NEW BOOKS T Annual Tables of Constants. A.C. and Numerical Data Chemical, Physical, Biological and Technological, published under the patronage of the International Union of Chemistry. Volume X. Two parts, about 1800 pages. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., 1930. Price (for subscribers) : cloth, $20.00, This very useful volume covers the research published in 1930. All texts are given in both French and English. F. H. MACDOTJGALL.
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22 x 14 cm.; vi 125 Hochpolymere organische Natursto$e. By H. SAECHTLINQ. pp. Braunschweig: Friedr. Vieweg und Sohn, 1935. Price: 8 RM. This is a neat little book, just the thing one wants nowadays when i t is fast becoming almost impossible to attend t o one’s business and at the same time take an intelligent interest in, let alone make proper use of, other people’s work. The structure a nd properties of the high polymers and condensation products, natural and artificial, is a big subject which daily grows more and more important both for biology and industry, but the gist of it is well set out here, and the author is to be congratulated on his contribution. There are several other, and larger, books available, each authoritative in its way, b u t Dr. Saechtling has tried to dissociate himself from any particular viewpoint or method of approach, and has concerned himself rather with bringing out as concisely as possible the essential unity of ideas that has now been reached. After a statement of the problem, the treatment falls into seven chapters, dealing in turn with the general chemical principles underlying the structure of the natural high polymers, microscopic investigations, x-ray investigations, constitutional chemistry, structure and mechanical properties, artificial high polymers as an aid t o understanding the natural high polymers, and natural growth structures, the whole being supported by a selection of more specialized textbooks and a list of no fewer than 239 references to original papers. For the most part the argument rests, of course, on cellulose, the proteins, and rubber, b u t i t will be seen that the scheme is eminently reasonable, and there can be no hesitation about recommending this book to anyone looking for a rapid and up-to-date sketch of a field that is not merelyof great technical significance but that lies a t the very foundation of the science of life itself. W. T. ASTBURY.
Molekulspektren und ihre Anwendung auf chemische Probleme. I . Tabellen. By H. SPONER.21 x 14 cm.; vi 154 pp. Berlin: Springer, 1935. Price: unbound, 16 RM; bound, 17.60 RM. Customarily tables of data such as these would form a n appendix to the main text of a comprehensive work. The plan here adopted of issuing the tables separately has the double advantage of enabling the author to revise the tables more frequently than the text and readers who so wish to have the tables without the text, which is to follow in volume 11. The tables for diatomic molecules contain constants for all the known electronic states and band systems, observed isotope effects, 1247
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