MAY. 1950
293
considerable activity has occurred in this field since 1944. Those interested in vibrational analysis, and even organic chemists are thus interested these days, will be disappointed here. The fifth chapter on the A~dicationof the Infrared Method in Practice is usefh in teeohing newcomers how to use spectra in the determination of structure. This is necessarily of an element a w nature. Chapter six on Instruments and Experimental Techniques is by no means a complete discussion of these topics hut rather presents the techniques used at the University of Michigan on the penicillin problem. No mention is made of recent extensive reviews on instrumentation. Chapter seven, the Spectra of Various Compounds, presents 355 rocksalt spectra determined by the authors. M m y younger workers in the field, acoustomed to modem electronic amplification and pen recorders, will he a t a loss to recognize the Firestone amplifier-galvanometer-photographicspectra presented here. The reproduction of this obsolete presentation of spectra is no doubt the major factor in the high cost of the book. Some of the spectra are not for the whole rocksalt region. The authors also naively state that d l of thesespectra have absorption hands caused by un-
binding is good, even if unimaginative, the t$e large and legible, if somewhat old style, and the paper is good coated stock. In spite of these objections, with the present scarcity of colleotions of spectra, every practicing spectroscopist should have access to a copy of this work. Beginners in the field will fmd much of value to them provided they remember that the practice of infrared speotrrwcopy for the determination of organic structure herein described is mainly that used hy the authors on s single problem. R. C. GORE
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CHEMISCHE THERMODYNAMIK, EDKE ~ u N IN IHRE GRUNDPRINZIPIEN (Chemical Thennodynamics, an Introducton to Its Basic Principles)
mended especially to those who tesoh thermodynamics; as the author states in his introduction, it was written primarily to serve as a pedagogical tool. RAYMOND M. FUO88
YM.E UNIVEBBITT NEW HAVEN.CONNEOPIOUT
TECHNIQUES OF HISTO- AND CYTOCHEMISTRY David Glick, Associate Professor of Physiological Chemistry, University of Minnesota. Minneapolis, Minnesota. Interscience 531 pp. 159 figs. 16 Publishers, Inc., New York, 1949. u i i X 24 cm. $8.
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THIS is indeed an excellent book. It is thoughtful, carefully written, well organiaed, and considers a topic that is certain to attract increasing attention not only by hiologists but also by chemists and physicists. The author has dedicated this book to Kaj Linderstrom-Lang and Heine Holter and the reviewer considers the hook to he of value if for no other reason than that it describes in considerable detail the outstanding contributions of these two investigators and their colleagues. The foreword, written by R. R. Bensley, is perticnlsrly appropriate and is well worth the attention of all investierttors confronted with the analvsis of ormarations of hioloeiaal oriein "~~~ The book consistsof four parts. The first part, entitled "Microscopic Techniques," is divided into three chapters. The first t the and shortest chapter gives a brief but adequate ~ c c a u n of preparation of microtome tissue sections by means of freeeedrying techniques. The second chapter is devoted to s. detailed and comprehensive survey of the chemical methods suitable far the detection or identification in situ of the more common tissue constituents. Section A of this chanter contains a clear statement of the reouirements demanded of an adeouate andvtied method and emphasizes the regrettable f+ct that Gery few of the available procedures can be considered as being completely reliable. Section B of the same chapter gives detailed procedures for the detection in situ of a number of inorganic elements and ions and the following section (C) contains a similar survey of methods availG for the detection of certain organic substances and of funeable tional groups present in organic compounds of biological interest. The reviewer doubts that s. chemist would be imnressed hv the A~
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Eric6 Lange, University of Erlange, Germany. S. Hirzel, Stuttgart, Germany, 1949. mi 158 pp. 64 figs. 9.60 mark.
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ON THE first casud browsing, this monograph may strike the resder as a compendium of the familiar formulas of traditional thermodynamios. But it takes little more than a reading of the table of contents to suggest that here is something unusual: a fresh approach to a classical subject. Study of the text soon convinces the resder that Lange has developed an original paint of view for the presentation of his material. The book is hased on Lange's series of papers on chemical thermodynamics, which have appeared mhstly in the Zeitschrift fiir Elektrochemie, and on his lectures at Erlrtngen. He distinguishes between external (physical) thermodynamios, which covers processes involving energy interchange without chemical transformation and internal (chemical) thermodynamios which applies to systems in which reactions occur. By using a heat reservoir at one degree ahsolute as a standard of reference and introducing the energy unit one "holtzmann" (three halves the value of the pV product at 1°K.), temperature hecomes a pure number and entropy, heat capacity, and the gas content all have the same dimensions as energy. These devices may seem a little startling at &st, hut they do permit an elegant symmetrical treatment of the laws of thermodynamics and their corollaries. Incidentally, a thermocouple is the heat engine used in the discussion of the second law. The treatment is rigorous, and easy to follow, thanks to the liherd use of block diagram and a consistent system of primes and underlines to distinguish symbols which might otherwise be confused. Sufficient experimental results are included to supply examples of the applicrttions of the theorems. The hook is recom-
will be taken as a'challenge to produce more rational and systematic proccdurcs rstlcr t h n 3s n ter hnicim's r,urlc mrrum. Thv last section of Chapter TI, r . e., srrtim D, in devoted to a surwy of the methods nvnilehlr: for the riwnlizatiun uf thp sites of rnzyme activity in tissue sections. The enzymes considered are urease, representative phosphatases, aldolase and isomerase, lipase, peroxidase, dopa oxidase, itmine oxidase, cytochrome oxidase, and succinic dehydrogenase. The third chapter, entitled "Physicd methods," contains an account of the use of fluorescence microscopy, emission histospectroscopy, visible and ultraviolet ahsorption histospeotroscopy, X-ray absorption histospectroscopy, mioroincineration, analytical electron microscopy and radioautography for the visualization of various constituents present in tissue sections. The understandable omission of infraR., A. R.H. COLE,AND H. W. red histospectroscopy (cf. BARER, THOMPSON, Nature, 163, 198 ( 1 9 4 9 ) )in the above list of physical methods is simply a reflection of the rapid progress that is being made in the development of new methods of analysis. It is to be expected that any hook will lag behind current developments, and strikingly so in a field where instrumentation plays an important part. Qurtntitative milligram or microgram scale operations are common to many branches of the physical sciences and in the second part of his hook bearing the title "Chemical Techniques" the author has provided an excellent account of those milligram and microgram scale techniques which are capable of direct application to the problems of histo- and cytoohemistry. There can be no doubt that those interested in the application of milligram
