Beyond
the Flyleaf Infrared
Determination
Structures.
H.
NELSON
DANGL.
v
+
of
Organic
M . RANDALL,
FOWLER,
FUSON,
239
pages.
R.
G.
AND J.
R.
D.
Van
Nostrand Co., Inc., 250 Fourth Ave., New York 3 , N . Y., 1949. $19. T H I S book presents a clear and concise exposition of the determination of molecular structure of organic compounds by infrared spectroscopy and supplies some of the necessary nontheoretical background for application of the method. T h e results presented do not cover t h e complete field of structural determination b y infrared but are limited mainly to aliphatic or phenyl substituted aliphatic compounds containing double bonds. Of particular interest is a chapter devoted to an extensive tabulation of the absorption of functional groups for compounds containing double bonds, as assigned by empirical methods, and another devoted to a useful tabulation of assignments made on a theoretical basis, as taken from published literature. Over half of the book is devoted to a valuable catalog of 354 excellent spectra which, unfortunately, are not presented in the usual form but as reproductions of original recordings obtained with the seldom-used Firestone amplifier. Because of limited scope this book will serve not as a textbook or handbook but as a valuable reference, first for students and others who wish to obtain a working knowledge of the methods and, second, for research chemists and physicists who wish to apply the methods t o organic compounds, particularly in the field of biochemistry. D . C. S M I T H
Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers. M A X PLANCK. Together with a Memorial Address b y Max von Lnue. Translated by Frank Gaynor. 192 pages. Philosophical Library, 15 East 40th St., New York, 1949. $3.75. I F you approach this little book for what it is, a group of semiformal papers by the great theoretical physicist, you will be well rewarded. But if you expect it to b e either severely scientific or warmly human, you will surely be disappointed. I t is much too much to expect the great pioneering mind of Max Planck t o be able easily, even in relaxation, to drop all of its accustomed austerity, and so it is b y no means strange to find that the less formal of his papers collected here still possess a strong kinship with his more familiar scientific papers. T h e collective im-
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pression that they convey to this reader is of a great and penetrating mind dealing with subjects ancillary to its dominant problems of physics. Five of Planck's papers of this kind are appropriately introduced b y von Laue's brief eulogy of the man. T h e five essays are: A Scientific Autobiography; Phantom Problems in Science; The Meaning and Limits of Exact Science; T h e Concept of Causality in Physics; and Religion and Natural Science. Certainly these papers abundantly reward the understanding reader b y the insight they give into the thinking processes of one of the greatest minds of our times. T h e conclusions Planck reached from consideration of a variety of subjects are also most interesting. D . H . KlLLEFFER
Physical Methods of Organic Chemistry. Part I of T w o Parts, second ed. A. Weissberger, editor, ix + 1,072 pages. Interscience Publishers, Inc., 215 Fourth Ave., N e w York 3, N . Y., 1949. $12.50. T H I S volume is nearly half again as large as the first edition. Three chapters ( X - R a y Diffraction, Electron Diffraction, and Refractometry) have been moved forward into a forthcoming Part I I and four chapters added: Temperature Measurement; Temperature Control (both by J. M. Sturtevant); Determination of Vapor Pressure ( G . W. T h o m s o n ) ; and Determinations with the Ultracentrifuge (J. B. Nichols and E . D . Bailey). T e n of the original chapters have been more or less revised. T h e y are as follows: Melting and Freezing Temperatures ( E . L. Skau, H. W a k e h a m ) ; Boiling and Condensation Temperatures (W. Swietoslawski and J. R. Anderson); Density ( N . Bauer) ; Solubility (R. D . Void and M. J. Void); Surface and Intoi facial Tension ( W . D . Harkins) including a section on the Parachor by G. W. T h o m son; Properties of Monolayers and Duplex Films (W. D . Harkins); Calorimetry (J. M. Sturtevant); Microscopy (E. E . J e l l e y ) ; Crystal Form ( M . A. Peacock); Crystallochomical Analysis (J. D . H . D o n n a y ) . Three chapters have been rewritten: Viscosity ( T . E . McGoury and H. M a r k ) ; Osmotic Pressure
