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JOURNAL O F CHEMICAL EDUCATION
ing hydraxyl groups in serine and threonine is considered in a paper by D. F. Elliott. This approach is most valuable in that it offers a potentially reliable method for controlling the breakdown of Longer peptide chains, thereby reducing the sequential analysis of larger proteins to problems of the magnitude of insulin. Initial experiments in the formidable task of fractionating the pepsin hydrolyzate of crystalline albumin are outlined by P . Boulanger and G. Biserte. The conlposition and analysis of the highly basic proteins located in cell nuclei, the protamines, and nucleoprotamines are desorihed by K. Felix. E. L. Smith discusses the use of specific peptidases in snalysingpeptide struoture. Two papers discuss the difficult and controvemid problem of collagen structure. W. A. Schroeder describes hi chromstographic experiments on different hydroiyzittes and considers the various theories of collagen structure in the light of his results. Electron microscopy and chemical analysis of various oollagen peptides are disoussed by W. Grassmann. This is a very useful book which summarizes some of the progress in a field of chemistry that is growing very rapidly. I t irr unfortunate, however, that there was a 16-month delay between the symposium and the publication date. Nonetheless, the book can he maommended for the advanced student and the research
be of use to the one seeking information outside of his own field. In college, the emphasis must be on the technical asspeots of the chemical engineering profession. Because so many of the graduates become more and more engaged in the busine~saspects of the chemical industry, we must make available to our students and introduce to them this "Chemical Business Handhook" so they will know where to turn for information a6 they encounter businem rather than technical problems. K E N N E T A A. KOBE
U N I " ~ ~ SO, F~ T YE X * ~ A u a n ~ Tna*s ,
SYNTHETIC METHODS OF ORGANIC CHEMISTRY. VOLUME 7
0
W. Theilhheimer. Interscience Publishers, Inc., New York, 1953. xi 450 pp. 16 X 23.5 om. $15.
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THISis the seventh volume of this series, which now has become a n annual pnhlication. Reviews of the other volumes 2.3, have appeared in the following numbers of THIS JOTRNAL: of thc questions he may raise himself. 310 (1946); 26, 53 (1949); 27, 234 (1950); 30,214 (1953); to ALEXANDER RICH which the reader is referred for a more extensive description of CALIFORNIA ~ N B T ~ T D TOr E TECRNOLORT the symbolism employed to arrange the syntheses according to P~a~nsm C ~. r , w o n n ~ * the types of honds made and broken. The present volume li8ts 919 abstracts of organic syntheses that appeared for the moat part bctween 1950 and 1952. The ahstraets consist of an average of about five lines. Of 250 ahstracts examined, only two exceeded tenlines. The origins of CHEMICAL BUSINESS HANDBOOK the abstracts are 60 per cent American (J.Am. Chem. Soc., Otg. Edited by John H. Perry, E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company. Syntheses, and J. Org. Chem.); 17 per cent British; 9 per cent MeGraw-HiU Book Company, Inc., New York, 1954. xiii 1354 German; 5 per cent Swiss; 4 per &nt French; 2 per cent Seandinavian; 2 per cent Russian; and 1 per cent. others (Italian, pp. Many figs. and tables. 19 X 2 6 em. $17. Indisqetc.). SINCE1934 the name of John H. Perry has been synonymous and obher American scienPrevious reviews in THIS JOURNAL with data, for the chemical engineering profession. The popu- tific journals as to the value of Theilheimer's work vary from larity and utility of the "Chemical Engineers' Hmdhook" are enthusiasm for "the wealth of practical information placed a t shown by the fact that the book now is in its third edition, with the disposal of the laboratory worker" to ~keptiriamsince "such major changes and expansion in each edition. an ambitious enterprise falls short of satisfartory accomplishNow another phase of the chemical industry has been brought ment." The symbolism used to arrange thp s>-ntheseshas been together in m e volume which will serve ss ready reference to both described as all the way from "simple" and "easy" to "mystic," the young engineer who wants to learn and the older business man "difficult," and of "doubtful value." who wants to refer to current practice in business phases of the