in quality. War applications have not been overemphasized. The chapters an organic chemistry include brief mention of the recent spectacular developments in "high octane" gasoline, synthetic- rubber. nlastics. and drues. Each chanter is followed bv an extensive list of references to books and journals to which college students are likely to have acrrss. The citations concerning descriptive chemistry, however, seem to he more up t o date than those concerning theory, where 1941 seems t o have been the dead line. The conclusion which this reviewer has reached, based upon an admittedly small samnling of the book. is that teachers will make no mistake in skec&z.it for th& heainninn course in . college chemistry. LAURENCE S. FOSTER MAS%CBOSBTTS INSTITUTB OF TBCHNOLOCY
The CHEMISTRY 0s LEATHERMANUPAC~WRE. George D . Mc-
Laughlin and Edwin R. Theis. Reinhold Publishing Corporation. New York, 1945. x 800 pp. 218 figs. 328 tables. 15 X 23 cm. $10.00. I n cmaplctely rewriting this monograph. the authors h a w fulfill:d u wed of lung standing in the field of lenthcr rhcrnistry Many of thr interprctatiorv of data presentmi in \Vilion'- 1020 second edition a r e n o longer jnstifiediu the light of more recent experimental evidence, and the current work succeeds in eliminating much of this misunderstanding. The subject matter included is in stricter keeping with the title of the work than was the case with the first two editions, as only the purely chemical aspects of leather manufacture are considered-with special emphasis on the structure and chemistry of skin proteins and on depilation and tanning. This narrowing c*msaroce. M*rr*c".rrarrr of scope should make the monograph of greater interest and value to all workers in the protein field, and it is, of course, a "must" for leather chemists. INFRARED AND RAMAN SPECTRA 08 POLYATOMIC MOLECULES. The treatment of each phase of the subject involves a descripGerhard Hnzberg, Professor of Physics, University of Saskatche- tion of essentiallv all of the imoortant and oertinent scientific ~~wan. D. Van Nostrand Company, Iuc., New York. 1945. paprrs puhliqhed in rcrcnt years, and the individual authors' xiii 632 pp. 174 figs. 148 tables. 15 X 23 cm. $9.50. intrrpretations and concluioni are prevented. Satisfactory This book is an excellent, detailed treatise on a very complex *ummarizatiuns of frrqucnrly conflicting opinions are not often field. I t is certainlv the most comolete treatment of the theorv of made, nor are they possible in many cases. The authors have lone wave length oolvatomic soectroscoov , that has vet . anneared avoided the temptation to draw unqualified conclusions based with rt,prcl to classical and quantum mechanical conaidcrations. on present-day experimental evidence, which is usually far from corrlplete illustrntianr and examples, and thorough indexing. complete or even adequate. In fact, the work not only indicates The author has rightly taken the viewpoint that the logical basis the appreciable activity in this field during the last decade, but for presenting this field is through molecular symmetry proper- points clearly to the augmented effort required and likely t o be ties and point group assignments. On this basis the subject attained in the near future. matter is presented in a natural sequence of increasing complexity KENNETH E. BELL -rotational and vibrational energy levels, normal vibrations and their interactions, examples of individual spectra, vibrationrotation couolin~. -. and thermodvnamic aoolications. The theoretical treatment is self-assured, with the only signs of indecision occurring in the treatment of Coriolis interaction. The examples are numerous and pertinent, and the author has con- ANNUALREVIEW OB BIOCHEMISTRY.James Murray Luck. sidered each case with care t o the point of making corrections or ~ d i t stanford ~ ~ , university; jarnes H. C. smith, ~ ~ disagreeing with the interpretation of the original work. Editor, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Division of Because of the mass of material and the fact that the hook is plant ~i,,l,,~~, stanford university, ~~~~~l ~ ~lnc,, ~ one of a series and therefore refers hack t o some derivations t o stanford University P. 0 . Volume XIII, 1944. ix 795 pp. avoid repetition, its value as a course textbook is somewhat un15 x 22.5 cm. $5.00. Volume XIV, 1945. x 856 pp. certain excent in advanced cases. Althoneh the author has used I K v oo c w. nn *" ,,*"." w"."". fine type for material which ir, illumimtml: but not absolutrly The topics treated in both volumes of this annual review are: necessary fur rhc prinriplos involved. 3 trlrhrr would hdve to do Biological Oxidations and Reductions; The Chemistry of the further careful rditirtg and rhoming of section. for use in a typical graduate cotme. For such a purpose, the inclusion of an oc- Carbohydrates; The Chemistry of the Lipids; The Chemistry of casional summary section giving pertinent formulas would have the Proteins and Amino Acids; The Chemistry and Metabolism been very helpful. For example, once a molecule has been as- of the Compounds of Phosphorus; Carbohydrate Metah?lism; signed to a certain point group there are simple formulas for de- Fat Metabolism; The Metabolism of Proteins and Amino Adds; termining the number of vibrations in each species, and the Mineral Metabolism; The Chemistry of the Hormones; The selection rules for the fundamental, overtone, and combination Water-Soluble Vitamins; The Fat-Soluble Vitamins; Nutrition; The Biochemistry of Malignant Tissue; and Mineral Nutrition bands. Such formulas do not appear explicitly in this book. Professor Herzberg has considered (admittedly) only the of Plants. Additional chapters in Volume X I I I include: Noutheory and examples which are susceptible t o fairly exact treat- oxidative Enzymes; The Steroids; The Biochemistry of the ment. He does not deal with semiquantitative work such as the Nucleic Acids, Purines, and Pyrimidines; The Nutritional Deapproximate treatment of long chain hydrocarbons as weighted ' ficiencies in Farm Mammals on Natural Feeds; The Alkaloids; Photoperiodism in Plants; chains, with the large field of empirical correlation between spec- Synthetic Drugs-Antispasmodics; Chloroplast Pigments; Growth-regulating Substances in Plants: tra and molecular structure, or with experimental techniques. Such aspects should be considered in any complete course in The Biochemistry of Fungi; and Histachemistry. In Volume spectroscopy, and it is t o he hoped that this very excellent work XIV there are also discussions on the following subjects: Enwill inspire the writing of a hook on a comparable level to com- zymes that Hydrolyze the Carbon-Nitrogen Bond: Proteinases, Peptidases, and Amidases; Nonproteolytic, Non-oxidative Enplete the field. The physical quality of the hook is good and the proofreading zymes; The Chemistry of the Nucleic Acids and Nucleoproteins; has been excellent. Only one error was observed-the wave X-ray Studies on Compounds of Biochemical Interest; The length scale of Figure 139. The print is necessarily small be- Chemistry of the Steroids; The Chemistry and Metabolism of cause of wartime restrictions and the photographic spectrograms the Compounds of Sulfur; The Chemistry of the Triterpenes; have not reproduced very well, but the easy style and text Animal Pigments; Detoxication Mechanisms; Nitrogeneons divisions make it very readable. The price is quite fair far such Constituents of Plants; Biological Nitrogen Fixation; The Chemistry and Metabolism of Bacteria; and The Chemistry of an authoritative work. VANZANDT WILLIAMS Antibiotic Substances Other than Penicillin. Author and subject indexes are, a s usual, provided in both A w s a r u N C u r m r m COMPANY volumes. 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