other rewtions are detailed beautifully. This chapter should he read even by nonscientists who are charged with policy decisions in the introduction or removal of drugs with special and occasional tosic nianifestations. It strikes an acceptable balance hetween :I frank admission of such toxic, reactions and the need for taking these toxicities into one's stride if the successful therapy of vast ni:tjority of patients is a t stake. hlyasthenia gravis is reviewed by Gilbert H. Glaser. Its hist,ory, pathology, diagnosis, pharmacbology, :rnd drug therapy is presented comprehensively in this chapter. Manuel R. Malinow offers :I highly timely discussion of hormonal factors in atherosclerosis. I n this disputed field, opinions and facts have shifted :tnd reversed themselves during the last decade, arid :I searching coinpilation of these data is indeed welconir,. I t has been said that inore investigators hnve heen kept alive by grants in the field of cancer chemotherapy, than have lieen killed by canrer. The two most overworked topirs in this area 1i:tve lieen dkylating agents and analogs of n:itnral purine and pyrimidine constituents of nucleotides. This is an opportune time to review these tn.o research fields which have proliferated :it :I rate approxirnating that of the inalignant)neoplasms t,h:it they :ire to inhibit. Stanley 9. 13rown surveys nitrogen niustsrds tint1 rclnted alkylating agents, and J. Henderson and H. G. Mandrl present purine and pyrimidine antimetabolites in mncer cheniotherapy. Trends in synthesis, leads obtained from metabolic, liioc*heniical, and tosicological studies, and the riiechanisins of :ic,tion of such drugs are discussed lucidly. The ever-present. t1ilenini:t of resistance to these agents, their use in the clinic, arid :L forecast of future trends of research and therapeutic usefulness :ire (*onsidered. Everj- medicinal chemist, medical scientist,, :tnd c~heniotherapistn-tic) wants to get, into. or out of this area, should rc:itl these t\vo chapters attentively. All chapters :ire dociinient cd ivith extensive reference lists, and :L good :tuthor :ind sul),jec~tindex uphold the now established high tradition of this sc3rics of volumes.
Outline of Pharmacology and Therapeutics. 13y Q w r u t AI. PIILRIEL, C. 8. A . xvi 297 pp. 23.5 X 16 cm. Ch:trlrs C: Thomas, Publisher, Springfield, Ill. 812.50.
+
Surses, phmiiitcy :tnd medicd students, :iiitl pwtisiiig physicians will welconie this surnniitry of drugs. It list,s abbreviations used in prescript,ion writing, conversion tables of iveightu and measures, dosage forms for :tdults iind children, drug st:tnti:trds and conibinations, drug names, side-effects, safety anti legal measures in dispensing drugs, and many other f practical materin medica. Written i r i telegraphic , eless presents :t few basic facts :ihout t,hc1 h o n of drugs. Sotably :ii)sent :ire: cheniicd n:iiiiiLs. For :I cluick e u r w y :tnd orientation in :t given ther:ipr~it~ir~ sitiiation, the sniall volunie will serve tis M satisfactory guide especi:illy for t,hose who do not ask too many quest.ions a1io:it the "why" rrf drug :iction hiit ivmt to knot\ the "how" o f pr:wt,i(yiI tirug :tpplic.ations. For nurses and pharin:t&ts, t.he book (xi1 lw r w o n i mended as a tersc. Iiut useful test..
Medizin und Chemie. Vul. VII. Artioles from the riiedichtl vhernical researcsh departments of Farbcnfabriken Rayer .4ktiengesellschaft. S22 pp. 24 x 16 cni. Verlag Cheniit,, Weinheini! West Germany. 1963. The 7th volume of this well kninvn series of periodic: publications froin one of Europe's oldest (75 years) phurrnaccutical chemical
companies follow the footsteps of its six predecessors: it represents a peculiar niisture of rsact srientific reports on subjects t i t the frontiers of medicinal science, of rose-colored arcvunts of relatively inefficient drugs and biological methods, and of overt though dignified indulgence in vonipany history and advertising. This last frtret appears proniinently in t,he liihliographies which rontain mostly referen(*est o articles from investigators within, High Molecular Weight Substances in Human Urine. 1 % ~ o r supported ljy thrx c.oripiny, with vonsiderahlr disregard o f c:irlier or siniultane~iiis :wliievenients elsewliere. In sonic ,J. ST.INTON Krsc: and WILLIAM H. ROTCE. Bowman Gray (~ises,this tievtriries too ol~vious: the discwvery of t,he sulfonaSchool of Medicine. svi 165 pp. 24 X 16 cni. Charles C riiide drugs ocfc.urreil :it the Pasteur Institute in Paris, to tic Thomas, Publisher, Springfield, Ill., 1963. $7.50. sure, based on the Ivork of G. Doniagk at Ihyer, but was neither :whieved nor nnderstood liy the discoverers of the sulfonamide IVhile ninny reviews on urinalysis and the identification of clyestuff8 . small ions and low-mo1ec:ular weight, compounds are available, Xevertheless, the present book gives the histc~ry of a great such information and a thorough scientific interpretation of the tradition of fundamental medicinal studies and applications up t,o observed facts had not been assembled for macromolecules. ahout 20 years ago until the interrupt,ion hy \vorld \T7ar 11 :ind A f k r two int,roductory chapters on the over-all aspects of the the subsequent disorganization from which it complete recovery frac4onation and methodology of urinary high-molecular weight h:is not, yet heen itchieved. .4IliOng the authors of new a r t i i k ? inat~erinls,the following are discussed in detail : macromolecules :ire many names which one associates with progressive thinking found 110th in plasma and urine: fourteen classes of urinary in medicinal svience. The fields mivered comprise ph:trni:mcwaynies and enzyme inhibitors: peptide hormones in urine: (lynaniic. agents, :inalgetic.s. :tntispasrriodics. anticwnvulsants. iirciniucoid, acid polysaccharides. and Iilood group substances in l,iieriiother:tpriitic. agents for tropicd and Iiavterial infections, urine. The test is well written, easily readable, and yet heavily :inthclniintic~s, antivir:il :gents, iiiiticancw drugs. vit:iiiiins. tiorumented and critically surveyed. The clinical chemist, thil polypeptides, sterilizins :tgents, ant1 insectirides. _IIuc,h of this urologist ronrerned with calculous disease and its biochemicnl \vide spec.truin [ i f :tctivity a t Rayer is t: direct duplication of effort ransation, and the renal physiologist ill all appreciate the in niany other pharinaceutic:d conipanies, but it feiv cah:y)tcw. cwmpilation of t)he thousands of observations in this book. p . q , , that on a n inact,ivstor of kallikrein, present novel ideas. Interesting facets are the origin, role, and functions of uromucoid lIedic4nal svientists in all fields will find much of interest, in th(a in different hunian races, the chemistry of the blood group suhcixtensive synthetic, and niolrcular iiicidifications, descriptions ( i f Ptances, :md t.he description of normal and pathological events ( y 4 c . t 1)ioIogiv:il 1:iIior:ttoi-y nicthcids, :ind the instances of S ~ W Y I :issoci:ttcvf with urinary rn:~croniole~~i~lrs. The tiook fills red 1:itivr inqenriitv \vliic*h niay sp:irk future :idv:irices in t,hc g r w t i i t w l in iiitert1isc~i~~lin;try writing ill :ic~oniplic*ittetI and inipiirtaiit, 1):ist tradition of the voiii1xiny liiililistiing thesr rc:sc:irches. 1 ~iric.hrrnica1and c~linic-al:treii.
+
