BOOK REVIEWS identified by the title of this book. Every potential author would choose different topics. I was, however, disappointed a t the fact that a person having read this book, would still have considerable difficulty understanding the properties of ceramics, plastics, or met& unless he had considerable hackground, not only in the elementary chemistry, but also in the nature of these msterials a t a level camparable to that which is interspersed throughout the book. Like most authors, so here, the t e m p tation t o expand led to strange combinations. For example, the section on maragiug steels is followed by one on lasers. It is a little difficult to understand the inclusion of the latter topic, since this is normally not thought of as coming within the purview of the title of the monograph. I could recommend reading this book to a college teacher who wished ta fill out some of his ideas, and see some clever interpretations and expositions of ideas in this field. He will have a pleasant two hours. I find it difficult t o recognize a student audience that would find the book similarly pprofitable. The level of education of most students seems to fall between the "two stools" on which the majority of the materid in this book rests.
Leo Hendrik Baekeland
3. Gillis, University of Ghent. Paleis der Academien, Brussels, 1965. 139 pp. Photographs. 18 X 26 cm. Paperbound. 525 fr.
THISJOURNAL (41, 224 119641) carried a paper dealing with the life and career of Baekeland (1863-1944) by J. B. Gillis, who is professor emeritus of chemistry in the University of Ghent, Brtekeland's alma mater. Accordingly there is no need to repeat here the biographical details of this outstanding BelgianAmerican chemist, inventor and industrialist. Suffice it to say that Gillis is obviously in a most favorable position t o examine the documents, letters etc. that pertain t o Baekeland. The text is in Flemish but the author has thoughtfully provided French and English summarie~. An adequate biography (12 pages) is given and i t is followed by sections bringing together documents dealing with his parents, his student days, his early teaching experiences, his first experiments on photographic plates, his marriage t o the daughter of Theodore Swarts (who had directed his doctorate thesis), his journey to the U.S.A., his first ye& in New York, the invention of Velox paper (later sold to Esstmm for%million dollars), the invention of Bakelite (later absorbed into the Union Carbide and Carbon Company). The letters are especially interesting and give good insights into his J. A. CAMPBELL family life; many are in English, some in French. The information furnished t o Hamey Mudd College "Who's Who" gives a. succinct picture of Cla~emont,California
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his honors, memberships and achievements in the scientific. industrial and pditivxl fields. A rowplpt~bihliopwphg of his publixI.~dpapers is another wlunblr fwturr, HISO 3 1C.t of the publishrd hiographies authored by eminent chemists and industrialists. The crowning feature of this hook are the 76 photographs, many hitherto unpublished; they done make this volume a. valuable addition to the literature d d i n g wirh out.t:tt.diug r l w m i t . He alurals alwnl: a i r h Stni ; t t d :idvuy as grears pnducrrl I,? BJgiunt irl the chemical field. RALPHE. OESPER Uniwrsity of Cincinnati Cincinnati. Ohio Introduction to Stereochemistry
K u ~ t Mislmo, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey. Organic Chemi s tM ~ a n o m a ~ hSeries. W. A. Beni& f93 mi;, Inc., g e w York, 1965. xii pp. Figs. and tables. 15 X 22 cm. Clothbound, $8.95; paperbound, $3.95.
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Professor Mislow's contribution provides, with the qualifications mentioned below, a text which will give the motivated student a n elementary hut sound fund* mental background for moving beyond the normal undergraduate presentation of stereoisomerism. Included among the topics not normally met in such presentations are symmetry and point groups; modern configurational nomenclature; ra(Continued on page Ad74)
BOOK REVIEWS tionalieation of optical activity, optical rotary dispersion, and circular dichroism; atropisomerism; and s. contrast of dissymmetrically perturbed symmetric chramophores and inherently dissymmetric chromophares. The hook is divided into three parts of approximately equal length. The first treats, under the heading of Structure and Symmetry, the nature of the relationship between bonding geometries, hyhridiaation, and molecular deformation. This is followed by an introduction to symmetry elements and point groups as they apply to molecular geometry. The author demonstrates here, as in the remainder of the hook, a sensitivity to the student's need for careful and explicit definition of all terms. The drawings snpporting the text are of excellent qualitytwo-color use being both functional and restrained-hut their effectiveness is reduced by being removed from the related text in an unfortunate number of cases. I n this section a page must he turned for initial reference to 12 of the 24 figures discussed. The short examination of molecular
such aids now available. The second section, titled Stereoisamerism, is in my judgment the most rewarding of the three. The author has adopted
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a somewhat different (hut in no sense radical) classification method for stereoisomers which permits a natu~alinclusion of those consequences of conformational isomerism that have been recognized durine the ~ a s 20 t vezws. New terminoloev a p p e ~ r ~ " i . r inrnrlwed ly and grnrral urr i. rn;da 111tlw cylnnl?rr). rlemrnta lntrrr duced in the first section. The final section concerns itself with separation and eonfigurationd identifieation of stereoisomers. The classical separation techniques are treated briefly and followed by an excellent presentation of asymmetric synthesis and kinetic resolution. The concluding discussion is cancerned with the determinstion of absolute and relative configuration by chemical and (at more length) physical methods. Each section is followed by ahout 20 questions and problems which "are designed not only to test understanding.. but to advance the student beyond the descriptive material." They are of a nature which should fulfill this goal. Answers to d l exercises are provided. With very occasional exceptions the presentation is a t a quite sophisticated level and makes maximum use of assumed undergraduate background. However, the text is utterly without documentation. This lack is a serious one and the 29 item bibliography appended t o the hook in no way overcomes it. Each teacher--partitularly one whose field is other than stereochemistry-will be faced with an inordinate amount of literature combing in preparing lectures to follow this text. I t is regrettable that this could not have
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been avoided. The lack of reference t o the original literature is unquestionably the weak point of this well-conceived and exeellently-written book. Suoh neglect is difficult to rationalize for any advanced text and particularly so in this Monograph Series, the last volume of which ("Modern Synthetic Reactions" by H. House, J. Chem. Educ., 42, A910, [19651) possessed such magnificent documentation. Except for a few mistakes in the figures and formulas of the first section, the book is essentially free of errors. The index is nell prepared and complete.
Q U E N T R. ~ PETERSEN Wabash College Crawjordsville,Indiana Magnetism.
Volume 2 A
Edited by George T. Rado, U S . Naval Resew& Laboratory, Washington, U.C., and Harry Suhl, University of Cslifornia, La Jolla. Academic Press, Inc., New York, 1965. xv 443 pp. Figs. and tables. 16 X 23.5 cm. $15.
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This volume continues the thorough, up-to-date coverage of magnetically ordered materials which was started in 41, A810, Volumes 1 and 3 (THISJOURNAL, 1964). The items emphasized in the seven chapters of Volume 2A are st,atistieal mechanics, magnetic symmetry, and hyperfine interactions. The first three chapters (165 pages) are theoretical: Statistical Mechanics (Conhued on page Ad76)
