BOOK REVIEWS anisms is ususlly not very critical, and thew are instances where the emphasis is misleading or is in error. I t is unfortunate that the price of this book will keep it from the hands of most individuals. The reviewer recommends i t strongly for library purchase. While inform&tion in monographs invariablv becomes dated very quirkly, much of this volume covers a well-established field and it should have a long useful life.
1, reviewed in n t r s JOURNAL, 33, A477 (1956). J. A. CAMPBELL Harvey Mudd College
Clammont, California Fluorescence Assay in Biology and Medicine
Sidney Udenfiiend, National Institute, Bethesds, Maryland. demio Press, Inc., New York, x 505 pp. Figs. and tables. 23.5 cm. $14.
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Heart Aca1962. 16 X
DELOSF. I ~ T A R As volume 3 of an international series Florida Stale University on molecular biology, this is s. stimulating Tallahassee and, in the main, sensible job of book Experimental Thermorhemistry
Edited by H. A . Skinner, University of Msnchester, England. Interscience Publishers, 1962. xix 457 pp. Figs, and tables. 16 X 23.5 cm. $14.50.
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Arcording to Dr. Rossini's foreword this hook includes "presentations by some of the world's leading investigators in experimental thermoehemistry . . " Normally this might constitute an unsupported immodesty. Here it is recogmtion of the truth, and the excellent papers ($1 19 of them) more than justify the purchase of this hook by all libraries and all individuals who wish to be up t o date on experimental methods of cdorimetry. It's a fine companion for Volume
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A610
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Journal of Chemical Education
publishing. With approximately 800 literature citations and a subject index of same 1500 entries "Fluorescence Assay" will appeal to a. rather wide audience, to both beginner and expert in a variety of fields: biochemist, pharmacologist, analytical chemist, toxicologist and criminalistics chemist, clinical chemist and medical terhnologist-to name a, few. Importantly, it will he vsluahle to th? graduate student seeking s good topic for a graduate thesis-the hook is replete with dues about where to look next. By its very title "Fluorescence Assay" deals with the quantitative aspects of the subject. It is essentially oriented toward organic systems a t the biochemical level, i.e., the fluorometry and the spectrofluorometry of amino acids, amines and their metzholites, enzymes, coenzymes and their metaholites, proteins, vitamins,
and steroids. Only 9 inorganics are described (chapter 12), with little or no treatment given to elements such as uranium, plutonium, and the rare earths. It is hoped that this chapter, like chapter 13 (drugs and toxic agents) will, in the future edition, be msde more thorough. In chapter 14 space is devoted to nerve gases but no mention is msde of the reactive P-F and P-CN linked economic hiocides. The elementary physics of fluorescence and its practical applications to assay work is nicely done. It is stressed that the excitation periods of fluorescence are now in the nanosecond range, varying with the substance; in the past the 10-a sec value has been too often taken for granted (p. 8 lapses into this, but it is cleared up on pp. 12-13). The term nanogram is mentioned several times, which chemists will find themselves using more and more. There is a lapse into "gamma/mln (p. l i ) , which should be remlml. hut these thines are relativelv are good. Fluorescence assay has gone through its birth pangs and is now a very healthy adolescent. We shall see the voluminous literature mined for exciting and startling new luminescence techniques: e. g., UV and I R fluorescenees and phosphorescences, as well as the many other excitane defined lumineseences (there is every indication that infrared emitters are more prevalent than UV and visible emitters); supercooled samples; dopants, organic
gI:~sscs, and other sperial solid-state systems as samples; gxscs and gas-disp m o i d s a s samples; poI~rizat,ionand spertrol~oli~riaation techniques; r and m v i h e s ; quenching; comparative spcrtromptry: sorptives and molecular films; and, advanced instruments like the highly prol,able forthcoming interference spertrofloorometcr. JACK DE MENT
De Ment Lahoralories Portland, Oregon Direct Melhodr in Crystallography
nr. nr.
Ilrooljson. Oxford, At the Clarendon Press, I9G1. viii 14-1 pp. Figs. and tnbles. 14.5 X 22 em. $4.80.
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T h r term "direct methods" means, in t h e dmvt. eontcxt, met,hods for deriving t h e p h i ~ + eof~ ohserved stmctorr nmplitudcs by purrlg !mathemstid means nnd thus going " d i r ~ c t l j " from the ohs~rvecl ditlrnrtion data from a crystal t o thp calculation of t h r electron density in t h r unit. e d . Thew t ~ c h n i q u r sar? usnally formulnted in trmm of n set of mat.hematicnl steps which HPP t o hc carri~dout in a rout,irw ~ s yand , w r y often ~ w p i r ethe use of an elcrtlxmic computer. Their advantage is t h a t t,hey are almost completely objcetivr, and their grcxtrst disadvantage is t,hat they are almost e o m p l ~ t r l y01,jrctive. This monograph recounts the history of direct methods beginning v i t h thrir inception in 1!l48, and following t,llrongh t h e many suhsrquent suggcstions down t o t h e pres~nt,.A very uscful fenture is the illus tration of some of tho "&hods hy t h e prcsentat,ion of simple examples whirh t h e reader may t r y for himself (the solutions are e v ~ n at t h e end of the lrook). The style of t,hr author is admirahlv clcar, and he has tnkcn t h ? trouble t o rework maqv of thc soggrstrcl nlethods in order that thepresentation may Re as lucid as possible. Thp author points out t h a t the record of the st,ruetures which have thus far been solved by direct mcthads is, st the prcsrnt timnc, rstrnsivr hut not impressivr. I n other words, t h e standard mcthods for stn~et,urpdetermination arc hy no means ahsol&. On t h e other hand, he feels t h a t in mother decade direct methorls will be of major importance. This means t h a t the determination of structures will be relegated t o technicians. The r e v i ~ m awaits r this prcsurnetl drvelopment n-ith great interest. Finally, the author of this charmingly writtm littlr hook warns the prospect.ive rexdrr in the preface with t h e follorl-ing statement: "For the stranger or t h e compnrativr newcnmcr t o t h e field of crystallography this monograph is not recommmdcd; indeed a more unsuitable avenue of approach could hardly he imagined." This r r v i ~ w wis in complete agreement with t h e above statement. This monograph can he recommended, howcver, t o experts in t,he field, and t o those whose knowledge of structure determinations is somewhat more t h a n casual. It should he required rending in any graduate course in X-ray erystnllography. JERRY DONOHUE Universilz, of Southern Cal
