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curriculum? That remains to be worked out. Undoubtedly it will serve as an introduction to chemical engineering a t the freshman or sophomore level. The material is descriptive and is something that the ohemicd engineer (and chemist destined for industry) must know. Service courses for students in chemistry, pharmacy, business administration could well use this as s. text for a. descriptive course illustrating the teohniques and equipment avdahle to the chemical industry. This book should be available in all libraries. KENNETH A. KOBE TEXAS AUSTIN.TEXAS
U N I Y B R S f l Y OP
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ADSORPTION
C. L. Mantell, Consulting Engineer, New York; Chairman, Department of Chemical Engineering, Newark College of Engineering. Second edition. McGraw-Hill Book Co., hc., New York, 1951. viii 634 pp. 273 figs. 135 tables. 16 X 23.5 om. $9.
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THE present text is a well revised and much enlarged second edition of this widely known work on the industrial and engineering aspects of adsorption. New chapters cover suoh subjects as the fractionation of liquid hydrocarbons, also of gsse-hypersorption; dehydration of liquids; refining of waxes, as well as sugar and related substances; fractionation of ions; and water treatment. There is also considerable new material pertaining to fullers' earth, clays, aluminum oxide base materials, various chars, decolorizing carbons, manufacture of ion exchangers, magnesia and h,ydrous oxides, solvent recovery, gas hydrates, rtnd the dehydration of air and gases. The chapter on specifications and the testing of adsorbents has been revised and brought up to date. Although the theoretical treatment of adsorption remains essentially unchanged, the second edition presents s, considerable amount of added data pertaining to adsorbents and their uses which will be of value to plant designers and operators.
of the older chspters have been thoroughly revised and augmented and several have been completely rewritten. Discussion of the analysis of specific elements and compounds, both inorganic and organic, together with sections on biological applications and amperometric titrations have been reserved for Volume 11. The division of material between the two volumes is alogical one, the development being from a treatment of polarography per se in Valume I to the detailed discussion of individual analyses in Volume 11. Both the neophyte and the experienced polarographer will find the discussion of the Modified Equation for the Dropping Electrode Diffusion Current and the much augmented chapter on Factors That Govern The Diffusion Current useful in theoretical studies as well as in the practical application of the mothod. Chapter XVIII, Common Operations In Polarographic Analysis, can be recommended as a useful guide to those who are about to run their &at polarogram. DAYTON E. CARRITT
JOHNSHOPRIN~UN~VERBITT BAGTIMORE. MARTLAND
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THE MEASUREMENT OF RADIOISOTOPES
Denis Taylor, Head of Electronics Division, Atomic Energy Establishment, HarweU. John Wiley ti Sons, Inc., New York, 118 pp. 11 X 17 cm. 51.SO. 1951. 40 figs. viii
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THISbook is one of Methuen's Monographs an Physical Subjects. Under a. preface date of September, 1950, the author cites in his introduction (Chapter I), the widespread use of radioisotopes in industrial and medical research, and the necessity for understanding the principles of radioisotope measurements and for knowing how to use the various types of measuring instruments. This book is an attempt to present such background information. Fundamental decay equations and activity units are discussed in Chapter 11. Chapter 111 contains a brief summary of radioactive radiations and accompanying nuclear transformations, as well as detection methods. Measurementswith ianizationchamW. W. RUSSELL bers are considered in some detail. Chapter IV i~ devoted entirely ta thecomponents of Geiger-Muller counting systems. Statistical omsiderations are presented in Chapter V while the significance of source geometry snd self-absorption in radioactivity measurements is discussed in Chapter VI. Coincidence corrections, and 0 POLAROGRAPHY. VOLUME I the treatment of radiometric assay data, are illustrated in C h a p I. M. Kolthoff, hafessor of Analytical Chemistry, University of ter VII. Chapter VIII describes the operation of scintillation Minnesota, and Jomes J. Lingane, Professor of Chemistry, Har- and proportional counters. The book is concluded with a 12sard University. Second edition. Interscience Publishers, Inc., page survey of health hazards and radiation monitoring proce420 pp. 147 figs. 27 tables. 