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JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
certain commercially mails,bl.ble equipment. The second half of the chapter is devoted to a very well illustrated description of how the data of infrared absorption spectrophotometry are used in the identification of functional groups in organio molecules and in the quantitative analysis of multicomponent systems of organic compounds. In the longest chapter in the volume (54 pages), James Hillier covers three fields of application of what sbould become a new and general means of analysis: the focused medium velocity electron beam. In particular, Hillier considers the application to the study of heterogeneous solid systems where the individual item to be examined may be submicroscopic in dimensions, approaching that of a few atomic diameters. The beam of electrons when used as a minute probe affords a potentially valuable means of ultramicroandysis. The section an the electron microscope covers the history of its development, a relatively simple introduction to the fundamental theory of electron lenses, the magnetic lens, factors involved in the design and operation of the instrument and in image formation, and an excellent extended discussion of specimen techniques, application, and interpretation. The section on electron diffraction considers the technique as a means of studying analytically single crystals containing as little as 10-18 g. of material. The third section is devoted to electron microanalysis as a qualitative tool in identifying extremely minute and accurately selected areas of a. specimen. The chapter by F. D. Rassini on the fractionation, analysis and purification of hydrocarbons (26 pages) serves to emphasize the need for pure compounds in determining physical properties and in calibrating so many of our contemporary analytical techniques such as spectrophotometry and mass spectrometry. The methods and apparatus described are those used a t the National Bureau of Standards on the projeet directed by the author. The topics covered me determination of purity by measurement of freeing points, determination of individual component8 in mixtures by freening point measurements, and the use of adsorption and distilllation in fraetionatiou and analysis. The use of refractive index as an identifying aid in fractionation is streeaed. The find chapter (21 pages) by J. A. Hipple is concerned with the use of the mass spectrometer. After a discussion of the fundamental processes which serve as the basis of the analytical method and of the orablems oeeulittr to s. mass sDectrometer in analyzing mixturm, the following applicalionr are discuwl: hydrocnrbm annlynis, molewlar dissociation proce.ws due to elcetrun impart, study oi thc mcchnnhm of chemical rcacrions, isotopes, snd the analysis of solids. ~
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~
OUTLINES OF BIOCHEMISTRY
Edited by R. A. Gortner, Professor of Biochemistry, Wealeyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, and W.A. Gortner, Head of the Department of Chemistry, Pineapple Research Institute, Honolulu, T. H. Third edition. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1078 pp. 125 figs. 75 tables. 16 X New York, 1949. xiii
23cm. $7.50.
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THEnew edition of this book is a revision of the text by the late Ross Aiken Gortner, and appears eleven years after the last revision. The pr~sentedition was prepared under the supervision of Professor Gortner's two sons who me well qualified for the task they have undertaken. Moreover, they have received the able assistance of many collesgues and associates who undertook responsibility for revising particular chapters in the fields of their own special interests. Because of the extensive new developments and information in practically all phases of biochemistry, the authors have found it necessary to rewrite and expand many of the chapters of the previous edition. New chapters dealing with protein denaturation, carbohydrate metabolism, and the metabolism of lipids have been added. The detailed consideration of colloidd systems, which was
a uniquely characteristic feature of the first two editions, is re-
tained. in this newer volume. Particular attention is again directed to structural organic chemistry and to organic and physcochemical reactions. In chapters dealing with subjects that are rather thoroughly covered in medical biochemistry textbooks, no attempt has been made to cover the field extensively. One might question the allocation of twenty-five per cent of thr total pages to the subject of colloids. I t is recognized that this is in harmony with the late Professor Gortner's belief that all "the reactions and interactions which we call life take place in a colloid svstem," and that "much of the 'vital energy' can in the last analyiis be traced back to energies characteristic of surface f l m v and iuterfaces." Nevertheless, it would appear that a more balanced book might have been achieved hy a better distribution of space among the various major topic headings, which would have permitted the inclusion of other material. For example, little mention is found of thesubject of nutrit,ion except in a chapter devoted specifioally to the vitamins. The retention of material which is solely of historical interest might he questioned in the revision of a modern textbook. For example, detailed description is given of the Hausmann and the VanSlyke methods of group analysisasapplied to protein hydroly: sates, whereas only a few short pamgraphs are used to describp microbiological methods of amino acid analysis. Again, the Abderhalden diketopiperasine and the Troensegaard pyrrole hypotheses of protein structure are described in detail. Description, and therefore apparently acceptance, of the endocrine roles of the thymus and pineal glands in found in the section dealing with the hormones.
as a glycoprotein. On
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456,- t& originally claimed widesoread sienificanoe for transamination is described wit,hont con-
a parathyrotropic and two diabetogenic principles are
described
among the hormones of the anterior pituitary gland. This volume remains one of the few broad textbooks in the field of biochemistry, presenting extensive information in plant, a3 well as animal, biochemistry. Its utilization of the data yielded by analytical, organic, and physical chemistry, from which the tools of biochemistry have stemmed, makes this hook very useful as both a text and a s a reference volume for either graduatestudents in biochemistry, or for graduate students in other fields in which the application of biochemistry is desirable and useful. ABRAHAM WIiITE
U ~ ~ v = aor s ~C n ~zrromz~ Los ANOELER.CALIIOBNIA
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HUMOR AND HUMANISM IN CHEMISTRY
John Remd, Professor of Chemisb. Universitv of St. Andrews. Scotland. G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., &don, 1947: xldii 388 pp: 90illustrations. 14 X 22.5 em. 21s.
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INTHE first 200 pages Professor Read ha3 unearthed a wealth of interesting details on chemistry from Bacon to Baeyer. I t is, like his "Prelude to Chemistry," a worthy monograph. A delightful section relates the meteoritic (1602-04) career of the peringranate Scottish alchemist, Alexander Seton of Edinburgh, now sowing the seeds of his profession in Holland, Basel, or Cologne: now transmuting metals before the class of a bewildered professor of philosophy in Hamburg; and at last languishing in a torture-chamber in Dresden and in Cracow. His mantle, and still more important his ounce of elixir,, pass an to the Polish nobleman Sendivogius, whose transmutation extravagances come to the ears of Rudolph I1 at Prague. The appearance of van
