book reviews An lntroductlon to Comparative Biochemistry. Fourth Edition Ernest Baldwin, University College in the University of London. Cambridge University Press, New York, 1975. xix 179 pp. Figs. and tables. 18.5 X 12 em. $3.95.
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Occasionally one reads an introductory textbook which is not written to present to the student most of the basic theories and supporting data, but instead introduces a few representative topies in order to convey the author's enthusiasm for his subject. The result is often a delighfully tantalizing introduction to the discipline which stimulates the student's curiositv and aooreciation for the . suhlect as much hg the qurst~nnsleft unanswered as by the heauty of thr presentation. These werr my feelings when I first rea' Hnldwin's book ten years ago as an underpnrluate student ~ h o n l yafter the puhltcaticm of the fourth rdirmn, and the same feelings were again present when I reread the book to write this review. Many books written for students fail miserably in presenting too complete a picture whieh robs the student of the chance to apply his imagination and any tendency towards problem solving. Baldwin, as much by his style as by the nature of his suhject, has left many unanswered questions to tease the student's imagination. The first four chaoters in the book exolore primnnly the m r c h n k n s of rrgularinp, water and R I I ( m t e n r and dlspusal ut'n~rrofienuuu u,wrr by fkht.. and hy land animnls. A unifying theme which ties these chapters together is the use of comparative biochemistry to deduce the evolutionary relatedness of land and aquatic organisms. The student is introduced then not just to the mechanisms whieh different organisms have evolved to survive in their own peculiar environment, but he is also enticed into thinking about how this information can he integrated into a pattern of evolution. Chapter five presents observations on the distribution of nitrogenous bases and phosphagens, again t o illustrate evolutionary relatedness of vertebrates and invertebrates. This chapter also includes same biochemical observations which support the morphologically based arguments that Protochordata are "border-line" animals between the invertebrates and vertebrates. The sixth chapter presents an introductory discussion of the advantages t o land organisms of respiratory pigments in oxygen and earban dioxide transport, and acquaints the student with some of the other oxygen transport molecules found within nature as well as the seldom mentioned oxygen storage, as opposed to transport, functions of hemoglobin. Perhaps chapter seven on animal pigmentation is the weakest in the hook, not for the lack of interesting observations hut for the less apparent way in which these observations contribute to the overall themes and problems presented in the hook. Even within the chapter, there is less "comparison" of the biochemistry of one organism with that of another and the student is left witha feeling that he has read something interesting hut is unable to ictegrate it very well into the picture he has been building up from earlier chapters. Chapter 8 returns t o the author's original approach t o examine the comparative aspects of nutrition and digestion with
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A432 / Journal of Chemical Education
some special consideration being given to symbiosis and parasitism. The final chapter of the book, entitled "Metabolism and the Environment," is a summary chapter in which the author leads the student to a final conclusion, "that there exists a common, fundamental chemical mound-olan of comoosition and metabolism which all anim&and very prohnhly other liringorganisms nlnr,rmiorm, nnd that,su. perimposed on these ftvmdations, there are numerous secondary, specific and adaptatianal variations, some of addition and others of omission." As Sir F. Gowland H o ~ k i n s writes in the forward to the first editi&,one of the ultimate tasks of comparative biochemistry is "to decide on what, from the chemical standpoint, is essential.. as distinct from what is secondary and specific." Baldwin's hook is an excellent introduction to some of the progress made towards this end.
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W. L. Cairns University of Arkansas Fayeneville, Arkansas 72707
An OutNne of Organic Chemistry: P m b l e m and Answers, 3rd Edltlon
J. Ernest Simpson, California State Polytechnic University, Corwin Hansch, Pomona College, and George K. Helmkomp, University of California, Riverside. McGraw-Hill Boak Company, New York, 1975. xii 446 pp. Figs. and tables. 21.5 X 21 cm. $8.95. This useful text contains 21 chapters written in outline form. With the exception of chapter 8 dealing with spectroscopic methods and chapter 12 on carbanion chemistry, the approach is directly along function .. erouo . lines. At the end of each c h q n r r thew i* nn excellent irr of problems of graded d:ffirulty. Included in rhe chapters on alcohols and ethers, aldehydes and ketones, aromatic compounds, aromatic nitro and sulfur eompounds, and aromatic amines and diazonium compounds, are specific sections describing utilization of these comoounds in oreanic .. synrheiii. Thew sections are especinllg u~eful nnd appropriatrlv placed Chapter 13, mhirh deals withstcr~ochern. isrry, includes moat the cuncrpu usually prewnted at this IwPI, hut it is especially brief con~lderinrthe rrouhle mans Lwninnuw students encounter with this to&. The au: t h a n haw ehuien rouse Fischer prolrcrlons almost eaciusivrly, whereas in~tialutilization of hall-and-strck drau,ings and then Fischer projections would be much more instructive. The authors have separated aliphatic compounds from their aromatic counterparts. Although this may be justified in the cases of phenols, aromatic sulfanie acids, aromatic nitro compounds, and perhaps aromatic amines and halides, i t does not appear neeessary in the eases of aldehydes and ketones and carhoxylic acids and their derivatives. For example, aromatic earhonyl compounds are discussed in the chapter on polynuclear aromatics near the end of the text. With oersonal oreferenees concernine orpniratibn put aside, chis i r x t Irrwidk a modern, compreheniive trearmmt nf organic ~ h e m i ~ t rFor y . the instructor whcr wishes to (Continued on page A436)
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