Without alienina - - himself with either favorable or unfavomhlc critics the present reviewer merely registers his own experience with this and previous volumes of the series. It is difficult to become accustomed to thinking in the symbolism employed to arrange chemical reactions. This is true not only of older perapplication; possibly i t is the accounting department and in- sons who have been conditioned but of younger students as well. ventories; certainly he must prepare reports. As he continuos For tho practicing organic chemist this work has a definite value, in the company other phases of business operations are supcr- whether or not he learns the symbolism, because there is an adeimposed on the technical background: personnel management, quate index. For the student in preparative organic chemistry, production, public relations, commerical chemical development, whether undergraduate or graduate, abstracts of syntheses and the like. All of these are discussed in the twenty sections consistine of about 50 words have been found insufficient excent of the book. ae a reference to the original publication. Each section is preceded by 8. detailed outline of the contents. NICHOL9S D CHERONIS This is in addition to a complete final index of the handbook. BROOKLYN C O ~ Q E The sections and pages devoted to each are: Business Finance B"ooxL'N, NEW (51 pages), Management and Control by Cost Amounting and Planning (go), Commerical Chemical Development (48), Re(4.1). Market Research (59). Market-research Data and sesrrh ...-~ourced~finforms,tion (282), 1nd"strial Purohasing (36), Produotion (82),Traffic and Transportation (72), Sales (71), InELEMENTARY INTRODUCTION TO MOLECULAR dustrid Advertising (21), Credits and Collections (33), Personnel 0 SPECTRA Management (35), Public Relations (14), Business Law (42), Patents and Patent Law (20), Industrial Toxicology (16), In- B@ge Bak. Interscience Publishers, Inc., New Yark, 1954. surance and Loss Prevention (46), Reports and Report Writing x 125 pp. 3 5 figs. 17 tables. 14 X 21.5 cm. $2.90. (62), Business Mathematics (200), and Index (31). The list of 124 contributors t o this handbook shows men who are widely known as experts in the chemical business field. So many "voices of experience" must have much to relate that will
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APRIL, 1955
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~ i b l yfor prosp~et,ive spentroscopists! who use spectroscopic instruments and techniques. I t must be admitted that most of these principles are here, hut there is considerable doubt that they can be understood properly by these readers, unless additional texts are consulted. About a quarter of the hook (Chapter 111, 34 pages) is given over to highly condensed mathematical derivations of some quantum mechanical results. But little is done toward application of these resulta in the descriptive parts which follow. Indeed, the aut,hor states that he has attempted to make these parts indcpendent of the mathematical derivations. It may he asked, then, why this material is included. There are many texts on quantum mechanics which correlate experimental results with theory very successfully, m d these should not he too diffioult for the nonspecialist. I t is true that such hooks are longer, and brevity has heen evidently one of the principal aims of the author. I n my opinion this is the principal fault of the hook; i t is too brief t o br of any value. The importance of molecular symmetry in the understanding of spectra is only briefly indicated. I t might have been better to have enlawed the discussion of this todc, and omitted some of t,he detailsuf the ounntum mechanics di the oarticle in the box. The hook i~best. i6 it8 brief discussion oi m&owave and of infrared spectra, and i t is weakest in the treatment of Raman and electronic spect,m. I do not believe that a reader can obtain a correct idea of the Raman effect and of the mechanism of fluorescence from this book. Instead he may easily oht,ain a confused or an incorrert impression of these phenomena. A. B. F. DUNCAN
Umvms~ryOF ROCHEBTER ROCHESTER, NEW YORE
INDUSTRIAL FERMENTATIONS. VOLUME I Edited hy Leland A. Underkofler, Professor of Chemistry, Iowa State college, and Richard I. Hickey, Research Microbiological Chemist, Commercial Solvents Corporation. Chemical Publish 565 pp. 72 figs. 55 ing Co., Inc., New York, 1954. ix tables. 14.5 X 22 om. 512.
