DICTIONARY OF POISONS
Ibert and Eleanor Mellan. Philosophical Library, New York, 1956. 150 pp. 1 4 X 21.5 cm. $4.75
JOHNSON wrote many years ago thnt "the road to Hell is paved with good intentions." There is little dou1,t that Ihcrt and Eleanor Rlellan had goad intentions in writing their book, "Dirtionnry of Poisons." Unfortunately good intent,ions alone are not sufiirient to rroducr a good hook. Some 145 substances and materials r o m p h i n g gases liko carbon monoxide nnd carbon dioxide, etc., industrial ~olvents like ncetone, carhon tetrachloride, etc., groups of suhstancrs like nridi;, nlknlies, hsrbitorates, ~ t c . ,drugs like bellndanna, chloral hydrate, ete., pesticides like AKTU, D l I T , 2,411, etc., and rategories of poisoning like snakes and snake hites, insects and insect bites are considered. In Rome instances general and oftcn wholly irrrlevant information is given, followrd hy the symptoms caused h,v the poison and the antidote and fir&-aid treatment. There is a short introduction of 16 pages in which antidote8 are desrrihd and rhrmirel hum8 are discussed. The materials and substances me arranged alphnbctically but no cross refec encrs are givm so thnt if, perrhance, the user of the book wero nceustamed t o calling n substance hy one name and not another, 11e might have difficulty in finding the entry. Thus there is no entry for hydrogen ryanide, hpdrocyanie arid, pl.~msir arid, sodil~m ryanide, or potassium ryanide other than the general one of ryanidrs. hlore space is devoted t o glycosides (no entry) like amygdalin (no entry) and the iai111reof cyanide t o poison Rasputin than t o hydrogen cyanide, itself. There is w r y uneven trest,ment of subject matter. For example, 4 lines are devoted t o carbon monoxide and 40 t o rhloral hydrate; :3 page8 t o curare and page t o carhon tetrachloride; 4 pages to poisonous plants (inrluding poison ivy) and 8 lines to food poisoning. \T'hilc the implication is that the hook is designed to be used for home poisonings, the actual entries cast doubt on this. Thoa rresol, creosote, carbolic acid, and Lysol are not lisbed but "phenol containing compounds" are; henzine is not liatod and henome is; anilin? is not listed but "aniline dye poisoning" is; apomorphine is liatpd hut heroin is not. Among the blundws to be not,ed in t,he Imak is t,he following: "Acute poisoning is brought about by large amounts of poison in the body, or by the result of the accumnlstian of many small doses." Thev probably meant in the section of eronomic poisons to say "ncarieides" (agents that kill ticks and mites) i n ~ t e x dof "itscarirides" (agents that kill ~.onndworms). I t is irritating to note thc use of the word "compound" for "pr~parntion" or mixture. There is no preface, no index, no hit,liogmphy, no arknowledgment to snyone! and only one footnote rrfprenrc (to VOLUME 34, NO. 7, JULY, 1957
the toxicity (1919) of thioglyeerol) in t,he entire hook. It would have been more appropriate to have entitled the book "Call n I'hy~ieian" or "Call a Physician 1mmediatel.v" sinre these words appear about 130 times in capital italics, sometimes 3 times an the same page. A mod book on the emrreenrr - . treat,ment of poisons remains to be written for t h e ~ eauthors h m failed t o do so
-
MORRIS B. .IACORS D E P . , ~ ~ M OF E NAIR T POLLUTIOE CONT~OL N B YOSY. ~ N. Y.
PHYSICAL METHODS IN CHEMICAL ANALYSIS. VOLUME 111 Edited by Walter G. Bed, Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University. Academic Press. Inc., New York, 1956. xii 652 pp. Many figs. and tables. 16 X 23.5 cm. $15.
+
T H Egeneral nature of Volumcs I and I1 of this t,reatise was discussed in previous reviews [see T H T JOURNAL, ~ 27, 534 (1950) and 28, 399 (1951)l. Volumc 111 covers techniques not included in the two earlier volumes. The nature and quality of the treatment. of the men- topics are murh the same as before. The section titles, author^, and page coverages follow: "Gas ehromatogt.aphy," C. S. G. Phillip~ (28 pp.); "I3lwt1.orhromatography,"T. Wiclnnd and K. I h r (32 pp.); "Electraanslytie,zl methods in t,rare analysis," W. 1). Cooke (3.5 pp.); "High-frequenav method of rhemierl analysis," W. J. Blnedel and I). L. Potitjcnn, (28 pp.): "Field emistiion microscopy," E. W. Miiller (48 pp.); Theory and principles of sampling for chemical analysis," A. A BmcrlcttiPirhler (35 p p ) ; "Flame photometry," K. W. Gerdiner (62 pp.); "Microaave spectroscopy,'' B. P. Dailey (21 pp.); "Analyt,ieal applications of nuclear magnetir resonance," H. S. Gutowsky (79 pp.); "Fluorescent X-ray spectrometric anslysis," G. L. Clark (17 pp.); "Analytirsl distillation," W. J. Podbielniak and S. T. Preston (46 pp.); "Neutron apertroficopy and ncntran interactions in chemical nnnl.vsis," T. I. Tavlor and U'. 15'. Havens, Jr. ( l i 5 p p ) . It d l he noted that the chapters vary in length from 17 to 175 oaees. No doubt . length of discussion is not necessarily a. measwe of ~.elntive importanre of the t,echniques. The appearance of s. chapter on the old subjert. of sampling in the middle of the third volume or such n t r c a t i ~ eis a little mrpri~ing. As cvcry applied analysis hegins with obtaining a samplr, this operation is the nnalyst's first problcm. I t wonld he interesting to try to apply the various etptstions included t o sampling aluminum slag far slnminum or the C o b rsdo platean for umnium. Xow that ~nmplinghas heen inrludccl, might we not well have another volumo t o hring up to date sub/eats such xs gravimrt,ry (weighing and hnlanres), volu-
