B O O K REVIEWS Pesticide Index
Edited by Donald E. H. Frear, Pennsylvanin S h t e University, State College. College Science Publishers, State College, Pennsylvania, 1961. 191 pp. 18 X 25.5 cm. Paper bound. $4. This book is a supplement to the editor's "Pesticide Handbook." Three thousand pesticides, fungirides, and herbicides are identified by CA accepted momenrlatnre and structural formula. Physical properties, toxicities, and uses are also listed. Trade marks arc included.
Comprehensive Inorganic Chemistry. Volume 8. Sulfur, Selenium, Tellurium, Polonium and Oxygen
Robert C. Brasled, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. D. van Nostrand 306 Co., Inc., X e w York, 1961. ix pp. Figs. and tables. 16 X 23.5 rm. $10.
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This volume, like its predecessors, is intended to provide general reference material on the inorganic chemistry of the elements for advanced undergraduate and graduate students as well as for the practicing ch~mist. Because of space limitations (245 pages for sulfur, selcnium and tellurium, 8 pages for polonium and 45 pages for oxygen) one cannot expect either a. thoroughly system%tic or encyclopedia treatment. Perhaps the series is mast appropriately compared to the typical "world almanacs," volumes that contain s wealth of information, yet that all too often do not provide the precise bits of knowledge demanded by problems a t hand. Like the almanacs, these books are stimulating to study a t leisure and often attention is drawn to normally unexplored, yet highly significant areas of interest. The hook concerns itself with the more important properties, reactions and compounds of the Group VIA elements and a substantial knowledge of physical and structural chemistry is necessary for its use. There me occasional inserts on industrial preparations and uses of the elements and their compounds which give the book a certain appealing breadth. The book is well documented (especially with contribution from the Russian literature) although some curious mistakes have crept into its pages ("It has been possible to estimate the age of rock formations by an analysis of the silicate-oxygen content,'' page 265; "the ionization potential of ozone is reported as 72.80 ev" instead of 12.80 ev, page 283) and some out-of-date tabul&ms (Table 1.1 taken from a. 1953 reference on the i~otopicproperties of this group of elements was modified in many re~peotsin 1958). EDWARDD. GOLDBERG University qf Califmia San Dcego
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