BOOK REVIEWS
Survey of Chemical Notation System. Publication 1150, National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council, Washington, D . C . 20418. 1964. xii + 467 pp. $7.00. In response to the IUPAC action in 1961 of accepting the revised Dyson notation as the official system, the NAS-NRC Committee on Codification, Ciphering, and Punched Card Techniques suggested a conference to explore the potential uses of chemical notations. The stucly, which this book reports on, is an outgrowth of the committee’s suggestion and was supported by NSF. The study comprised 50 interviews a t 46 different organizations, most of which were conducted between May 16 and Sovember 10, 1961. Caution in the preface to the reader that the information. being of 1961 vintage, may no longer represent the current situation is well advised. There is little in this book not already known by well-informed information scientists. I t is a convenience, however. to have in one place summaries of chemical structure retrieval systems which have been used. The real nieat of this book is the write-ups of the interviews: these comprise approximately three-fourths of the book. Data and Preceptions to the Early History of Documentation. IVAN POLZOVICS.79 pp, Reprint of “Orszagos Muszaki Konyvtar es Dokumentacios Kozpoint. Evkonyv” (1962). Budapest, 1963, pp. 232-298. Although the reprint is in Hungarian, the Table of Contents and the 2’.-page summary in English, French, Russian. and German. Starting with Pharrnaceutisches Zentralblatt, first issued in 1830, Polzovics traced the origin of the abstract journal to Journal des Scacans. which was first published in 1665. According to Polzovics. abstract journals were originally conceived not because of the amount of literature but to bring foreign information to the attention of their readers. Formaldehyde. J. FREDERIC WALKER.Third Edition, ACS Monograph 159. Reinhold Publishing Corp.: 430 Park Ave., New York, N.Y. 1964. xxvi + ‘io1 pp. $23.00. Completely revised and up-dated, the third edition of this widely used monograph is a critical review of the manufacture, properties, chemical reactions, analysis, and use of formaldehyde. Of particular technical interest are the sections on acetal resins, linear polymers, wash-and-wear textiles. and the deactivation of viruses for use in vaccines. Of particular documentat;on interest is the subject index. The subject index is divided into four parts: chemicals, reactions. physical properties, and applications. The chemical index is an alphabetical list of chemicals and materials with page references classified by roles, e.,
