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BOOKREVIEWS
Vol. 83
phosphiriealkyleiies, aldolization and aldol condensation, Professor Priyadaranjan Ray’s excellent presidenti:ll aldol-type condensations of carbonyl compounds with adtlress “Receiit .\dv:iriccs in the Chemistry of Co6rcli:i:tderivatives of carboxylic acids, aldol-type condensations tion Compounds” opciis Part One, which also contains Srcof carbonyl compounds with active methylene compounds, tion I of the symposium: “General Survey.” Part Two Mannich reaction and related syntheses, as well as other contains Section 11, “Valeiice Bond Considerations, Stereutopics. chemistry and Structure,” and Section 111, “Techniques According to the authors, the Friedel-Crafts reaction and and Methods of Investigation.” In Part Three are to be organometallic syntheses, which in some respects may be found Section IV, “fJeactions, Stability and Thermodyconsidered to be related to aldolization reactions in the namic Considerations, Section V , “Stabilization of Valence broad sense, will be the subjects of subsequent volumes of States,” Section VI, “Analytical Applications” and Section “Preparative Reactions in Organic Chemistry.” The au- VII, “Miscellaneous.” thors of “Aldolization and Related Reactions” estimate the I t is not clear why the symposium was published i n thrcc number of papers dealing with some aspects of this type of volumes rather than one, for anyonc iiiterested in owning synthesis a t several tens of thousands. They have therethis book will certainly want all of it, and would find it more fore attempted to give only a cross-section of references and convenient to use if it had one Table of Contents instead of to include those papers which are concerned with investi- three. This is particularly true since the arrangement of gations primarily aimed a t the elucidation and elaboration the papers into the seven sections seems in several cases to be of reactions of the aldolization type. Nevertheless, the somewhat illogical-a situation which is perhaps excusable authors believe that their book contains enough references in view of the difficulty of the problem of classification. to papers describing merely preparative refinements of alAltogether, this collection contains one hundred and dolization-type reactions to be of value as a fairly compre- thirty-two papers, some of which are printed in full, and hensive work for the entire field. others only in abstract form. The majority are reviews of The text abounds with discussions of reaction mechanisms various fields of coordination chemistry or of specific groups and preparative details. Each chapter contains detailed of workers. Several of the subjects reviewed (especially by directions for the laboratory synthesis of representative the European speakers) have been discussed in other places, compounds. and are readily available to American readers. X. K . Dey’s Detailed indexes contain over 2600 literature sources lecture “India’s Contribution to CoGrdination Chemistry” (with cross-references giving page numbers in the book and that of Kazuo Yamasaki “Recent Researches on Cowhere each source is used), a list of authors, a summary of ordination Compounds in Japan” are of special interest in laboratory recipes and a detailed subject index. A very de- showing how greatly the chemists of these countries have tailed table of contents also contributes to the ease with contributed to the understanding and application of cowhich the book may be used as a theoretical and practical ordination chemistry. Many of the papers from the Asian reference work. countries (particularly India) reflect the lack of modern reAlthough the authors have reviewed the literature through search equipment. In spite of this, most of them record 1957, the broad scope of the book necessitated restriction valuable work. While it is difficult to produce worthwhile of the number of references by emphasizing the papers results without extensive equipment, even one well-selected which have appeared during the seven years from 1950 to piece of apparatus-for example, an infrared spectropho1957. Attempts were made to include all important refer- tometer, a polarograph or a polarimeter-can make possible a ences dating back to earlier years. great deal of interesting and significant research. The broad scope of “Aldolization and Related Reactions,” It cannot be truthfully said that the symposium in Agra recorded many significant or new discoveries. I t was imwritten with the unifying point of view of mechanistically related reactions and, a t the same time, paying a great deal portant, however, in indicating that progress is being made of attention t o preparative details, makes the book very in Asia in the study of coordination chemistry, and it must valuable as a reference work for any practicing organic re- have been a great inspiration to those who participated in i t , search chemist. and through them, to the chemists of all of Asia. It is to I t is hoped that a future updated edition of this conceptu- be hoped that more such conferences will be held, and that ally original, painstakingly detailed, and clearly written they will furnish a meeting ground for chemists from the East book will be translated into other languages so that it will and West. become available to a wider readership. DEPARTMENT O F CHEMISTRY E. I. DU PONT DE NEMOURS Sr Co. JOHN C. BAILAR, JR. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS ORGANIC CHEMICALS DEPARTMENT IVAN PASCAL URBANA, ILLINOIS JACKSON LABORATORY WILMINGTON 99, DELAWARE The Chemistry of Natural Products. Volume V. The Carbohydrates. By S. F. DYKE,The College of TechProceedings of the Symposium on the Chemistry of Conology, Bristol, England. Interscience Publishers, Inc., ordination Compounds held during the Twenty-Eighth 250 Fifth Avenue, New York 1, K. Y . 1960. 232 pp. Annual Session at University of Agra on February 7 and 16 X 23.5 cm. Price, $4.75. 8, 1959. Convenor, DR. ARUNK. DEY,Department of Chemistry, University of Allahabad, Allahabad. NaThis is an amusing little book. The best that can be said t ional Academy of Sciences, India, Lajpatrai Road, Alla- for it is: it is cheap and gives a better treatment of the subhabad 2, India. 1960. Part One. 147 pp. 18 X ject than is found in any contemporary .\merican general 24.5 cm. Price, Rs. 15.00; Part Two. 203 pp. 18 X 24 organic textbook, elementary or advanced. The author has CIII. Price, Rs. 25.00; Part Three. 302 pp. 18 X 24 no real familiarity with the field but struggles manfully with cm. Price, Rs. 35.00. its intricacies and especially with the old problem of the In recent years international chemical conferences have two-dimensional depiction of three-dimensional objects-a increased greatly in number and importance. Among the problem which was long ago solved by the engineers and more significant of such gatherings has been the series of the crystallographers but still puzzles most organic chemists. five conferences on Coordination Compounds which have Thus, formula XVI on page 39 is pictorially correct but its been held in A’elwyn, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Rome and Fischer projection (VIII) on the preceding page is not quite London (with the sixth to convene in Detroit in the Summer so. On page 43 a Haworth perspective formula (XXXII) is of 1061). Quite independent of this series, but of equal stated to have been rotated 180” to give an identit!? (XXXsigiiificance in some ways, was the Symposium on the 111) but the two formulas are not identical. On page 22 Chemistry of Coordination Compounds which was held in the fact that the configurational standard selected for the .4gra on February 7 and 8, 1959, under the auspices of the D-series is dextrorotatory-glyceraldehyde is not stated. ConKational Academy of Sciences of Indid. The proceedings trary to the text, the two isomers mentioned a t the top of of the meeting are recorded in the three volumes which are page 72 are predictable but are rarely found; D-glUCOse reviewed here. Although most of the conference particidoes form a bisulfite compound under the proper conditions pants were from India, the meeting was truly international (page 32); for some reason two-dimensional chromatoin scope, with representatives from .iustria, Canada, grams are not customarily employed with the sugars (page Czechoslovakia, England, Hungary, India, Japan, the 128); it is always possible to obtain selective reaction a t the Setherlands, Scotland, Sweden, the U.S.A. and the U.S.primary hvdroxyl group with triphenylmethyl chloride S.K. (page 68). Carbohydrate nomenclature for the English
