RECEBT BOOKS How TO SOLVE PROBLENS IN PHYSICAL CHBMISTRY.JoseQh A . Babor, Associate Professor of Chemistry, The College of the City of New York, and Gwrett W. Thiessen, Associate Professor of Chemistry, Monmouth College. Thomas Y. Crowell 215 pp. 14 X 21.3 cm. Company. New York, 1944. x $1.25. Paper cover. ~h~ purpose of this hook is to give the student of chemistry the extra training in problem solving that is required by most and for which time is commonly lacking. Most phases of the usual course in the subject are covered-gases, liquids, solids, physical properties, solutions, electrolytes, colloids, thermochemistry, homogeneous and heterogeneous equilibrium. kinetics, thermodynamics, and electrochemistry. The dimensional approach is stressed. This should be very helpful. Nearly every type of problem is illustrated by a t least one example, worked out in great detail, with reasons given for each step. A reasonable selection of problems, to be worked by the student, is attached to each chapter. Answers are fur. nished. References are confined to four of the more commonly used texts. There are 10 tables of useful data, the most im. portant of which are four-place logs and antilogs, atomic weights, commonly used derivatives and integrals, and important con. stants and units. The only error noted is on page 192. The calculation of transference numbers should he based on solvent weights and not solution weights. Practically this is not serious, but its implication should be pointed out. I t seems the following might have been included with profit: how to handle the van der Wads equation when quantities are not molal; how to correct for the volume occupied by the vapor in the dynamic method for measwing vapor pressure; and the graphic method for calculating dipole moments. The chapter on electrochemistry, especially as it relates to electromotive force, is quite skimpy, there being no discussion of the Gibbs-Helmholtz equation, of concentration cells, liquid junctions, standard potentials and activity, etc. However, aside from this small section, the book is very well done indeed. Teachers of physical chemistry will do well to consider its use as a supplement to their basic courses. M. HARING
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UNIVBRSLTY OF MARYLAND c o ~ ~ s a ma, n MARYLAND
ENZYMETECHNOLOGY. Henry Tauher. John Wiley and Sons. Inc., New York, 1943. vii f 275 PP. 46 figs. 46 tables. 15 X 22 cm. S . 5 0 . This interesting book is almost free from typographical errors. On page 124 "Youngburg" is misspelled and on page 195 "peptic" has been written when "pectic" is meant. The hook might he improved if it contained a glossary of such terms as: Polenske numbers, combined wheat, mash bill, sparger, Vegefat, and krausen stage. I f d-lactic acid on page 116 were written d(-) lactic acid one could be sure what was meant. When Tauher says
on page 52 that the yield of alcohol is 90 per cent one must assume that be means 90 per cent of the theoretical. On page 9 he states that yeast is a complete protein. Of course we understand that he means yeast contains all of the essential amino acids for nutrition of the rat. When he says that the amount of invertase in the barley plant greatly exceeds the sucrose present we understand that only traces of sucrose occur, while invertase activity is considerable. Page 145 Tauber says that whenanimalsaregiven nonlethal doses of urease they acquire a tolerance, citing his own work as evidence. He might better have stated that rabbits can be made immune to urease. as shown by the really important work of irk and Sumner. Again, on page 186 he mentions the method of Tauber and Kleiner for preparing highly activerennin, hut makes no mention of the preparation of crystalline rennin by Hankinson. 0" Page 220 Tauber says that R.J. S ~ ~ nfound e r that carotene is destroyed by a hypothetical f a t oxidation product produced by Lipoxidase. This was discovered by Sumner and Sumner two Years earlier. The hook plain$ shows that Tauber has done a vast amount of reading and that he possessesanup-to-date knowledgeof enzyme technology. The hook is valuable and fills a real need. I recommend "Enzyme Technology" to every chemist and to everyone Connected with and nutrition. JAMES B. S ~ N E R ~
