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two sections who were not attendine Bovs' or Girls' State. music trios. Memorial Dav vacations.. or were beine maduaGd. The ~~, &dints ncrded some sssmnnce to understand the format with which tu input thedata. t h r wmnd activity prnreedrd much better than thc first. In summary, itudcnts did not exprnmce diffkuliy in utilizing the programs. ~~~
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Recommendations for Improvement An 8 V2- x 11-in. format for the documentation might be desirable. An Index section also would he desirable.
Summarv
lipd mrtahalism, and amino acid synthesis are taken up. Suclelc acids and pnlypeptidc synthesis are treated in the next-tn-Ian chapter of the text. Arcordlng to ihr author this chapter cowra material which students could have encountered i n previous courses and teachers might want to omit it. This material has been spew4 updated, howver. Genetr fingerpnnting~~prrsrnrednsa toplu, tor example Chapters entitled "Extracellular Fluids of the Buds" nnd "Radmnctivitv and Health" are also firund in the latter nortion of the text. Thm text along with appropriate guidance by the initructur will provide a sound hase for coumes requmng an avewicw of chemistry for health-related careers.
The snitware is hn inexpensive, effrctive authoring utility that provider the user with eonsidrrable flexibility in developingrepon. me formats fnrtluanritarive laboratom activittes. The documentati& is well-written, complete, and accurate
JohnGanchofl Elrnhurst College Elmhurst, IL60126
Marvin Selnes Sioux Falls School Distnct 4 9 5 201 East 38th Street Sioux Falls. SD 571 1 7
The llvain Meet: The Physical Sciences and Poetry Noojin Walker and Manha Fulton Walker. Peter Lang: New York, NY, 1989. vii
Elements of General and Blologlcal Chemistry, Eighth Edition John R. Holum. Wiley: New York, NY, 1991. xviii + 537 pp. Figs. and tables. 21.4 x 26.2 cm. $48.95. The eighth edition of this text is a shorter version of the author's Fundamentals ofGeneral. Chemistrv. ~, .Oreanic. "~~. endBioloeical " ,. 4th ed~tion.According to the author it incorporates the recommendatmns of the Task Force on Chemical Education for Health Prnfessions spunsored by the Division nfChemtcal Education ofthe ACS. I t is intended to serve the needs of students who must take a one-term ehrmrstty course for careers in professmnal health care fields The usual array of ~upplementalmaterials are available The tm 1. about two-thwds the length of Fundamcnlolc and does cover more concepts than can be presented comfortably in a 14- or 15-week term. The author succeeds, however, in choosing essential coneeots and oresentine " them succinctlv and meaninefully.Thr theme, themolecular bas~soflifc,irfullowedcuns~atently throughout thr text. l.csr color 1s used in this text as comparea to h'undan,~nlnlsbut all of the other f c a t u r r ~ are present. Each chapter provides worked examples and similar practice exercises, highlighted key terms, special topics, and wide margins with additional information. Each chapter ends with a summary and review exercises, averaging about 60 per chapter. Answers to selected exercises are provided in the appendix. Typical general chemistry topics are covered in the first eight chapters. Models of electronic structure of atoms and bonding in molecules based on orbital theory are described in shorter special topic sections. The factor-label method is used for making calculations. Following are some changes in the text. Normality is no longer presented as a concentration measure but the concept of "equivalent" is introduced in the context of solutions of salts. Colloids are treatedin a single chapter alongwith the presentation on water and solutions. The final two chapters of the general chemistry portion focus on acids, bases, salts and pH, buffers, and titrations. The terms "Arrhenius acid" and ' k h e n i u s base" are no laneer used. Theldeas from oreanie chemistrv necessarv for understandine ~, hiochemisrry are prcrrntcd in the next fivechapters ?'he prcdom. mating chemical charilctcristlc ofesch functtunal gmup mportant in bruuhemistry li, presented dearly and tersely. Fifires and rprrtnl tnpwjpronde wflirwnt information sothat cachfunrtional group is related to relevant and timely examples to stimulate student interest. The next four chapters cover carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and enymes, hormones, and neurotransmitters. Whereas optical isomerism receives a n entire chapter in Fundamentals in this text it is covered in three pages ofthe carbohydrate chapter. Although this reviewer prefers integrating biochemistry with the basic organic chemical principles, no diff~cultyshould be eroerienced in rearranpins to meet this desire. .. ehaoters , Two chapters rover moil of the pnnciplrs and dern~ldof metabolism. In the leading chapter an overview uf bmchenlwal enrrgrtiw, the respratorycham, t h e c r t r i c n e ~ d ~ l c , ~ I y c u l y sfattyacld is, cycle, amino acid catabolism, and finally acidosis and energy problems are presented. In the following chapter metabolic interrelationships, glycogen metabolism, glucose tolerance, aspects of ~~
