BOOK REV1EWS oughly covered in earlier chapters. I n fact, themajority of the examples throughout the book have been taken from the steroid field where, of course, the discipline first flowered. The discussion of alkaloids is quite brief. Chapter 6 considers carbohydrates and a short final chapter picks up a few loose ends and provides some tabulated energy data. The reviewer particularly appreciated the generous use of clear structural disgrams accompanied by arabic number identification. This makes i t entirely possible to follow eonformational reasoning without specialized knowledge of the elass of compounds under discussion. The relabive paucity of such structures in the carbohydrate chapter is one of the few discontinuities in the work. Extemive use is made of footnotes to elaborate points of the text. Their fonn suggests that they represent one author's reactions t o the presentation of another, but, sourceaside, they forman integral and enjoyable portion of the book. The documentation is superb and deserves speoial mention because of its attempt to identify, as such, leading references and reviews. Over 1400 references, many multiple, guide the reader to the original literature. Each chapter is closed with a. short list of General References to its subject. The author and subject indexes are satisfactory. The paper quality excel-
A916 / Journal of Chemical Education
lent, permitting the use of felt or bamboo markers without bleeding. Only a single tyooaraphical error was noted. .. &VENTINR. PETERSEN Wabash College Cmwjordsville, Indiana
Structure of Matter
Wolfgang Finkelnburg, University of Translated Erlangen - Nuremberg. from the 9th/lOth ed. by the author in cooperation with Ottilia Matossi-niechemeier. Academic Presa, Inc., New 511 pp. Figs. and York, 1964. xii tables. 17 X 25.5 cm. $14.50.
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An accurate subtitle for this book might be "An Introduction to Atomic, Molecular, Nuclear and Solid State Physics." While keeping the mathematics used to a minimum and avoiding excessive experim e n t d detail, the author relates theoretical concepts to experimental observations throughout the book. The book includes a detailed discussion of atomio spectra, including X-ray typectre, and the effects of electric and magnetic fields; a lengthy discussion of quantum mechanics; an extensive treatment of nuclear properties, radioactivity and fundamental particles; molecular structure and spectra and the chemical band; and the physics of solids. The philosophical viewpoint on quantum mechanics and the general tone of the book are reminiscent of the thirties, although the author has included a great
deal of recent material. The emphasis on the "realitf'of exchangeforcesonp. 189is not coneistent with the more modern point of view expressed on p. 398. The andogy of mechitnical resonance to quantum mechenicel resonance seems to this reviewer to be taken too literally. Deepite these criticisms, this is a useful reference book for students and teachers of chemistry and contains much useful information which no longer appears in the more modern textbooks of 8tomic physics with which it might be compared. This is a translation of the gth/lOth German edition and is much larger and more up to date than the earlier translation published by MeGraw-Hill. ROBERTM. ROSENBERG Lawrace University Appleton, Wisconsin
Infrared Band Handbook. 1m d2
Supplements
Edited by Heman A. Szymamki, Canisius College, Buffalo, New York. Plenum Press, Xew York, 1964. 259 pp. 17 X 26 cm. Sl5. Supplements 1 and 2 to the Szymanski 41, I R Handbook (see THIS JOURNAL A536 [1964]) cover the far infrared from 60Ck200 em-'. This coincides with the range of the KBr prism with which most
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