BOOK REVIEWS
atom, molecule, crystxllogrrtphir, mrchanical, t,hermal, optirwl, megnrtir :md deet,ricsl properties. amalgam^ nr? not included.
w.F. K. Experimental lmmvnochamirtry
Eluin A. Kabat, Coltnnhia University. Charles C Thomns, Springfield, Illinois,
+
1961. 2nd MI.xii 905 pp. Figs. and tn1,lrs. 18 X 25.5rm. $26.50. The n c n odition of this hook has beru awaitcd impatiently hy all inmunochemists. The great success of the first edition, publi~hedin 1948, is demonstrated hest by the fact that i t has hem nrcrss:rry t o reprint it twice, It153 and 1!158. It was onr of those- rlniisirnl lxhoratory h o v k which one i m p l y had t o h:tw as n r~liahlc guide in exprrimentnl n-ork. We hxvc t o he gratr.fnl to Dr. ICabat that h? took upon hirnsrlf the formidable task t o incorporate into the new edition the numerous modcrn techniques applied in immunochemistry. Thc size of the book is now twice that of the first edition. I t consists of four parts. The first of thcm (360 pages) deals with the immunological and immunochemiral methods of specific precipitation, agglutination, inhihition reactions, anaphylaxis and allergy and with antihodies and t h ~ i r characterization, Chemists will be p;~rt,icul:~rly interpsted in t h ~ description of the more recent methods of gel diffusion, developed so successfully by Oudin and Ouchterlony. They allow us t o differentiatc and identify extremely small amounts of proteins and t o decidp ~.hether two or more proteins have common antigenic patterns. I t may be less well known that monossceharides and more complex sugarj can also be idmtificd and differentiated by immunorhemical meth. ods. Since Dr. Iiahat's rpseareh work is chiefl,v concerned with the immunochemistry oi carbohydrates, this field is particularly and throughly covered in t h e book. The first part of the hook also includes s n excdlent chaptcr on complement and its fixation, witton hy Dr. M. M. Msyer, eo-author of the first edition. I n the second part of t,he book t,he quantitative techniques of immunochemistry are described on 116 pages. The third part of "Experimental Immunochemistry" (269 pages) covers a wide range of analytical methods such a s t h e quantativo determination of nitrogen, sugars, hoxossmincs, uronic acids, methylpentoses, amino acids, proteins and nucleic acids. I n addition t o these purely chemicd methods, a number of physicochemical techniques is described. They include the modern techniques of chromatography on paper or columns of ion exchange resins, estimation of enzyme activity, electrophoresis and immunoelectrophoresis (Grabar), dirthion, ultracentrifugal sedimentation, UV absorption,
(Continued on page A68)
A66
/
journal o f Chemical Education
BOOK REVIEWS dialysis, ultrafiltration and freeze-drying. T h r last part of t,he book (136 pages) contains dcseriptiuns of many of the hnportmt prcpnrative methods used in irnrnunoehemistry. Some of the suhstances, the preparations of which are deseribcrl, arc: crystalline ovalhumin and swum albumin, rrglobulin, bhyroglobulin, diphtheria, toxin, type-specific polyssceharide antigens, dcstrans and Icvitns, poly-u-glutnmic acid iram Bacillus aubtilis, and the I~loodgroup substances. The rrxdcr will also find a drscription of methods for t h r purification of antibodies and for the. prrpsrat,ion of amproteins, ; ~ w t y b t t d ,i o d i n i ~ t ~and d otherrqiso substitutwl p r o t t k . The revicwcr rccom~nendsDr. ICalmt?s book a8 an esecllent, rcliahlr. m:mu:ll, itldispcnsal~lc for immunochm~ir:dwork.
FELIXH A U R O ~ ~ I T ~ . Indiana Cniversily Bloosringlon
Modern Physics for the Engineer. Second Series
Editcd lby Im,i.~1V. Ri,lmoar (dcM i i ,A. fiierenbwg, Univ~rsity of California, l3crl