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IN BIOLOOICAL CHEMISTRY.Jamex LABORATORY EXP~RIMENTS B. Scmner and G. Fred Somers, Professor and Instructor, respectively, of Biochemistry. Cornell University. Academic 169 pp. 17 figs. 8 Press, Inc., New York, 1944. vi tables. 14.5 x 22 cm. $2.60. hi^ little manual gave your reviewer the same kind of thrills from a hig entitled, ,,The that he used to derive Boy Mechanic": namely, "I'd like to try to make that . . . and see what my "lass could do preparation, demonstrate is with those techniques,u The variety of experiments truly fascinating. The directions have been written as a result of long experience with the way in which students go about their laboratory work in biochemistry, as well as with the way in which best results can he obtained. Therefore the volume begins with 14 pages of most telling and specific "General Instructions." These cover the arrangement of reagents in the laboratory, use of notebooks, safety rules, qualitative and quantitative techniques, and thecare and cleaning of simple as well as complex equipment. The authors do their utmost to make sure that the student really absorbs this information by frequent references hack to it. As stated in its preface, the manual outlines a very general course in laboratory biochemistry in order t o provide fundamental training to students in any field of study. The experiments range all the way from the simplest qualitative tests to the most exact-
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Volume I, in 18 chapters paginated separately, deals with the ing quantitative determinationr, and extend to long. Frrmuous purirications nnd prelmrntions uf vrgctahle pigments and spccial- analysis of the common military explosives (as well as of dynai ~ e dproteins. The acnior author's field of achievement is well mite), of the raw materials from which they are prepared, and of the intermediates in their manufacture, acids, nitrations, toluene representedbynumerous enzyme and chromoprotein preparations. Theapparatus required for this work isnot ascomplex asmight be and its nitro derivatives, nitroglycerin, nifrocellulose and smokeless powder, amatol, picric acid, nitrostarch, tetryl, black powfeared in times when economy and scarcity are laboratory @nates. The thoroughness and modernity of this manual are exemplified der, primers, fulminate and azide, and a short bibliography. by the expositions on photoelectric calorimeters, and on the poVolume I1 is a dictionam.. the entries under each letter "~ eeriertentiometric determination of pH, as well as the usual ones on the ally paginated separately, of the less common explosives, of subpolariscope and Duboscq calorimeter. Emphasis is placed on types stances related to explosives or of use in the explosives art, the of such apparatus which are teachably constructed so that a entries often accompanied by literature and patent references student can see how they work without taking them all apart. and by summaries or abstracts. The broad scope of the dicMost of the procedures are completeIy described, and many also tionary may be illustrated by the fact that we find the Centralites give references to the literature. A few methods are merely sum- described under C, their properties, methods of analysis, etc., marized along with cited references, to encourage the use of the Cheddites, Chlorates and Chlorate Explosives, Chromates, original sources of information in the library. Schemes for the Collodion, Colloiding Agents, Cordite, and Cyclonite, as well treatment of unknowns cover fats, carbohydrates, urine, dis- as many other materials concerning which questions are likely solved and solid proteins, and enzymes. Instead of placing reci- to arise in laboratory discussions. The dictionary is followed pes for reagents in small type as footnotes or in a distant ap- by a list of definitions and a table of physical constants of compendix, the authors have arranged these directions right along in pounds used in the explosives industry, by a table of weights and the text in regular type. measures, and by afurther bibliography. Complete as it is with a list of equipment needed in each desk, Volume I11 contains supplements to several of the chapters of and with an index, this book surprisingly lacks any tabular esti- the above-described Volume I, two new chapters. XlX which mate of the variety and amounts of chemicals required. Such deals with fuel oil, coal, and boiler water, etc.. with the chemical tables are found in some manuals, and are a great help in course- control work which is necessary in connection with the operation planning. The instructor who uses this manual is due for some of the power house, and XX which deals with the toxicity of extensive page-turning and estimating, as he selects his experi- explosives and with sanitary tests. Further references are ments and makes out his order for chemicals. The authorsintend given, additional abstracts of recent publications on explosives, that in a year course Part I of the hook will be completed during a list of additional items to he included