Topbs in Automatic Chemlcal Analysis I
J. K. Foreman, (Editors), National Physical Laboratory, Teddington and P. B. Stockwell, Laboratory of the Government Chemist, London. Ellis Horwood Ltd. (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.), Chichester, W. Sussex, England, 1979. 313 pp. Figs. and Tables. 23.5 X 15.5 em. $52.50. "Topics in Automatic Chemical Analysis I," edited by J. K. Foreman and P. B. Stockwell, contains nine chapters written by the editors and additional invited contrihutors. In contradiction to the title, the main thrust of the individual chapters is the mechanization of chemical methods of analysis rather than complete automation. This subtle point is echoed by several of the authors in their individual chapters. The coverage of the text is divided loosely into chapters on the philosophy and questions related to the implementationof automation (1, 2, and 7), chapters on specific techniques and hardware applicable to automation (4 and 6), and chapten on selected specific applications of mechanized analysis in governmental and industrial laboratories (5,8, and 9). Of the nine chapters, threestand out in this reviewer's mind. Chapter 3 by Arndt and Werder contains a very cogent discussion of the differences in the requirements for the automation of industrial analyses as opposed toclinicalanalyses as dictated by the differences in samples. Chapter 4 written hy Malmstadt, Krottinger, and McCracken is a most authoritative and complete discussion of reaction-rate methods and their automation. In Chapter 6 Pardue describes the advantages and current applications of imaging detectors for chemical spectroscopy with emphasis and applications in automated analysis. The remaining chapters are of mixed quality, ranging from the garrulous Chapter 7 by Bierano de Haan on the inade-
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quacies of current clinical analyzers to the adequate introduction by Foreman and Stockwell in C h a ~ t e r1 and the adeauate discussion in chapter 2 by porteraand Stockwell on the pitfalls and benefits of building automated equipment in-house. The major disappointments are the chapters written around specific applications of automation in the analysis of vitamins by Roy, in the on-line gas chromatographic analysis of petrochemical samples by Seansand Peterson, and in the analysis of cigarette smoke for tar and nicotine by Copeland and Stockwell. Dpspite some unevenness in the tear and a few t)vugraphicaI errors, the ever-growing importance of automation and mechanization leads this reviewer to recommend this textbook for the reading list of all chemists eoncerned with the application of quantitative and instrumental methods to the solution of real orohlems. However. after also considw i n g the puhlisher'a list price of6L2 50, this reviewer furthpr recommends [hat interested vhemisrsdo their reading m the lihmry.
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Dale H. Karwelk W a p State University Detroit. Mi 48202
Handbook of Reactive Chemical Hazards
L. Bretherick, Buttenvorths Pub., London,
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1979. v 1281 pp. Figs. & tables. 24 X 16 cm. $115.00.
Objections to the first edition [Chem. in Brit., 11,332 (1975); J. H a z Mat., 1,269 (1976)) have been addressed and corrected. Most notably are the additions of App. V, a n a l phahetical listing of the materials according to IUPAC Defmitive Rules for Nomenclature (for the most part), and App. I1 containing Fire-Related Data; compounds with flash points