15.5 X 23.5 cm. dures. 1952. xvii The author's objectives are broad, hut he has succeeded in $9. surveying in a compaot manner the various factors and measuring To THORE who have had occasion to use the polaragr~phie devices which contribute to a successful radioactive tracer assay. met,hod, the book "Polarography" by Kolthoff and Lingane is a8 The text is illustrated with many helpful drawings and block diafamiliar tr a bottle of mercury. To these investigators the first grams of equipment, as well as with tables and charts of useful volume of the new edition will need no introduction other than to data. Many basic correction euuations. useful in radiometric say that it contains a thorough discussion of the principles and assay procedures, are derived, and sample ealculations involved technique8 of the field from the time of its discovery by Heyrov- in such procedures are performed. The book is written, far the most part, in clear and succinct sky in 1920 through the developments of 1950. The neod for s, revision of the 12-year-old first edition is em- style, although the American reader may have to pander a maphaeized by the author8 in the preface to the now edition. They ment the meaning of suoh terms as "EHT Power Unit," "head say, "In the dozen years since the first edition of this book a p amplifier," "tim~controlled operations," etc. Similarly, the pared, the polilrographic literature has tripled in size and the British tolerance dose of 0.5-roentgen per week of X- or gamms, rays i8 higher than the 0.3-roentgen limit which applies in this current rate of growth exceeds 200 journal articles per year." Judging by Volume I of the second edition that need has been country. The compactness of the hook is achieved, however, by *-ell filled. the omission of pertinent explanatory matter; and a knowledge The new edition is in ttvo volumes. Volume I discusses: of the properties of radioactive substances and their radiation, Theoretical Principles, and Instrumentation and Technique. including ionization and absorption phenomena, is presupposed Many of the 19 chapter headings will be familiwto theusemof the for the reader. Tttblos are presented without explanatory headfirst edition. There are, however, four new chapters covering: ings, and certain equipment diagrams (Figures 3.9 and 4.6) Polarography in Nonaqueous Media, Unusual Diffusion Current shown without adequate descriptions. Very few literature refPhenomena, Waves Dependent on Reaction Rates, Catalytic erences are given. Waves, and Common Operations in Polarographic Analysis. All Although the typography of the book is good, errors of context
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JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
have been noted. Thus the standard deviation calculations based on the data in Table 5.1 are in error, and the self-ahsorption curve for C" drawn in F i c e 6.lOia ieeor~eet. Inconsistencies in notation and terminology were noted in places, as d and p for density (pages 70 and 74), and the interchangeable use of "standard deviation" (page 51), "mean deviation," (page 53) and "statisticd accuracy," (page 69). Such errors bespeak a certain hastiness in the preparation of the original manuscript. Despite these and other inconsistencies which, i t is hoped, mill be corrected in future editions, the book sorves the useful purpose of compiling in a single, small volume many of the practical aspects of radioisotope tracer assay. Although emphasis i~ on heta-ray measurements and on ahsolute evaluations of radioactivity, the investigator contemplating a radioactive tracer nroeram for the first time will find this hook helpful in planning CHARLES ROSENBLUM
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THE ENZYMES
J. B. Surnner, Laboratory of Enzyme Chemistry, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, and Karl Myrh'dck, Institute for Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Stockholm, Sweden. Academic Press Inc., 125 East 23rd St., New York. Volume I. Part 1,1950. &i 724 pp. 16.5 X 23.5 om. $13.50. Volume I, Part 2. 1951. a 725-1361 pp. 16.5 X 23.5 cm. $12.80. Volume 11, Part 1, 1951. xi 790 pp. 16.5 X 23.5 cm. $14.80. 791-1440 pp. 16.5 X 23.5 cm. Volume 11. Pad II, 1952. xi $14.
