book reviews culus is used in this section. The hook is well illustrated both with line drawings illustrating the experimental methods for making many measurements and with photographs of actual equipment. Many of the descriotions are well done t i w a student
teat and problems a t the end. The author states that this hook is "in
that would translate into"primarily meeting the requirementsof persons needing aquick review of a modern general chemistry course."
which was the opportunity to review in a natural manner the principles presented early in the text as various applications are brought up. SI "nib were introduced in the third editim,schnngr rhnt led t < ,many small e r n r i , starting wirh inwrrrct units for I'lnnrk'% wnstnnt un the inside from awer. 4lrr! ns wrll as elementar: kinetic, has bren drsumed. Src-
A24 I Journal of Chemical Education
ond, the writing style avoids generalizations. A good deal of empirical data is presented and the reader is helped (or sometimes nut helped) to draw his own conclusiuns. At an advanced level, this is desirable pedagogical practice because it conforms to the way research is done. Nevertheless, it dues make for difficulty in reading which could overwhelm less mature students. For the instructor, however, this book can serve as the source far a good deal of ease history type material for lectures or problem sets even in less advanced courses. A case in point is the elucidation of the mechanisms for the simultaneously oecurring isomerization and reductive elimination of trialkylgald compounds described in Chapter 12. It would seem that at aeast of almost sixty dollars a copy, the publisher could have provided acopy editor to correct the ubiquitous and annoying subject and verb agreement errors which detract from an otherwise extremely vahnhle book. John J. Alexander University of Cincinnariti Ciminnafi OH 45221
Organic Experiments, Fourth Edition Louis F. Fieser and Kenneth L. Williamson, D. C. Heath and Company, 1979. vi 418 pp. Figs. and tables. 24 X 19.5 cm. This book is intended as a laboratory
manual for the standard organic two-semester (or three-quarter) sequence. Sixty chapters, many of which include several euperiments, allow the instructor considerable choice. The first ten chapters are devoted primarily t o the methods used in organic chemistry, such as distillation, extraction, gas chromatography, and spectroscopy (ir, nmr, UV).Relatively simple experiments, often including unknowns, serve to familiarize the student with the techniques discussed. The remainine*exoeriments are mostlv oreoara. tow, in nature but do- include inveatieations "~ in kinetics, isolation of natural products, enzymatic resolution and quantitative determination of blood cholesterol. Synthetic reactions include the preparation of a crown ether, a catalytic hydrogenation, a benzyne intermediate, a Wittig-Homer, a Diels-Alder, and a photochemical reaction as well as mare standard preparations such as aspirin and D-chlorotoluene. Dyes and dyeing and the preparation of luminol with its attendant display of light on oxidation provide a few "interest" type experiments. Chapter 58 is a long, well-organized section on organic qualitative analysis, including a detailed solubility scheme and a thorough coverage of classification tests. Derivatives (usuallv two or three for each classl are listed in 1:: payrsof tat,les. ( h t r a l dire. twn.; ' tor thr pn.pnrat:on irfsll ul thedrrivstivrs hstcd are included. The book concludes with a chapter on glass-blowing and an addendum on winemaking. In the latter the author claims that
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