BOOK REVIEWS tions for the uniformity of arrangement and coverage of the different chapters. This book is not a collection of individual articles, but a. well organized reference work. All chemical libraries, including those in undergraduate colleges, shodd have this set, and individual research chemists in the field of psychopharmacology will find it indispensable. WALTERJ . MOORE
Indiana Universitl~ Bloomzngtn
Applied Mathematics for Engineers and Scientists
Sergei A . Schelkunoff, Columbia University. 2nd ed. D. Van Nostrand Co., Inc., Princeton, New Jersey, 1965. Bell Telephone Laboratories Series. xii 406 pp. Figs. and tables. 16 X 23.5 cm. 89.50.
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Thi~ book is intended for a. wide variety of research workers and students in the physical sciences and engineering. Previous experience in undergraduate calculus and differential equations has been sssumed, although the author wisely begins many of the chapters s t a n elementary level. It is this feature which makes the hook more readable and generally less formidable than the specialized and exhaustive text b y Margenau and Murphy.
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lournal o f Chemical Education
The subject matt,er has been carefully selected so as to be of general utility t o those who employ mathemat,ics primarily for the solution of physical problems. There is overall emphasis on numerical approximation methods, and sn extensive treatment of ordinary and partial differential equations. Included throughout the text are many helpful illustrative examples and problems with answers. There is a minimum of cross referencing and interde~endenceof sections whieh, in this reviewer's opinion, promotes efficiency in communication. For the advanced student of physics or chemistry, this hook is highly reeommended, especially if used in eonjunet,ion with that by Margenau and Murphy.
JOHN T . YATES,JR. National Bureau oj Standards Washington, D. C .
Robert Boyle on Natural Philosophy: An Essay with Selections from His Writings
Marie Boas Hall, Imperial College, London. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1865. ix 406 pp. 16 X 23.5 cm. $6.75.
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As stated in the sub-title, this is a n "essay" on the great English scientist Robert Boyle (1627-1691) with selections from his writings. Boyle, who ranks in genius and learnmg with men like Newton,
Descartes, Leibnitz, and Galileo, was a n unassuming and quiet man of tremendous erudition in theology and in almost all branches of natural science. H e published many papers in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (of which he was a founding member), as well as many books and tracts, the bibliography of which has been published by John F. Fulton ("A Bibliography of the Honourable Robert Boyle," Oxford, 1961). I n 1744, Thomas Birch published the first collected edition of Boyle's "Works" in five large folio volumes, and a second edition appeared, in 1772, in six thick quarto volumes containing well over 4000 pages! I n the present book, which is, in a sense, a sequel t o her "Robert Boyle and Seventeenth-Century Chemistry" (Cambridge, 1958), Dr. Baas Hall (one of the leading modern authorities on Boyleand his times) has attempted to evaluate Boyle's important scientific work, including chemwtry, and t o bring out his importance in the history of sciencefor thetwentieth-century reader. That thirr is no easy task will he attested by anyone who has wrestled with the heavy folio or quarto volumes of Birch's compilation. Neverthless, Dr. Boas Hall has successfully chosen and edited selections from Boyle's voluminous works whieh illustrate his main achieve ments and ideas in a comprehensible manner. The hookis divided into two main parts. The introductory first part (pp. 3-115) comprises six chapters which deal with
(Continued n page A80)
