did their classmates with the samemath aptitude who did not study the material." This text should be a valuable asset to students of averaee who " or better intellirence " seriously want to remove their math deficiencies. They should be able to complete the work in the hook without outside assistance. Mast importantly, it is written in such a way that good students can learn how to work problems. Edmund C. Shearer Fort M y s Kansas State College Hays. Kansas 67601
Outlines of Biochemistry. Fourth Edition Eric E Conn and P. K. Stumpf, University of California, Davis. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1976. vii 629 pp. Figs. and tables. 18 X 26 cm. Hard cover, $15.95.
+
This is the fourth edition of a well-known and widely utilized textbook originally designed to introduce students who are primarily not majors in biochemistry t o the diverse subject matter comprising modern biochemistry. The authors' emphasis is still, although to a somewhat lesser extent than in the earlier editions, on the use of intermediary metabolism as a major route for the transmission of information. As in the earlier editions, this approach is logical and this logic is evidenced by the sensible organization of the hook into three parts and 20 chapters. The two appendices containing a series of buffer a n d p H problems and a brief resume of modern methods in
biochemistry will probably be useful and can certainly serve to acquaint relatively unsophisticated students with the material. There is a eood selection of ~ r o b l e m sand a small but wrll choarn and remarkablv current ii-t of r r f e r r n r ~ nr s rhe end "if& h rhaprw. 'l'here is one major uifficuity inherent in texts of this type which are aimed a t eondensing large and rapidly developing areas of science and making them understandable by students of mixed backgrounds and levels of soohistication who need a soeakine ae-
were usually resolved on the side of increased size and complexity rather than shallow over-simplification. This probably was the correct choice to make but it has resulted in a hook that is large and a t times perhaps somewhat too detailed for its intended audience. Overall the hook is very readable and, as might he expected from a text which has gone through several editions and has been translated broadly, there are few typographical or other errors. The illustrations are remarkably clear and singularly well chosen and aoorooriate to the text. The oresentation of the ntce.mry phyaml ehrmwnl mnrwial is n i straighrfmward nnd undrrst;lndalrle as is possible. Drs. Conn and Stumpf have succeeded in the revision of a well-written, well-produced textbook which will serve its stated Dumose . . adrnirahly althmgh, a i n
