BOOK REVIEWS Chapters four and five provide a survey of the general applications of polymeric materials. Coatings and films, molding and casting, standard shapes, foams, adhesives, and fibers and filaments are discussed briefly with the emphasis on general formulations, methods of fabrication, and end urre. Within this framework, the folloaing four chapters survey the role of natural products and their derivatives, eondensxtion polymers, ethenic polymers, and siliaanes. Chapter ten discusses rubbers. There is some overlap with previous chapters but the emphasis here warrants it. A compsrison of spccific polymers follows a gerleral introduction t o rubher processing and rubber properties. The book is compendious in coverage, up t o date, and well written. Useful tabulations of polymer proper tic,^, farmulations, and applications, flow sheets, and line drawings of fabricating equipment supplement the text but the photographs arc of questionable value. A bibliography of standard American works is provided a t the end of each chapter. Finally, a comprehensive index adds greatly t o the utility of the book. The purpose and seep? of tho hook are fairly summarized h p t h authors' ~ prefacing statnment: "It should be remembered that this book is j u ~ an t introduction t o the field of polym~ricmaterials. It suppli~8a background for additional study. Anyone starting work in this field. . . should enlarge on t,hr hnckground providpd here b?- studying other books a n d . . . by keeping up with the current literature."
\T.~I.TER DANNHAUSER [kiuerslty or Buffalo New l b r k
Clinical Pharmacology
D. R . Laurence and R. Moulton, both of University College Hospital Medical School, London, England. Little, Brown and Co., Boston, Massachusetts, 1960. viii 490 pp. Figs. and tables. 14.5 X 20.5 cm. $10.
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"(-I' mmcal . Pharmacology" is an np-todate reference text containing concise clinical information on currently used drugs together with a hrief account of their pharmacology. It solves the prablem of book size and prartical urn through the application made of pham~cologieal data. to drugs used in clinical practice. I t contains 29 chapters in which the commonly used drugs are placed in therapeutic ent,ego;ories. Each rstegory is intraduced by a brief discussion of that rategory which includes the general problem of occurrence, indications, and treatment. This is follaned by t h e drugs used as therapeutic agents for th? affliction or disease together with the dose, dosage forms, manner oi administration, and possible undesirable side effects. The text does not contain rhcmieal (Continuedon pnye A601 A58
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Journal of Chemical Education
BOOK REVIEWS structures nor methods of synthesis. I t is a very useful reference book for t h e physicim, pharmacologist, and pharmacist. The chemist rr-ill find this volume a valuable r~ferenrrsource for information conrerning therqx?nbically active s u b stances.
Basic Mathematics of Science and Engineering
Reuben E. Wood, George Washington University, Kashington, D.C. Thp Sigma P r e a ~ , Washington, D.C.. 1960. 192 pp. Figs. 18 X 13.5 em. $'2.50. According to the author's preface this book is designed t o provide a n etiirimt tool far students to use in overcoming their basic mathrrnntical shortcomings. The author has collected between the covers of z book a serips of review cards with cpstions on one side of the page and answers on the other. The boak is divided into eight sections which tourh on topics from arithmetic, logarithms, algebra, trigonometry, graphical mpthods, infinite series, calculus, and mi~cellaneom problems. In the opinion of thr reviewer the hook has neither the merits of a well-organized discussion m r h as i, found in Daniel's "Mathematicnl Preparation for Physical Chemistry" nor the advantages of a wrlldrsigned "progmm" of instruction. The format, while unconventional, provides a series of questions w h o ~ eanswers are to he learned instc3;td of n coherent presentation of subject matter. Despite the presence of a numher i,f interesting problems, the student for whom the boak is designed will have to rarrsult mar? then thir to xns~vrrhis needs. ROBERT11. ROSENBERG Lawenre C'ollegr .Ippleton, Wi.seonsi,,
Advancer in Analytical Chemistry and Instrumentation. Volume I
Edited h>-Charles \'. R e i l l ~ y Univcnity , of S o r t h Cnrolinn, Chapel Hill. Intprsrirnrc Puhlishrrs. In?., S e w Yo&, 1960. i 5 p i . F i y . :d tnhl~s. 16 X Z X j cm. $12.
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The first volumc in this wries of "Advances in An:tlytir:~I Chcmi~trya n d 1nstrumrnt:~tian"contains sewn chapters on widely difrring suhjerts and u r i t t m hy people n?ll quelificd in earl, of these fields. A.5 t h r editor points out in thc introdurtion, the purpose of thir wries is to provide n m ~ d i u mfor the exchange of ideas in analyticd rhcmistry and there1~~possil)ly rlwrmse th? time rlsga~~rl1,c-
(C'ontinrued on page
A60
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Journol o f Chemical Education
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