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Numerous editorials and articles in this Journal as well as in other periodicals, magazines, and newspapers have decried the current sorry state of science education and have suggested ways to counter prevalent antiscientific attitudes and chemophobia among students and the general public. Various attempts to attract liberal arts students to science courses, which today are suffenngdan~erourlg~hrinkingenrollments, have beendescnbed, such as 'Phys~enfor Poets" Lederman, I.. 11. CHEMTECH 1991, 21.263 . Dudlev Hershbach Hershbnch. D. R. Chemtsrr, Educotioh 1990. 7(1).-14) . ., . has emoloved stories to introduce ea"ch maim taoic in his .eeneral chem&th lectures to attract etudentr"to , sctencc, to present srlencr in a more humanistic context, to dispel student fears, and to placetechnicalconcepta in arnore meanmgful context. Ifthis novel apprcach 1s modified by replacingstories w t h poems, the Walkers' book (Lang's American University Studies, Series 19,General Literature,Volume23)will be foundinvaluable. The hook's title reflects the Walkers' thesis that. unlike Rudvard Kipling's east and west, the physical sciences and poetryindeed do have much in common, despite prevalent belief and C. P. Snow's "two cultures." They conclude their most unusual and much to be admired attempt to prove this idea by quoting John Burroughs: "The true poet and the true scientist are not estranged. They go forth into nature like two friends.The interests of the two in the universe are widely different, yet in no true sense are they hostile or mutually destructiveYp 286). They describe the dvnamie relationahlp existing between two sermrngly dlrv~milnrendeavorsthe physical sciences and poetry-by dlicuas~ngthew sim~lanties and aifferrnces in the llsht uf t h r h v o o t h c s ~that "a wmbiotic relationship between s&nce and poetry has existed a i d shall continue to exist amidst the concerns and disameements."Thev .. examlnc h w thesetwo (bmr ofhuman expresswn a r r interwovm and why attempts horr been made to sepnrsr them. They nlsn trnee the historwal dcvelopmcnt and evolution of smncc, poet,' attitudes toward science, and philosophical-religious thought affecting both science and poetry over a span of more than two millenia. By concrete examples of more than 200 different poems, they demonstrate how through the years poets havecommunicated and interpreted science to the public and have used scientific principles metaphorically to enrich and bring special meaning to their works beyond the exact wards used. The poems-familiar and obscure; ancient and modem; Eastern and Western; some complete, some excerpts-range in length from a line or two to almost nine pages of Lueretius' De rerum natura (1st century BC), used in different places to illustrate different scirntfw concepts. The hmgrst smglr srlectwn is n six-pagp excrrpr from D m J o n o n b con.=wtmtlv m~s*pcllrdJuhnsnn, play The Alrhentist 161Uf.' l ' h ~~ u r t smncc. In stature from Shakrspeare and Milton to Paul ~ i & mand G d ~ c ~ u eScientist-poets n. such as Alan Lightman, William Pallister, and George John Romanes also are represented. Selections are preceded by seientitic and literary analyses by the Walkers or by professional critics. Although some poets such as John Keats, Jonathan Swift, and William Wordsworth were vehemently antiscience, many of the poets included show a proscientific attitude. Same, like the public a t large, are ambivalent toward science, sometimes in the very same poem, e.g., Phyllis McGinley in her "Reactionary Essay on ~
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Applied Science" (1951) (pp 277-279). Instructors concerned with ehemaphobia and antiscientific attitudes will find the book's 10th and final chapter, "Acclaim and Disclaim," particularly useful in classroom discussions. The book differs from T. R. Henn's The Apple a n d the Spectroscope (Norton: New Yark, NY, 1966) in that it is organized around scientific topics rather than around the poems. Although separate chapters are devoted to "The Atom," "Chemistry," andCMatter,"chemists will findmuch ofinterest throughout the book, e.g., discussions and poems illustrating entropy, the elements, the first and second laws ofthermodynamics, attraction and repulsion, chemical reactions, magnetism, dissolution