SW
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
an example, the author recommends that ferric hydroxide be boiled several minutes after preeipitation to render it more readily filterable, hut he does not caution against the tendency toward sliminess as boiling breaks up the aggregates. Many of the nates on technique, however, are partieuldy appropriate to industrial laboratories and will he a valuable supplement to the standard procedures already available. Typographieal errors are notably few and binding and format are attractive. RALPH A. JOHNSON
U N I V E R ~or~ ITm~ l ~ o l s URB*N*.I L L ~ N O , ~
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING IN PRACTICE Edited by James I. Harper, Assistant Director, Research and Development Department, Sun Oil Company. Reinhold Publishing Carp., New York, 1954. 140 pp. Illustrated. 13.5 X 19.5 cm. $3.
tries. It was directed toward the younger engineers, to give them a picture of the breadth of work done by chemical engineers in the process industries. The editor has likened the progress of a research idea. to the growthof a child, from infancy to adulthood. Theeight chapters representing the succession of steps of progress, are: Process Research, Process Development, Process Engineering, Economic Analysis, Project Engineering, C o n s t ~ ~ t i oEngineering, n Operational Engineering, and Market Research Engineering. Each chapter tells the young engineer what is done in that particular phase of ehemicd engineering. D e h i t e examples are given, usually from the work done by the company which the speaker represents. The examples areillustrated with flowsheets, yield curves, and cartoons emphasizing the text material. Where can this hook be used most effectively to show the fields of work into which a ehemieal engineer can go? A senior seminar course would be ideal; technology or design courses could present this material to show where they fit into the over-all industrial picture; graduate seminars could use it effectively; or it could be used for individual reading. The recent graduate who has entered industry will get a view of the entire employment field from this book. Aninstruetor can use to advantage the examples given in it. It is a worth-while little book that can he used effeetively. EENNETH A. KOBE
AN INTRODUCTION TO ELECTRONIC ABSOWTION SPECTROSCOPY IN ORGANIC CHEMISTRY
A. E. Gillam, Late Senior Lecturer in Chemistry, and Special Lecturer in Chemical Spectroscopy, University of Manchester, and E. S. Stern, Chief Research Chemist, 1. F. Macfarlan and Company, Ltd., Edinburgh. St. Martin's Press, Inc., New Yark, 1954. vii t- 283 pp. 82 figs. 133 tables. 14.5 X 22 cm. $8. THE need for a comdrttion of the a~olicationsof ultraviolet and visible absorption spectra to the a d of organic ohemistry has not been filled by previous puhlioations. The authors of this book hzve covered this topic in a very clear and eoneise manner. It is obviously impossible to cover this rapidly expanding field completely in a book of this size; however, the authors have included numerous references making this hook an excellent starting point in any literature survey in the field of electronic spectroscopy. It is appropriate that the authors have not presented detailed mathematicsl interpretations of these
phenomena but again have introduced references for those interested in the mathematical aspects of the subject. A complete description of the absorption of the common functional groups, singly and in combination, is given with many examples cited as illustrations and indexed apart from the suhject or author indexes. The use of these absorption spectra for qualitative or quantitative andy~i.sisof mixtures or pure eompounds is described. The applicstion of electronic absorption spectroscopy to such specialized problems as reaction kinetics, molecular weight determinations, eis-trans isomerism, and ketoenol tantomerism also is included. In describing the use of ultraviolet and visible a.hmrption speetroseopy for structure determination, the authors have considered the several quantitative correlations of effect of suhstituents and solvent on the ahsorbnney and/or the wave length of maximum absorption of the ehromophoric groups which have been ~tndi~d. The form used for graphically presenting absorption spectra. in this book, as in the ourrent literat,ure, is not standardized; however, the momentasy confusion resulting from this inconsistency is very heavily balanced by the practice or review the student of spectroscopy receives in mentally interconverting these various methods of presentation. Aside from the more technical aspects of electronic speetroseoov. . , the authors h a w included an historical discussion of the ir~4rtmwntnlionin this firld. 7'lli.; srrtion is not only inhwstirlg lrut will :lid iu cvaluativg t l c dstn i n t h r earlier lirernr~~~c. For th. ~rvunicchcrnist intrreskd i!.3pplying thr incrcasiwgly important ultraviolet and visible absorption spectroscopy to his field of research, this hook is the best available source for an introduction to the field.
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ROBERT E . LYLE U N I V ~ T Yor
NEWHAMPSHIRE
DURRAM, NEWHAMPSAIRE
THE PROTEINS: CHEMISTRY, BIOLOGICAL ACTIVITY AND METHODS. VOLUME 11, PART A Edited by H a n s Neurath, Department of Biochemiaby, University of Washinqton, and Kenneth Bailey, Department of Biochemistzy, University of Cambridge. Academic Press, Inc., New York, 1954. ia 661 pp. 77 figs. 16 X 23.5 om. $14.
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INKEEPING with the procedure followed in Volume I of this treatise on the proteins, the contributors have handled their topics in a comprehensive manner so that the reader will have full information on latest developments in the field and a eritieal evalurttion of current points of view regarding the particular phase of protein chemistry being discussed. Volume I, which dealt with the general properties of proteins, consisted of eleven chapters. In the nine chapters in the present volume (Volume 11, Part A) specific groups of proteins are considered from the point of view of their chemical characteristics in relation to their function. In the first chanter (Chaoter ~. 12) R. Markham and J. D. Smith, writing on nueleoproteins and nueleie acids, trace the development of ideas of the structure of these substances from the simple tetranueleotide hypothesis to the present. The separation and analysis of the constituents of nucleoproteins are presented in detail. Full discussion follows on the nature of cytoplasmic and nuclear nueleoproteins, their relationship to the structure of the cell nucleus, and function in the genetic mechanism and protein synthesis. Plant and animal vl&es and haeteriophages come in for full treatment. T. P. Sineor and E. B. Keernev in Chaoter 13. entitled. "The ~xidizilqCII?J.IIN*,'' iv
