Mechanism and Structure in Organic Chemistry
Edwin S . Gould, Stanford Research Institute, Stanford, California. Henry 790 Halt 8- Co., Yen York, 1959. x pp. Figs. and tables. 16.5 X 24 cm. 512.50.
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BOOK REVIEWS Lehrbuch der Organischen Chemie. Volume 1. Parls 1 and 2
The book is a heroic example of the pmtradox concerning the present status of organic chemistry. According t o the Friedrich Klages, the University of great Continental tradition an organic Munich. 2nd ed. Walter de Gmyter chemist knew, among other things, almost & Co., Berlin, 1959. Figs. and tables. everything about organic chemistry. 1 7 . 5 X 24.5 cm. Part 1, xv 559 pp., Most well known European chemists were D M 68 and DM 72. Part 2, xv 519 capable of writing (and many did) a pp., DM 66. treatise covering adequately the whole subject. As a consequence, also, the This is the first of three volumes of a students were expected to master and r e Textbookof Organic Chemistry by Klages. tain the contents of these books. It seems While the second volume is devoted to that this is no longer possible. The scope theories of organic chemistry and the third of Professor Klage's hook as well as his volume to special topics ( e j . THIS JOURNAL obvious familiarity with even the remote 36, No. 2, 102, 1959) the present volume sectors of the whole field is admirable. is limited to reactions and preparations Still the hook can compete neither in scope of organic compounds which are arranged nor in detail with specialized treatises in in chapters according to their functional any organic field. The author was of groups, aliphatic and aromaticcompounds course aware of that when he explained in being treated together. Although the the Introduction that the hook wasmitten physical properties of many common for s. somewhat advanced student of reagents are described, the main emphasis organic chemistry, but as a textbook the is on general and specific reactions and work hae some serious drawbacks. The correlation of reactivity and properties broadness of scope, the total septtrrttion with the position of a compound in a hoof reaction8 from their theory and mechmologous series. Actual operational asanism (the present volume cantsins some pects of organic reactions are limited to 1000 or mare references to Vol. 2) as ndl. very general and brief discussions of a as the lack of operational aspects make few important reagents (e.g., LiAlH,) and the study difficult and tedious. Any yields are mentioned only in a handful of teacher of organic chemistry or m y prac0&888. ticing chemist must profit greatly from The scope of the hook is staggering. reading the book hut, as a teacher, one Some 3000 reactions are illustrated by can only wish for students t o whom this equations andschemes and since practically work could be recommended. all of the discussions concerning theories The printing and paper are excellent; and mechanisms are deferred to Volume 2. the price is steep even for Americans. ALEXEJB. BO
