VOL.4. No. 9
Rw8m BOOKS
chemistry of enzymes, influence of various factors upon enzyme action, physical chemistry, and kinetics, occurrence and formation of enzymes, and the significance of enzymes in vital economy are discussed in some detail. The reviewer has been very favorably impressed by the treatment accorded the physical chemistry and kinetics of enzyme phenomena. The second division includes the detailed consideration of the several individual enzymes, which have heen subdivided in turn into the two groups, (a) the hydrolases, and (b) the desmolases. Oripin, preparation, chemical changes -~ accelerated by, and activators of the enzymes are discussed in each instance. As a reference work, its most outstanding deficiency is the scarcity of literature citations, comparatively few of these appearinganywhere in the volume. As s textbook. this volume should prove very useful to the student. C. H. BAILEY Biochemical Laboratory Methods for Students of the ~iilogical Sciences. CLARENCE AUSTIN MORROW,P=.D.. late Assistant Professor of Agricultural Biochemistry, University of Minnesota. John Wiley and Sons. Iuc., 350 New York City, 1927. xvii pp. 15.2 X 22.8 cm. $3.75.
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This bwk has been designed especially as a laboratory text for those taking a lecture course in phytochemistry, hut according t o the author "the needs of those students whose life work will lie in other branches of the biological sciences have been kept in view a t all times." Practically 102 pages of this text have to do with experiments involving the study of the physical chemistry of plant protoplasm, and these experiments are well adapted t o meet the needs of a student taking a course in phytochemistry in which the fundamentals of physical chemistry and their relation t o biochemical phenomena are stressed, and where the student has had no previous training in physical chemistry.
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Sixty-four pages are devoted to the laboratory study of proteins and the experiments, listed among others, involve the isolation of proteins, the isolation and synthesis of amino acids, color tests of hoth proteins and free amino acids and the determination of certain of their reactive groups. Sixty-one pages are devoted to the laboratory study of carbohydrates, 16 pages to lipins, 31 pages t o enzymes and 19 pages to plant pigments. I n practically all the experiments plant materials are required, hut these are used in studies of compounds of interest to hoth animal and plant biochemists. In certain instances, a study of materials peculiar to the plant alone have not been considered. The nature, number and details of the experiments leave little to he desued. A great many of these experiments are quantitative in nature; a number of which, including the determinations of fat constants, are ordinarily taken up in the study of the chemistry of foods. However, most of the experiments are of a qualitative rather than of a quantitative nature, which is probably more desirable. The reviewer is of the firm opinion that this text, with extremely few modifications, is especially well adapted to meet the needs of those who are studying phytochemistry, and as a reference book on qualitative and quantitative methods for the study of the main organic compounds found in both plant and animal organisms, it is unsurpassed. On the whale, Dr. Morrow's book is carefully written and is a real contribution t o the study of biological science. E. HALEY The Romance of Chemistry. W r m m FOSTER, F%.D., Professor of Chemistry, Princeton University. The Century Co., New York City. Fust Edition. 1927. xvi 456 pp. 14 X 21 un.
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$3.00. In
1925 Professor William Foster