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THIS~ymposiumrepresents the effortsof 19 qualified coutributors. The resulting volume is authoritative, concise, and largely up to date. As is to be expected, a work of this type is marked by variations in style and treatment that do not make iol. maximum convenience t o the reader, although this is a minor defect that is overshadowed by the exrellent caveraee - given . to present-d%y fermentation technology. The book should enjoy maximum utility as a. reference work. I n this category and as a text it will serve admirably to complement the well known "Industrial Microbiology" of Prescott and Dunn. Subject matter is divided into four sections that stress commercial processes of actual or potential importance. Part one is devoted t o alcoholic fermentations and includes chapters on the fermentations of &rain, molasses, nulfite waste liquor, and wood waste; a chapter an the hrewing industry; one on wine production; snd another a n glycerol production. Part two i~ restricted t o yeast production, including commercial yeast and food and feed yeast. A single chapter on the hutanol-acetone fermentations constit.utes the third section of the hook. The six ohapters of part four are given to the fermentative production of the following acids: lactic, citric, gluconic, fumnric, itaconir, and acetic. Great detail is effectively condensed and presented. A comprehensive subject index is included, and the trend toward literature condensations is emohasised hv a.biblioeraohv of nearlv 1200
of the format. WILLIAM D. ROSENFELD CAbmonm* R c s ~ ~ n cCoa~onmroa n LA HABRA,CAl~ORNIA
THE DETERMINATION OF CRYSTAL STRUCTURES
H.L i.~ s o .nManchester . Colleoe of Technolaav. and W. Cochmn.
University of ~ a m b r i d & ~ d k by d Sir Ldwrence ~ r & . ~ h ; 345 pp. 325 figs. MacmiUan Company, New Yo&, 1953. ix 328 tables. 15 X 22.5 cm. 58.
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THEfield of X-ray crystallography has developed so extensively during recent years that i t is now a most powerful method for determining molecular configurations and dimensions. Substances as complex as penicillin and strychnine have yielded to this form of analysis, often without prior knowledge of their chemical structures. Improved techniques and methods of refinement now make i t possible to determine bond lengths in the simpler molecules to within a limit of error of 0.01 A. However, until now there has been available no textbook which could serve as a comprehensive introduction to this field. The publication of this volume is therefore most welcome. The suthon, hoth well known crystallographers, have attempted to cover the methods of crystal-structure determination from the staee a t which a set of structure amolitudes has been ob-
space-group determination, calculation of structure factors, and summation of Fourier series. The remaining two-thirds of the volume deals with the mare difficult problems of the derivation of atomic coordinates, their refinement, and with methods of assessing the accuracy of the completed struoture determination. "Trial and error" methods, the Patterson function, Fourier methods, and the so-called direct methods are each dealt with in separate chapters, accompanied by extensive references to publications. Each chapter contains a number of examples taken from the literature t o illustrate the methods described. The format is excellent, and there appear to he few printing errors. It will m o u d both to the beginner as a lucid introduction, and to the kperienced cry~tallllo~apher as a comprehensive review of crystal-structure determination. ALBBIOET& WILSOXLTD. R ~ R M I ~ . Q K ENGLAND *W
DAVID R. DAVIES
COLORIMETRIC METHODS OF ANALYSIS VOLUME 4 Foster Dee SneIl and Cornelia T. Snell. Third edition. D. Van Nostrand Co., Inc., New York. 1954. vii f 676 pp. 22 figs. 18 tables. .16 X 23.5 cm. 512.50.
THIShook completes the third edition of the m,ell known work of the authors. I t includes some turbidimetrie and nephelametric methods and contains all remaining organic and biological material that could not be incorporated in the third volume because of space limitationn. The sixteen chapters cover nitrites and nitro compounds; aliphatic amines and amides; amino acids; proteins; aromatic primary, secondary, and tertiary amines; azo compounds, nitrogen-containing cycles, ete.; urea and related compounds; compounds with inorganic radicals; sterols; hormones; alkaloids; enaymes; antibiotics; hemoglobin and related compounds; natural pigments; and color of liquids. "As in the second edition the aim of this edition has been eompleteness but no many new methods appear in this field that much condensation is necessary." The authors have, however, "attempted to include, or refer to, the methods that have been published since the second edition, up to the time of publication. This has meant deleting many of the older references. Alternative methods for a particular substance are still given, because a. method suitable for one purpose mtLy not he suitable for another." Explanatory mstter has of necessity been held to a minimum, hut since the introductory paragraph explains the
