By largely restricting her book to those work. substances formed hy entrapment in three There are 112 numhered pages, of dimensions, or clathrates, the author which seventeen are consumed by the misses a little of both the excitement and references. The remaining pages are disthe beauty of the field. tributed as follows: Eight pages are given Chanter 2 "resents the structure reto "general considerstions" in which the four elements are contrasted to carbon in terms of the modes of chemical bonding, veratril, water, phenol, amine complexes relative electronegativities, bond strengths of metal cyanides, Disnin's compound, of M-H and M-M linkages, and the and others. Diagrams taken from the relative reactivities of these bonds. original papers illustrate each structure. Twenty-five pages are devoted to t,he Chapter 3 discusses various properties of silicon hydrides and related compounds. clatbmtes derived from inert gases, methyl The organization of this chapter is the compounds, n-alkyls, arenes, simple inmodel for the remaining chapters. The organic compounds, and so on. Tables preparative methods are followed by a taken fram the original papers list some of section on the chemical and physical them. properties. Here, occasional reference is Chapter 4 describes the methods used made to the mechanism of a reaction. The to form clathrates fram the hosts of third section is devoted to derivatives of Chapter 2 and the guests of Chapter 3. silme, such as halosilanes, compounds with Solvents to dissolve the hosts and modest elements of the V and VI th groups, and pressures to increase the concentration of organosilicon hydrides. Discussions on the guests are helpful. Astonishingly mechanisms of reaction and bonding are little work seems to have been done upon included in this section. The last section the rate and kinetics of clathration. is devoted to the thermochemical, electron (Continued on page A224) diffraction, and spectroscopic studies on
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BOOK REVIEWS Chapter 5 runs into a problem: clathrates have ss yet had littleuse: separation of rare gases, purification of benzene, concentration of mene isomers, freshening of water. In order to say more, the author has had to include some work on inclusion compounds entrapped in only two dimensions, rather than all three. Not until almost the find chapter does a Mtle of the feeling of the author show through. The reader has to be content with: ". . . evidently clathrate compounds have often been prepared by many an unsusperting chemist," ". . . compounds thnt
have been with u s a long time, but whose existence and potential we have been slaw to reeogniae," and " . a whole new field of investigation which does not lack direction though, a t present, it lacks order." She could have improved the original diagrams, shown anomalies in original data, and criticized conflicting views, instead of just presenting things as they are. But presenting clsthmtes as they are has advantages. Every chemist in training ought to be aware that they have always existed, that chemists missed them and still have only scratched the surface, and that anyone can learn more about them. There is no het,ter field for a first
..
research project than inclusion compounds. That is probably why this little book was written the way it was and why it should certainly be read by every teacher and student of chemical research. ROBERT F. MAR~CHNER
American Oil Company Whiting, Indiana
A Guidebook l o Mechanism in Organic Chemistry
Peter Sykes, Cambridge University, England. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, 1961. xiii 247pp. Figs. and tables. 14 X 21.5 cm. $3.95.
+
This book can serve as a n introduction to modern concepts of organic chemistry for those who have learned from most of the elementary texts. The topics covered include structure, acids and bases, substitution reactions, addition reactions, carbonium ions, carbnnions, and radicals. A general knowledge of organic chemistry is presumed. The presentation is rather wide ranging: individual items are treated quite briefly as befits the title. This is clearly a. guidebook. In general the concepts are presented with reasonable accuracy, though often in a somewhat outdated or oversimplified form. The outlook of the book is comparable to that of Ingold's "Structure and Mechanism in Organic Chemistry," though the ooverage is considerably broader. Sykes should he compared with Hines' "Physical Organic Chemistry" or with Gould's "Mechanism and Structure in Organic Chemistry.'' These two are much longer, and more expensive, but they also provide better balsnce and accuracy as well as being more comprehensive. Sykes' hook might be suitable for a senior seminar or for independent. study by an advanced undergraduate student. I t would not be suitable for use by graduate students. Nor would it be particularly useful to s. student who had studied from a text such ss Morrison and Boyd or Cram and Hammond.
D. F. DETAR Florida State University Tallahassee
Mechanism of Sulfur Reactions
William A. Pryor, Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana. McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., New York 1962. xiv 241 pp. Figs. and tables. 16 X 23.5 cm. $9.75.
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This little monogrnpb is a welcome addition to the growing list of books on organic sulfur chemistry. As recently as 1958, there had been only one attempt to summarize the enormous volume of literature in this fascinating but complicated field. Since then, several volumes have been puhlished, and two series of monographs initiated. The book by Pryar
(Continued on page A2261
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