BOOK REVIEWS clat,ure is largely repetitive, the one on reart,ions is usofid for organisittion, and t h e chapter on meohmisms is well present,ed and adds strength t,o the t,otd slrurt,urr of th? text. The remaining six chapters of the text "pick up" t,he topics of organic rhemistv which still command respectable treatment, regsrdlrss of the approach, viz.: carhohydrates, amino nnids and proteins, dycs, het,rroryrlir compounds, alkaloids and drugs, and onaymes, vitamins, and hormones. For the mast part,, t,hrae chapters nrp well w-ritten. Tht- aut,hor has nddrd an interesting teat t,o the field of organic rhemistry for undcrgmdnxt,es. A l t h o u ~ hhis presentdtion and use of the resonanre theory fall short, of modern t,exts, he has made good use of the orbital theory and the application of cp~xntit,ntivedata to the study of reaction mochanisms Added st,rength is found in the rise of goad questions s t t h r end of m r h rhnpt,w, with answers to problems. Conformation, although not trertted ert,ensivrly, is trmted adequately for irrginnem I t is one's hope that a text as promising as t,hk will find t,hr rertifiration of it,s
oils, and the morp complex polymers). Ot,her it,ems inrltak the inconsistent uesge of formulas and equations, t h e excessive and disrouragin~use of rross references
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cleverly intertwined theoretical and descriptive material. The beauty of the text lies in three important cont,rihutions which are personal to the Ficsers: first, they write in a most imaginetion-provoking style. Their writing is erudite, lively and not stultified. Second, they have inserted one- or two-line hiographical eketches for nearly 600 ehemists. A large majority of these are still ROYG . BOSSERT alive and eontrihuting act,ivel,v. A third Ohio 1Vmleyan Unioersity most important way in which they have Delawnre made their tent interesting is t o intmducc problems a t the end of each chapter. They are of assorted levels of difficulty, being spread f n m rather elementary Advanced Organic Chemistry pruhlems t o much more difficult ones Lovis F . and Mary F i m v , Haward which may require searching heyond the University. Reinhold Publishing Corp., text for answers. New York, 1961. ix 1158 pp. Another vcry important aspect of this Figs. and tahles. 16 X 24cm. 814. text is its up-to-dateness. I t seems incredible t o the reviewer that the hook, "Advanced Organic Chemistry" is the which was published in July, 1061, has i n first attempt hy the Ficeers t o rewrite i t references as late as 1961. Thus, in this their text with extonsivc reorganization text the reader finds discussions of reacincluding reaction mechanisms uf organic tions, or a t least mention of reactions, campwmds. The arrangement 01 subject which one nonnally would onlg find matter in general follows rather clr,sely mentioned so recentlv in such journals t h a t of the previous hook entitled "Organic as Qimrtnly Reviews. Chemistry." However, now whenever Some of the more interesting and newer mechanisms can aid in elucidation of a topics which have h ~ e nincluded in the reaction or in following the course of a. text are the use of sulfur tetrafluoride for reaction or in correlating material of rethe conversion of a carhorplic acid to the lated reactions. there will he a. cl~welv trifluoromethyl group. Another is the Diels-Aldcr reaction between phen.vlacetylene and 1,l-difluoro-1, 2-dichloroethylene t o produce the corresponding text expanded by cutting pages and ineyclabutene derivative which can then ho serting appropriate mechanistic material. (Contint~edon pagr A904) This is indeed a complete rewriting with without page numbers, errors in spellinp and formulas (this reader finds no less than a dozen), and regrdtahly, an index which is woefully incomplete. Whereas this text has 1.6 index entries per page, three other standard texts have 4.0, 4.6, and 4.1 indes ent,ries per page. The type is of good size, and t,he text is nttraetivdy hound.
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BOOK REVIEWS hydrolyz~d t o the cyclohuteneone. A very recent mechanism for the Bucherer reaction, published only in 1960, is included, as is the synthesis of triphenylcyclopropenium salts. Ferracene compounds are given their due, as are other momhers of the sandwich type molecules. One criticism of the text is that i t is still organized in the manner of the older text, topical rather than mechanistic. This organiaation runs counter t o the more recent trends among the newer textbooks. A second criticism is in the use of the nomenclature which the Fiesers have maintained throughout their texts which is not in accord with the IUPAC nor the CA principles. This is a very worth-while hook for a reference for an advanced course in organic chemistry. ERNEST I. BECKER Polvtechnic Institute of Brooklyn Brooklgn, New York Anorganirche Chemie. Band 2
Istvdn NdrapSzab6. Publishing House of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, 1962. 813 pp. Figs. and tahles. 17 X 24.5 cm. $19. The second volume of this ~ e r i e (for s the review of Volume 1, see THIS JOURN-LL, 38, 380 [July, 10611) has now been puhlished. The author covers the elements and compounds of the alkali, alkaline earth, aluminum, and the transition metals of Group I11 through VII. Tho actinides and lanthanides and some of their compounds are also included. A discussion of the general trends of the physics1 and chemical properties uf the elements introduces each group; somc of t,hesr are in tabular form. Each clement is then deserihed separately. A short historical introduction is followed hg sections on occurrence, preparation, physi c d and chemiral propurt,ics, production and uses, phgsiologicsl activity and analysis. The aubhur then discusses the pr~parntiun and chemical pruperties of the various salts of tho respective elemont; a tahle of the physical constants is usually included. Thc salts described include hydrides; halides; oxyhalides; oxides and peroxides, sulfides and sulfur oxvacid salts: selenides and tellurides; oxyacid salts of selenium and tellurium; nitrides, szidee, and amides; oxjw2id salts of nitrogen; phosphides, nrsenides, ete., oxyacid salts of phosphorus, arsenic, etc; carbides and aeotylides; carbonates and miscellaneous compounds CN; CNO-, BOsP, BF4c, ete., and double salts. The material for this volume has been compiled from reference hook8 such as Gmelin, Landolt-Bornstein Tabelleu, Wyckoff, etc. It is presented in a clear concise manner and fulfills the prime purpose for which i t was written. This . . purpose was to pmpent, t,he most important physical and chemical properties of the elements and their comuounds to scientific students and researecers who are not (Continued on page A90G)
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