BOOH REVIEW/ Organic Chemistry, S e c o n d Edition Ralph J. Fessenden and Joan S. Fessenden, Willard Grant Press, Boston, MA, 1069 pp. Figs. and tables. 1982. xvi 18.5 X 26 cm.
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In the Preface to this second edition the authors correctly claim to have retained from the first edition the organization and the amount of chemistry. A review of that edition appeared in the February 1980 issue of thrs Joiirnol The first four chaoters in both editi% are virtually identical in content and deal with introductory topics such as bonding, MO theory, hybridization, a survey of functional groups, structural and stereoisomerism, and a brief treatment of IUPAC nomenclature. Having introduced many functional groups, the authors are able to .discuss nucleophilic substitution and 0-elimination reactions in Chapter 5. While there may be some henefits to he derived fromfirst introducing students to these ionic reactions rather than free radical halogenation, the excitement of organic reactions must be ~ostponedin favo;of learning a large volume of mare abstract, theoretical material. Some st,udents mav be intimidated bv this initial exposure to somuchnew material. Chapters 5 through 15 treat the common organic reactions and functional groups as well as NMR and infrared spectroscopy. The authors have done a reasonable job of organization and topic selection in these chapters. I enjoyed their treatment of enamine chemistry, and students should find the detailed illustrations
chemical and magnetic nonequivalence of protons, and a parenthetical sentence dealing with induced magnetic fields (p. 330) re-
chapter on carbohydrates. The chapter on amino acids and proteins contains sections on hiosynthesis of peptides, enzyme catalysis, and clear explanations and illustrations of the higher structures of proteins. The use of n ' I i s r pcptidc rud-;ruup d E~IU:IIL , i n l l n i h m m n hut n
