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AN INTRODUCTION TO INDUSTRIAL MYCOLOGY
George Smith, Lecturer in Biochemistry, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Fourth edition. Edward 378 pp. 161 figs. 15 X Arnold Ltd., London, 1954. xi" 22.5 cm. $6.
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THIS is the fourth edition of Smith's deservedly popular general manual on fungi of importance in industry which first appeared more than a decade and a half ago. As before, i t is intended for those with little or no botanical knowledge, much less mycological training. I t first orients the reader as to the place of the "moulds" i n the plant kingdom, then proceeds t o give, in simple language, details of the structure and reproduction of fungi essential to an understanding of them, together with their clitssification. New chapters on nomeuclature and microscopy have been added. The main body of the book is concerned, as before, with an account of the groups of fungi of industrial importance. Several new genera have been added as have some 20 new photographs. This new, expanded edition will prove of considerable value to those for whom i t is intended, i. e., the industrial man "faced for the first time with an industrial problem of 'mould' control," as Professor Harold Raistrick, who contributes a foreword, states it. F. K. S P l R R O W OI MICHIGAN UNTYEBSITT
INX AABOR,MICAIDAN
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INTRODUCTION TO THERMODYNAMICS OF IRREVERSIBLE PROCESSES
I. Prigogine, University of Bmssels. Charles C. Thomas, Spring115 pp. 14 X 22 cm. $4.75. field, Illinois, 1955. ix
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The author's oarelessness in defining what system he is talking about a h causes the reader unnecessary difficulty. This carelessness is most obiectionable in the crux of his argument, the disoussion of entropy. In this discussion the author makes a statement about entropy so contrary to accepted usage that one would think he ought to use some symbol other than 8. On page 17, after dividing s. "global system" into part8 I and I1 (part I being inside a larger part 11) he makes the postulate that the entropy change due to changes inside this system e m never be negative in either part. (On ~. the next Osee .. he saw that eventuallv this central ~ o s t u l a t e uf thr hook n.ill hnvc tr, l,r jurtifird frrrn; wttktiwl ~ n e i l l u n ~ > ~ \ To rmlire how
