book reviews Editor: W . F. KIEFFER College of Woater W-ter,
Chemistry for the Heolth Sciences
George I . Sackheim, University of Illinois a t Chicago Circle, and Ronald M . Schultz, Crane Campus, Chicago City College. The Maomillan Co., New 471 pp. Figs. and York, 1969. viii tables. 19 X 24 cm. $7.95.
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This book is designed primarily for first-year students in various hedth-related programs. The scope is such that it should also be suitable as a. general survey course in chemistry for non-science majors. Emphasis is placed on the practical aspects of inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, and biochemistry. The material is presented in a form definilely intermediate between the oorsorysuperficial and the physical-theoretical. Unit One, Inorganic Chemistry, includes topics on: units of measurement, property and structure of matter, gas laws, solutions, colloids, covalent compounds, emulsions, nuclear chemistry and radioactivity. Applications to biological systems are stressed throiighout. Unit Two, Organic Chemistry, deals with the various classes of organic compounds: hydrocarbons, alcohols, ethers, cyclic compounds, and heterocyclic compounds. These classes are further discussed in relation to carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, and hormones. Unit Three, Physiological Chemistry, is concerned with the chemical and molecular basis af life and the prooesses taking place in the body during normal and ahnormal metabolism. The roles of ATP in energy metabolism and of coenzymes, vitamins and hormones in metabolic processes are well illustrated. Recent advances in our un-
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derstanding of DNA structure and the replication of DNA and RNA are included in a chapter on heredity. Sections on the chemistry and metabolism of carbohydmtes, lipids and proteins are presented. The chapters on enzymes, hormones, and body fluids (urine and blood) are rather brief but present general surveys of certain practical aspects of clinical biochemistry. These areas could have been expanded somewhat to include further examples of the many diagnostic procedures ~erformed in the clinical laboratory. The book has several valuable features. Each chapter is preceded by a brief o u t line of tonics to be covered and is followed by a concise summary of the material presented. Following this is a. set of questions and problems which are useful far oral review or assignments. Most chapters end with s. list of references for further reading. An outstanding feature of these is the inclusion of numerous comprehensive articles that have appeared in Scientific American. I n general, this book is fairly comprehensive, well organized, and amply illustr&xl. Frequent references to practical applications and the relationship of inorganic and organio chemistry to pertinent subjects in the health sciences should provide considerable interest and motivation to the student in these areas. Thus, following a discussion of ionization, the importance of ions in body chemistry as related to blood clotting, gastric acidity, and tooth decay is outlined. The detergent action and antibacterial activity of quaternary ammonium salts is discussed following the section on amines. The section on heterocyclic hydrocarbons is
in this Issue
George I . Sackheim and Ronald M . Schultz, Chemistry for theHealth . . ,702 Sciences . . ,702 T . E. Peacock, Foundstions of Quantum Chemistry George H. Schenk, Organic Functional Group Analysis. Theory and . . ,703 Development Alan G. MacDiamid, editor, Organometallic Compounds of the Group IV Elements. Volume 1, The Band to Carbon . . ,704 . , ,704 Geoff~eyV . Marr, Plasma. Spectroscopy Donald J . Cram and George S. Hammad, translated by Philbe-1 l'zmyer, Chimie Organique . . ,704 John Turkevieh and Ludmilla B. Turkevich, Prominent Scientists of . . .A760 Continental Europe Foster D. Snell and Clifford L. Hillon, editors, Encyclopedia of Industrial . .A760 Chemical Analysis. Volume 7, Benzene to Brewery Products Kurl Swam and the Gmelin Iwlitute, editors, Gmelins Hrtndbuch der Anorganisohen Cbemie. 8. Auflage, System Nummer 50, Tental. . . .A760 Teil A, Lieferung 1, Geachichtliches, Vorkammen, Technologie . . .A762 New Volumes in Continuing Series
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Journal of Chemical Education
devoted mainly to s, discussion of medicindly useful dkdoids. A set of laborstory experiments, consisting of 25 exercises, is available as a paperback companion volume to the text. Included are experiments on the preparation of nucleoprotein from beef pancreas, practical experiments on blood and urine, and numerous qualitative experiments on compounds of physiological interest. Complete listings of chemicals required for each experiment are included. The Appendix dupliates this information, lists supplies for the student's desk, and provides directions for preparation of solutions required for the laboratory sessions.
KATHRYN P. CARAWAY Division of Science and Mathematics Flint Community Junior College Flint, Michigan 48605
Foundations of Quantum Chemistry
T . E. Peacock, University of Queensland, Australia. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 162 pp. Figs. New York, 1969. ix and tables. 16 X 23.5 cm. $6.50.
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We have noted on several occasions that books entitled "Fundamental Principles of , , , " or "Basic Principles of . . . ." are even more superficial than those which only modestly claim to give us the "Principles of . , ." So in case . ." raises undue "Foundations of expectations, let me immediately state that we are dealing here with what is said to be a fairly faithful reproduction of a set of about forty lecture4 delivered to undergraduate chemistry students a t King's College, London. The six chapters are entitled: The Principles of Quantum Mechanics, The Structure of Atoms, Diatomic Molecules, Small Molecules, Coni~~eated and Aromatic Molecules. and , I n o r g a n i c \lolwt~lw. There are no referm c c - . I,ot a short hihlirwaphy ar the extd of the text guides the reader to some other works. No exercises are included. After a purely descriptive two-page introduction the reader is submerged, without further ado, into a six-and-ahalf-page section on The Postulates of Quantum Mechanics. This should lay a11 the fonndstions for what is to follow. We are unfamiliar with the level of sopbistication of the British undergraduate chemistry student, in particnlar with his background in physics and mathematics. We are firmly convinced, however, that these vital pages will leave his American counterpart puzzled and bewildered. For example, while the book as a. whole deal3 with "wave mechanics," not "matrix mechanics," eigenvaloes of operators are introduced on the basis of a matrix representation, in terms of a diagonalization by means of a unitary transformation. a Expectation vdt.lnes are referred to sequence of measurements . . . defined as in statistics.'' But most of the students to whom a n introductory book of this type might otherwise appeal, are not well versed in the latter subject; an excumion into the concept of an "ensemble average,"
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