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BOOKREVIEWS
of activity for the Grignard reagent. The fact that a large amount of racemization was obtained suggests that racemization is occurring in the Grignard formation step. Further work pertaining to the mechanism of
Vol. 83
Grignard formation as well as to the optical stability of organometallics is now in progress. DEPARTMENT O F CHEMISTRY FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY H. 31,WALBORSKY TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA A. E. YOUNG RECEIVED APRIL 7, 1961
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BOOK REVIEWS Modern Probability Theory and its Applications. By studies of the physiological effects of insulin in the face of EMAKUEL PARZES, Associate Professor of Statistics, pressing problems in the commercial production of the lifeStanford University John SYiley and Sons, Inc., 4-10 saving hormone. Supplementing a never-tiring description Fourth Avenue, New York 16, S.T. 1960. xv 464 pp, of his classical work on insulin structure, the article by F . 15.5 X 23.5 em. Price, $10.75. Sanger is followed by a n excellent treatment by Ieuan Harris on the structures of oxytocin, vasopressin, corticotropin The title of this book should perhaps be: Introduction to Probability Theory, since by mathematical standards i t is a and MSH with emphasis on the relation of structure and amino acid replacements t o biological activity. Of theofirst undergraduate textbook. Content : Chapter I, Probaretical interest but also of great practical import are the bility Theory as the Study of Mathematical Models of articles dealing with the measurement of insulin concentraRandom Phenomena; Chapter 11, Basic Probability Theory; tions, the metabolic fate of insulin and the presence of Chapter 111, Independence and Dependence; Chapter IV, insulin antagonists and antibodies in blood. These subSuxnerical-Valued Random Phenomena; Chapter V, Mean jects comprise five articles by G. A. Stewart, A. J. Kennep, and Variance of a Probability Law; Chapter VI, Normal, P. J. Randle and K . W.Taylor, J. Vallance-Owen, and Poisson, and Related Probability Laws; Chapter VII, P. H.Wright. Random Variables, Chapter VIII,Expectation of a Kandom There follows a group of four articles concerned with the 1-ariable; Chapter I X , Sums of Independent Random action of insulin on metabolism, particularly at the tissue 1-ariables; and Chapter X, Sequences of Random Variables. and enzyme levels. I n weighing many reports, R . B . Fisher The knowledge of Lebesgue integration is not assumed. is led toward the conclusion t h a t the stimulation of carboSome theorems are stated without proof, the author usually hydrate metabolism is through the increased transport of pointing out this fact carefully. The book is written vividly, glucose into the cell, while S. J. Folley and A. L . Greencontains interesting bibliographical and historical remarks. haum present the case for a possible primary role of insulin Some points worth mentioning: Detailed treatment of elements of combinatorics in Chapters 1-11; definition of con- in the synthesis of fatty acids, and A. Korner and I;. L. 5Ianchester gather information which indicates a direct ditional probability of a n event given a randon; variable, cffect of insulin on the biosynthesis of protein. Finally P. without use of the Radon-Sikodym theorem, Chapter VII; J . Randle and F. G . Young provide a critical and provocaan article on the measurement of the signal-to-noise ratio of a random variable, Chapter VIII; treatment of convergence tive paper with a unifying concept of insulin action based on its effect on cell permeability, which may account in in distribution by the method of characteristic functions, ways not entirely clear a t the present time, for the apparent including in Chapter IX the proof of the inversion formulas diversity of actions of insulin on metabolism. for characteristic functions, in Chapter X the proof of the The issue is concluded with articles by R . Fraser 011 the “continuity theorem of Probability Theory.” A trivial interplay of insulin with other hormones, by 1%’. Oakley on flaw: the definition of a function, p. 269, is not correct. types of insulin available for clinical practice, and finally In conclusion, it may be appropriate to compare this work the xrticles on the chemistry of the newer hypoglycemic agents with the classic treatise in the field, Feller’s “Introduction (I
