Recent Books
Enzyme Actions and Properties.
ERNST forth. However, references are given a t
WALDSCHMIDT-LEITZ, Institute F"r Biochemie, Deutsche Technische Rochschule. Praga. Formerly a t the University of Munich. Translated and extended by Robert P. Walton, Department of Organic Chemistry, Columbia University. John Wley and Sons, Inc., 255 pp. New York City, 1929. xviii 37 tables, 12 figures. 15 X 23 cm. .w.00.
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According t o the translator, "the work has not heen attempted as an exhaustive compendium of enzyme literature but rather as a concise presentation of the fundamental principles and best accepted characteristics of enzyme action." The material within the volume is based upon the extensive research carried a in the laboratories of R. Willstitter, and constitutes a general treatment of enzyme action and properties. The original German text has been enlarged and brought up to date in translating with the coiiperation of the oriainal - author, and maintaining the viewpoint of the WiIlsti.tter school. The book is divided into a roneral and special section. The first section takes up the characteristics and properties of enzymes in general, dealing in separate chapters with the topics of Enzymes as Colloids, Enzymes as Electrolytes, Enzymic Kinetics, Activation and Inhibition, Enzymic Specificity and Procedures of Quantitative Determination and Preparation. The second section describes specifically a large number of representative enzymes. As is necessary in a single volume ofthis size which attempts t o cover in a general way the entire field of enzymes and enzyme activity many of the discussions are very brief and present a controversial aspect of the subject, without giving the evidence for or against the viewpoint put
the bottom of each page, and the work is of particular value because of the authoritative background. It is of especial interest as a presentation of the subject embodying the advanced conception of the field which has resulted from the intensive studies under the direction of R. WillstPtter and the consequent discarding of worn-out theories which have servedauseful purpose but are no longer tenahle with the present treatment of "Enzymic Kinetics." Students of medicine, physiology, botany and espedally those of organic and biological chemistry who are working in the interesting field of enzyme activity, cannot help but be struck by the vast accumulation of literature on the subject and a,t the same time be confused by the many contradictory results that have been published. +They will welcome this authoritative work as a reference book for establishing an outlook from which t o view more detailed works on the subject. EARLR. Nonnrs UNIYB%SITY 011 W A S ~ N C ~ N
SG*TTLB, WAS~NOTON
Introductory Theoretical Chemistry. G. H. CARTLEDGE,Ph.D. Associate Professor of Chemistry, The Johns HopEns University. Ginn and Company, 553 pp. Boston, Mass.. 1929. xiv 71 figures. 20.5 X 14 cm. B.60.
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The general plan of this book is the same as that of the same author's "Inorganic Physical Chemistry." although it is somewhat more advanced and detailed in treatment. Consequently any one familiar with the earlier work will be sure t o consider this text seriously. It is well and interestingly written, is logical in development and is eminently teachable. A thoroughly logical presentation of this suh-