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T ~ r treatise s is the result of an impressive &art on the part of the editors: J.R.Snmner and K. Myrhiick, who, with 76 collaharsr tors, many of them eninont in their respective fields, have attempted to survey the whole of enzymology. The treatise is composed of 78 chapters, with author and subject indexes a t the end of each volume, and is organized along traditional lines, i.e., a. series of introductory chaptern fallowed by s. chapterwise treatment of all of the enayme systems that are generally recognized as entities. The &st chapter ia devoted t o a rather informal acoount of the development of enz)rmology, its domain and terminologg, and a discussion, whieh is largely historical in character, of the concept of the intermediate eomplcx and its consequences. In tho latter instance the discussion is neither rigorous nor general. That enzymes are primarily proteins hardly justifies the inclusion in this treatise of a chapter which essay8 to cover both the physical chemistry and chemical kinetics of enzymes, prtrticularly when it is done a t the expense of a rigorous and general treatment of the most characteristic property of enzymes, "is., their cat,alytie activity. It is the reviewer's opinion that, since the physical chemistry of proteins has hoen adequately coverod in scveral excellent and modern monographs, it would have been wise to dispense with the discussion of the physical chemistry of proteins in Chapter two and to devote all of the space alloted to this chapter to the subject of general enayme kinetics, for a really satisfactory treatment of this topic has not beengiven in m y review written in the l a t 20 years. The topic of enayme specificity is treated in the classical manner in Chapter three, and while the account is an interesting and readable one it fails t o recognize one of the most common errors of enzyme chemistry, i. e., the drawing of conclusions in respect to the effect of structure on the combination process from isolated experiments in which tho only thing measured is the rate of appearance of a reaction product or the rate of disrtppearance of the substrate. Chapters four, five, six, and eight are concerned with the biological aspects of enzyme reactions rather than sit,h the properties of enzymes per se. While these a r e a are certainly fert,ila and imnortant onesthev are in a sense avolied e n s m e
in Chapter seven and the account is primarily descriptive in character. The treatment given t o the kinetics of enzyme inhihition is not extensive and is at.the level found in most of the earlier monographs on enzymology. The remainder of the treatise, i. e., Chapters nine through 78, is devoted, for the most part, t o a description of the behavior and oro~ertiesof nartieular enzvme svstems. Since manv of
general features of ensyme-catalyaed reactions than is given in the so-called introductory or general chapters. Chapter 16 is devoted to a discussion of the properties of 0glucosidase, and a i d e from any special interest in this enzyme system the chapter is noteurorthy because it provides an interesting example of tho kind of information that may be obtained through the use of quantitative proeodurm. Chapter 25 contain? an informative analysis of the dependency of the Michaelis constant upon pH in the argininearginase system and Chapter 31, a. very reasonable treatment of the synthesis of saccharides through phosphorolysis, a reaction of considerable general interest. The other three chanters of Volume I that contribute to a general understanding o i enzymatic processes are, Chapter 39, which contains a sound chemical approach to an enzymatic problem, in this ease the characteristics of enolase; Chapter 40, en informative treatment of the fumarase and aconitase systems, and Chapter 43, which provides an excellent example of one of the better analyses of an enayme system, in this instance, carbonio anhvdrase. ('hnptpr 14, I,? L. hIivhnelis, is r.ot onlv of value iur i t irwuqsim of the theor\. ofo~idfitionand n~luttiotl.l u t nleo IWMUSP it vwtnins romv of the In21 tl.ouahr ;a mfiu shore cy~~trihutiom t o enayme chemistry were outstanding. Chapters 45 through 48 are devoted to various aspects of the tctnsphosphorylation process, and d l of these chapters, and particularly tho latter, are worthy of theattention of the reader who is not interested in any particular enzymesystem hutisinterested in thegeneral aspects of enzvmo chemistrv. The same is also true of the material covered
the flavin containing enzymes, the eytochromas, and the socalled hydraperoxidases. Chapter 56 is of particular interest, aside from its consideration of the mechanism of action of the hydroperoxidases, for it contains an excellent account of the evidence and arguments that provide support for the postulation of an intermediate enzym-ubstrate complex. Chapter 61, whieh is devoted t o a discussion of the role of enavmes in luminr.wnn,, i.i ,,iinttwst 1,~wuit; bf it; m!.
