RECENT BOOKS IN~ODUCTION TO TEEORETICALCHEMISTRY. Wi11iam Bus11 Meldrum, Professor of Chemistry. Haverford College, and Frank Thamson Gucker, I f . .Associate Professor of Chemistry. Northwestern University. American Book Company, New York City, 1936. xiv 614 pp. 155 figs. 15 plates. 14 X 21.5 cm. $3.50. The book is designed for students in their second year of chemistry. It has been used in connection with courses in qualitative and quantitative analysis by the authors. It is intended to enable the student to obtain a comprehensive knowledge of the fundamental generalizations and theories of chemistry. The scope of the book is best indicated by the titles of the chapters: The Elements and Their Classification; Chemical Combination and the Atomic Theory; The Gas Laws and the Kinetic Theory; Solutions; Fundamental Chemical Theory; Thermochemistry; Reaction Velocity and Equilibrium; Anhenius' Theory of Ionization; Reactions According to the Ionic Theory; Quantitative Applications of the Ionization Theory; Neutralization Indicators; Electrical Conductance; Electrode Effects; Electromotive Force; Aoolirations of Electrode Potentials: Modem Theories of Elcrtrolytes; Radiations and Spectra, Kndioactivity; Isotopes; Atomic S t r u c t u r e T h e Nucleus, Transmutatrvn of the Elvmcnts; Atomic Strurturc-Arrangcmmt of the Externnl Electrons; The Electronic Theory of Valence. The work is about as comprehensive in its treatments of the different topics as is pomihle without the use of the calculus. It is well written and should be understandable t o second-year college students. Those who cover the work should certainly he well prepared for the more advanced courses in chemistry. It contains g w d treatments of the applications of oxidation potentials, the equilibrium formulation, reaction rates, etc., which are directly t o the point in qualitative analysis. A large portion of the book, however, is devoted t o topics which are not directly concerned with analytical chemistry. The reviewer feels that it would he difficult t o correlate the laboratory work in analytical chemistry with lectures and class work based on this text and to cover the material in the t e a during one school year. The reviewer cannot help hut feel that the more rigorous treatment of the fundamental generalizations and modern theories which is possible with senior and even junior students with a broader background in chemistry, physics, and mathematics is t o be preferred t o the less rigorous treatment necessary with sophomores. However, those who disagree with the reviewer about the time when theoretical chemistrv should be introduced will find here an excellent text, conservative, but not too much so, interesting, and well suited for students who have had one year of college chemistry, one year or less of college physics, and no calculus. Ehercises are provided for most of the chapters and many good references for outside reading are included. E. ROGER W ~ s ~ s u u N
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ANNUAL REVIEWOF BIOCHEMISTRY, VOLUME V. James Murray Luck. Editor, Stanford University. Annual Review of Biochemistry, Ltd., Stanford University P. 0.. California, 1936. x 640 pp. 15 X 22 cm. $5.00.
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"In the year that has elapsed since publication of the fourth volume of the Rm.m there have been no changes in editorial or publication policy." The fifth volume comprises the following ehapters. Oxidations and Reductions. D. E. Green and D. Keilin. Enzymes. J. H. Quastel. X-Ray Studies on the Structure of Compounds of Biochemical Interest. 0.L. Sponsler and W. H. Dore. The Chemistry of the Carbohydrates and the Glucosides. W. N. Haworth and E. L. Hirst. ~
The Chemistry of the Acyclic Constituents of Natural Fats and Oils. T. P. Hilditch. The Chemistry of the Proteins and Amino Acids. C. Rimington. The Chemistrv and Metabolism of Comoounds of Sulfur. V. du Vigneaud &d H. M. Dyer. Chemistry and Metabolism of Compounds of Phosphorus. R. Robinson. Carbohydrate Metabolism. I . L. Chaikoff. Fat Metabolism. E. F. Terroine. Metabolism of Amino Acids. H. A. Krehs. Mineral Metabolism. E. B. Hart and C. A. Elvehjem. Clinical Applications of Biochemistry. J. P. Peters, C. L. Robbins, and P. H. Lavietes. The Hormones. E. A. Doisy and D. W. MacCorquadale. The Water-Soluble Vitamins. H. von Euler. The Fat-Soluble Vitamins. E. V. McCollum. Nutrition. A. H. Smith. Liver and Bile. A. C. Ivy and L. A. Crandall, Jr. Comparative Biochemistry of the Vertebrates and Invertebrates. F. Kutscher and D. Ackermann. Animal Pigments. J. Roche. Metabolism of Carbohydrates and Organic Acids in Plants. W. Ruhland and J. Wolf. The Biochemistry of the Nitrogenous Constituents of the Green Plants. G. T. Nightingale. The Rdle of Special Elements (Baron, Copper. Zinc, Manganese, etc.) in Plant Nutrition. P. Maze. Bacterial Metabolism. A. J. Kluyver. Soil Microbiology. S. A. Waksman. Biochemistry of Fungi. N. N. Iwanoffand E. S. Zwetkoff. Index. OTTO REINMUTH FRONTIERS oa SCIENCE. Carl T~uebloodChasc. Ph.D., New York University. D. Van Nostrand Co., New York City, 1936. 352 pp. 19 plates. 13 X 21 cm. $3.75. xi
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I n the concluding paragraph of the introductory chapter t h e author sets forth the purpose and scope of the hook as follows: "It is our purpose to visit each of the present frontiers of science, t o see what is being done there, and t o make inquiry as t o the oossihle effect of this work on human destinv.. and on man's idea of his place in a universe which at timer apprnrs to he so vast and so inromprcbenaiblc as to rcndrr the human rare a thing uf s u preme insignificance." The remaining nineteen chapters are grouped under the heads: Frontiers of Time and Space, The Quest for the Ultimate, The New Age of Chemistry, The Frontiers of Health, and The Secret of Life. The whole treatment is keyed t o the dramatic. On page 132 we read: "Increasing familiarity with the electron had set the stage for great discoveries. As the curtainrises, Professor Planck is hard a t work with pencil and paper, seeking the solution of a puzzle. He is trying t o discover why the laws of radiation are in disagreement with the results of experiment. Before thecurtain falls on the last act he will have found the solution, a solution that has since 1900 provided plots for several equally exciting dramas." Again, on page 153, in introducing the work of de Broglie, the author states: "The time was ripe for a new theory. When it arrived, its dbouement was so sudden that many physicists still find themselves gasping for breath. And the reading public. a t least that part interested in the doings of the scientists, has been well nigh asphyxiated." Another appeal to the dramatic is found on page 185 in the presentation of the controversy over the nature of cosmic rays: "Spectacular as were the discoveries made during 1932, t h e scientific world as well as that larger world that waits eagerly for each new announcement from its smaller neighbor was not
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