in the dictionary of the first term of 32 laboratory periods of two and one-thid hours Volume 11, a list of errata, and an excellent index. each. Part I1 has more material, including the longer enzyme Clift, Fedoroff, and Young have produced a work which is preparations, so that selections by the teacher, and election of really a manual, something for the explosives chemist t o have alternatives by the students must be made. alwavs under his hand. somethine for him to handle. and use. and On page 22 in the "Determination of the Iodine Number of a Fat." the directions for running the blank are unclear, giving the impression that water is to be used instead of Hanus solution. Then iil the exampleof calculations reference is made to the Hanus solution in this same blank. Elsewhere erromseem to benegligiCHEMISTRY.Louis F. F k e r and Mary Fieser. D. C. ble. The type is clear and well set, and the figures are excellently ORGANIC 1091 pp. 4 figs. Heath and Company, Boston, 1944. xii reproduced. The binding is sturdy, and yet the pages readily lie Tables. Charts. 15.5 X 23.5cm. Trade Edition. $8.00. flat. "Of making many books thereis no end." So said the preacher DAVIDLYMAN DA~IDSON long ago and when good books come along we are happy that it is MIDDLBSBX UN~VB~UI~Y WILTHAY. MASSICRUSRTTS so. "Time marches on." and "He who does not go forward goes backward." Dr. and Mrs. Fieser have given us a wonderful opportunity in Volumes I and I1 this "Organic Chemistry" to gain new knowledge of the subject A MANUAL FOR EXPLOSIVES LABORATORIES. by G. D. Clijt and dB. T.Fedoroff. Vol. 111 by G.D. Clift.B. and its meaning and to rejuvenate our old knowledge. This T.Federoff, and D. G. Young. Lefax Society. Inc., Philadelphia. hefty volume with its 1091 pages is full of much excellent inforEach volume loose leaf, 9.5 X 17.0 em. Vol. I, 4th ed., 1943, mation for both the younger and the older student of the subject. xii 224 pp. Illustrated. Price, separately, $2.00. Vol. The text is very, readable. I t reads along in such a manner that 11, EXPLOSIVECOMPOUNDS AND ALLIED SUBSTANCES, A DE- the subject seems t o unfold easily before your eyes instead of SCRIFTIVE LIST, 1943, iv 266 pages. Price, separately, $2.25. poking itself up in lumps and bumps as it seems to do in some Vol. 111, Comprising Supplements Numher One and Two, books. 1944, ii 236 pages. Illustrated. Price, separately, $2.00. In the early parts of the book the subject is explained in some Price, all three volumes, $5.75. detail and the tempo ib increased as the book progresses and "maThese three volumes contain in a compact package an amazing terial of a more and more advanced nature" is presented "as the amount of information, some of it background or liberalizing reader gains in experience and background. Thus the empirical information for improving the chemist's grasp of the field of correlation of phenomena prevalent in the early chapters graduexplosives, most of i t information which is absolutely essential ally gives place to interpretations in terms of modern theory." So state the authors and their plan is carried out admirably. t o the worker in the chemical labaratorv of an ex~losivesnlantQuoting further from the preface, "The most novel feature of information on physical and chemical properties, on sources and methods of preparation, on impurities likely to be present, an the book is the inclusion of a number of chapters for optional reading dealing with significant applications of organic chemistry their detection, on details of analytical procedures, and so forthinformation which is necessary to the explosives plant chemist, to technology and to the biological and medical sciences." These whether he be new to the work, freshly set down among explo- essay chapters are interspersed throughout the book. Most of sives and busy a t once upon their analysis, or whether he be an them were written by Mary Fieser and cover subjects such as old hand in need of a compendium of numerical and precise in- Petroleum, Rubber, Microbiological Processes. Role of Carboformation for ready reference. The fact that Volume I , first pub- hydrates in Biological Processes, Metabolism of Fats, Proteins lished in 1942, is now in its fourth edition indicates that the and Amino Acids, Synthetic Fibers. Plastics and Resins, and so explosives chemists of the country have felt the need of it. I t is on. Thev are worth readinr iust bv themselves. There seems to be little if any difference in the style of each o f strictly a chemist's manual, and does not describe the physical the authors. Other points worth noting follow. The structural testing of explosives.
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