and recrystallization, conservation of energy, conservation of mass, E = mc2, phlogiston, the microcosm and macrocosm, and relativity. Important topics in astronomy, biology, cosmology,earth sciences, environmentalism, geology, and physics are also included. Unfortunately, the book does not appear to have been proofread and is literally riddled with errors-as many as eight on a single page (p 299); I stopped counting after 120, and these were only in the text portions ( n o t including the poems). Admittedly, most are misspellings or "typos," but some areerrors offaet. e.g., Taorather than Lao-tzu means ' t h e way" (Lao-tzu is the author of the Tao et! ching; Lao-tzds name is spelled three different ways in the index ( ,~ o 299 .~ ) as if he were two different oersons a s well as the title of a poem : Pnrncclsus styled himself "yon Hohcnhcm"not "vnn llelmholtn" p :(i and I have ne\cr srrn N e w t o n ' s law ufp.awtatmn referred toas his"third Inn, nfmotwn" p 3.1,.These shoncom~ngs norwirhstandmg. I am pleased to rccon~rnmdthis uncmmon volume t,, lnitrurturs ofchcmisrrv and other r m n c e courses who w d d like to introdurr nn rxtm, humanrstrc dlmenrion to rhcir lerttxres rhat may enable them to rnorlvnrr srudenti "turned a l f by the conventional, somewhat sterile, abstract approach. The book's uses are limited only by the instructor's imagination. ~
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Georae B. Kauffman California ~tateilniversit~. Fresno Fresno, CA 93740
lar weiehts. - . and used a common standard..viz...H = 1. a s a standard far consistent atomic weights. Also, i t was Cannizzar+not Avogadro, as is commonlv believed-who proposed that the molecules of the gaseous elements (The noble gaseskere then unknown) are diatomic. TheSuntowasfirst publishedinZlNuouo Cimento (1858, 7, 321-3661 and has been translated into German (Abriss eines 1.ehrgnnger der fhrorrtrsrhru Chemtr w r g r t r o p u n o n d e r konrglwhen Ikruzrstrat Grnuo;Mtolati,A..Tranrl.;Meyer, L.,Ed.: OstwalCs Klarsiker der exakten \Viasmschnlten S o 30. Wilhelm Engelmann: Leipzig, 1891) and English (Sketch o f a course of Chemical Phi1osophy;Alembic Club Reprint No. 18; E. & S. Livinestone: ~ d i n b u i e h1910: . 1961). vet the nresent edi. reminted . t~;, the 27th vvlume in the srries ~ibliotfrs~sicilionb di sforin c lctrrrnturn Sic~l~anLihraryofIllstoryand Llttraturt. .introduced by eon el lo ~ a a l o n iis, espe&allywel&me hecauseofthelongessay and copious notes by Luigi Cerruti, Professor of the History of Chemistry a t the University of Turin and a prominent authority on the atomicmolecular theory of the 19th century (Ottocento). The annotated Sunto (36 pp), with marginal numbers referring to the pages of the original paper, is provided with 13 pages of explanatory notes. The major portion of the book is devoted to Cerruti's masterly essay, "I1 luogo del 'Sunto"' (The Place of the Sunto) (185 pp), which analyzes in great depth Cannizzaro's magnum opus, from almost every conceivable viewpoint (chemical, historical, semantic, linguistic, epistemological, etc.). In his attempt to place it in its proper historical context and to assess its place and role in the development of chemistry, Cerruti considers the work of such scientific luminaries as AmnLre. . . Avoeadro. - . Berzelius, Dulang, Dumas, Gay-Lussac, Gerhardt, Kekul6, Lothar Meyer, Odlina, Petit, Prout, Regnault, Williamson, and Wurtz as well as the &tributions of leading historians of science. His bibliography is detailed (278 references, 20 pp) and up-to-date (through October, 1988). A name index (4 pp, 2 columns) adds to the utility of this volume, which will be of great interest to chemists, physicists, historians of chemistry and of science, and chemical educators who feature historv in their courses.
Sunto di un corso di filosofia chimica
George B. Kauffman California State Universitv, Fresno Fresno. CA 93740
Stanislao Cannizzaro, with comments and historical notes by Luigi Cerrufi, Sellerio editore: Palermo, Sicily, 1991. 286 pp, Figs. and fables. 16.8 x 23.4 cm. L40,000 (PB). The molecular hypothesis announced in 1811 by Lorenzo Romano Amedea Carlo Avogadm, Conte di Quaregna (1776-1856) is a mime examnle of a scientific breakthroueh that was ienored. rejected, misunderstood, and consigned to ohlivion for a long time hefare being recognized and adapted by the scientific world. Consequently, not only is it dealt with in introductory chemistry courses and textbooks in connection with the gas laws, but also the story ofits neglect and "resurrection"is discussed by even the most nonhistorically minded instructors of such courses or authors of such texts. The general \,ieu of mnsr of these instructurs and textbook aurhnrs 1 3thnr Angel
