JUNE, 1953 0
323
ORGANIC CHEMISTRY
E. E. Turner, Professor of Chemistry, and Morqoret M. Horn's, Lecturer in Chemistry, Bedford Collep, University of London. Longmans, Green and Co., New York, 1952. xi 904 pp. 16 X 25.5 om. $10.
+
THE present text represents an attempt to depiot the high lights of the moat important contemporary fields of organic chemistry, and nimultaneously to present a sufficient background of elementary organic information to make the highlights understandable. The need for such an approach was felt by the authors in view of the rapidly expanding factual and theoretical frontiws of the wienee, and the boak ia intendel by the authors as a. "tourist guide" to the various localities of these frontiers. The text purports to be sufficiently comprehensive to lead an intelligent student from tho elementary foundations of organic rhemistry to the stage s t which he is capable of deriving information from original research documents, as well as to function as a source of refresher information for the practicing organic chemist. Subject matter presentation follows the customary arrangement. The first 19 eheptera deal with aliphatic ~ubjects,includins . -a ~nrhnhvrlm.tes. ~~> , evclen. ~ and " teroenes. ~ ~ The , followine ~ " eieht chapters deal with aromatic ohemistry. The final chapters treat steroids, more advanced stereorhemistry, free radicals, organometilllics, heterocycles, vitamins, and alkaloids. Discussion .of each topic follows the familiar pattern of functional group syntheses and reactions, structure, and configuration. Considerable emphasis is placed on the d a t s of physical measurements, and up-to-dat conclusions derived therefrom are interspersed frequently theroughout the tent. Explanations oforganic processes in electronic terms receive frequent attention, although such treatment is by no moms a uniform practice in all parts of the text. It seemed to your reviewer that the primary drawback to the book arises from the essentially inaccessible objective the authors had in mind when writing it. An attempt to lead the reader from the most elementary material up to advanced, speculative, and frequently controvewial subject matter in each chapter is too much to ask for a single-volume tent. Such an attempt occasionally forces the authors into somewhat ludicrous postures, for example, their need to explain (page 166) to the rcaler that "Ph standa far phenyl, C.Ha, a hydrocarbon radical of the 'aromatic' series" during a. sophisticated discussion in electronic terms of allylic re:wangements occurring during halogenation. In general the authors' difficult objective has led to the result, in the earlier chapters a t least, that the most elementary material is apt to be found randomly and disconcertingly interspersed throughout otherwise advanced subject matter. Conversely, as far example in the introductory Chapter I, inadequately developed arguments of a highly advanced character clutter up what would otherwise be a streightforward and logical treatment of introductory material. The over-all outcome seems to he that most of the b&k would probably be completely incomprehensible to the reader who was previously unaware that "Ph stands for phenyl . . while the more informed reader might be occasionally annoyed by the intrusion of so much, to him, superfluous elementary matter. In this connection the latter chapters of the book, hy which point the reader presumably no longer has need for elementary explanations, stand out by contrmt as better written and more logically developed treatments of theh subjects. The book ia open to several other rather trivial points of criticism, points which might be serious mainly for students having insuffirient background. Explanations of technique and theory behind physical measurements are absent or too briefly handled. Electronic mechanisms are sonLewhrttglibly presented with little emphasis on the experimental facts supporting them and with insufficient mechanistic correlation among diverse reactions. References are not emphasized, but more recent work is referred to b,v author and year, so that the book is not a particularly convenient springboard to the original literature. Nomenclature is not fiystematically developed and is occasionally incorrect. ~~
. .,"
.
-
Advanced concepts and their accompanying symbaliama are employed with perhaps too little preliminary explanation. Such minor inadequacies will be unimportant for the more advanced student, who will find in the book a wealth of interesting factual and theoretical material of recent origin. With the exception of a very few spots the boak is lucidly written in an alert style and the text is on the whole well supplemented with illustrative equations. The typography is readable and free of error, and the paper quality and binding are adequate. Disregarding the high purchase price and the inclusion of rather inadequately treated elementary material, the hook can be highly recommended for t,he intermediate student of organic chemistry. WILLIAM A. BONNER
O*n Rloce, T E N N E ~ ~ ~ ~
0
THE ELEMENTS OF NUCLEAR REACTOR THEORY
SamueIGIasstone, Consultant. U. S.Atomic Energy Commission. and Milton C.Edlund, Physicid, Oak Ridge National Laboratory. 416 PP. 8 7 D. Van Nostrand Co.. hc.8 New York l952. vii figs. 16 X 23.5 cm. $4.80. "THE Elements of Nuclear Reactor Theory," according to its authors, is a. textbook intended for study by physicists, engineers, and others who are being brought into the reactor program or the Atomic Energy Commission and who lack previous training in that special field. I t seems to be well suited to that purpose. The first chapters are concerned with basic facts of nuclear science ranging from very simple aspects of nuclear structure .and stability to a fairly extensive discussion of uranium fission induced by slow neutrons. The bulk of the book is s. mathematical treatment of the production, motion, and consumption of neutrons in thermal reitotors. The special terms used in this treatment are clearly defined. The mathematical steps are given in considerble detail. No previous knowledge of nuclear science is assumed, but the mathematics is not elementary. This book will be useful as a reference for students or teachers who wish a brief survey of reactor theory. Few such are likely to work through it to the end, hut by judicious skipping of the pages relatively more dense in mnthematical equations it is possible to find many sections which can be read rather easily. Particularly interesting are the discussions of delayed neutrons and of xenon poisoning, and their effects on the control of reactors. Finally, it is recommended as an excellent source hook for the alumnus of the Manhattan Project who learned something of the subject when everything about it was considered secret, and who now has no ides what he is permitted ta'teach and what is still secret.
+
DAVID H. TEMPLETON U ~ w n n s m ro r Cmmonrr* BERKELEY. C*L~FORNI*
0
METAL
DATA
Samuel L. Hoyt, Technical Adviser. Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus, Ohio. Second edition. Reinhold Publishing Corp., New York, 1952. ~v 526 pp. 18.5 X 26 om. $10.
+
TRIS is a revised and enlarged edition of "Metals and Alloys Data Book," published in 1943. The enlargement has been accomplished in pert by increasing the number of tables and graphs from 400 to 700, but also by adding new data to former tables. The new data are frequently identified by literature citations that show dates s s late as 1952. The important new developments in super alloys, heat treated steels, molybdenum, titanium, uranium, and zirconium have not been negleoted. I n the pnfaee to the second edition, the author claims that readers have found that the hook gives ready and reliable answers to questions that come up daily in the practice of their professions. This is readily believed of metallurgists, hut it probahly
