FEBRUARY, 19%
111
accessory items and operating details. Although Hilger instruments are emphasized, various others are described briefly. Zeiss and Hilger filter photometers are included. Throughout this section occur many helpful suggestions on testing and manipulating instruments, and on the merits of each type of equipment. Alt,oeet,her.the reviewer is well imoressed with this book. I t
on the point of view of the reader. For example, it seems the inclusion of the addition of alkanes to alkenes and the omission of the addition of alkenes to alkenes as a simple type of polymeriastion was not too wise. The latter seems more significant than the former to the general student. Although the book contains muoh more material than could he covered adeauatelv in a. semester course it enables the instructor
t,he price is high
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KAOLIN CLAYS AND THEIR INDUSTRIAL USES J. M. Huber Corporation, New Yolk, New Yo&, 1949. 141 pp. 49 figs. 15.5 X 23.5 cm. Gratis to and technicians in the clay consuming industry. THIS book describes the production of kaolin clays and gives many illustrations af the operations at the company's plants. I t then relates the manner in which the clay is used in the mbber and paper industries. This book would be of interest only to a technical man in a olny consuming industry. KENNETH KOBE UNIVERBITT OP TEXAS
A ~ T I N T. e x m
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ORGANIC CHEMISTRY
Roy (2. Brewster, Professor of Chemistry, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. Prentice-Hall, Inc., New York, 1949. v 409 pp. 12 figs. 34 tables. 17 charts. 16 X 23.5 cm. $6.
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T m purpose of the author as given in the preface is that a semester's course in organic chemistry should acquaint the student with the most important descriptive mstcrid and also give same insight into t.he theoretical interpretation of the phenomena studied. In this wsy he will have acquired bhe basic facts for the study of biology, medicine, and relsted sciences and also theability to interpret the bomplex processes met in these fields. The plan of the text is well adapted for this purpose. I n Chaptar 1, General Principles, the author bas summarized very setisfxtorily atomic structure and linkages, the types of bonds and the relative eIeotronegat,ivity of elements, thus correlating the prinoiples of inorganic chemistry with organic. In presenting a clear, simplified discussion of bond energies, resonance, and the mechanism of react,ions, including acid and bane oatalpis, he makes it possible for t.he sbudwt to give an el~ctronieinterpretation to typical reactions which should eliminate his tendency to think that organic chemistry involves only memory. The present reviewer found this treatment very valuable in the use as a text of the author's larger hook, "Organic Chemistry" (1948), which is revised and condensedin thisBriof Course. The material is covered in much the same manner but the illustrat,iona and certnin specializedreactions are necessarily omitted. The material is systematically arrenged with 21 chapters given to the study of aliphatic compounds including amino acids, proteins, and carbohydrates and with the remaining 13 devoted to aromatic, alieyolic, and heterocyclic compounds. The order of topics can be changed a t the convenience of the instructor. The problems at the end of each chapter are well chosen. Illustrations of medicinals, vitamins, and hormones are given in the cor-
relative merit of the topics included or omitted will depend mainly
RECENT ADVANCES IN ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY:
FRONTIERS IN CHEMISTRY. VOL. VII. R. E. Bur*, Plastics Dept.. E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Wilmington. Delaware; and Oliver Grumitt, Modey Chemical Laboratory, Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, Editors. Intersoienoe Publishers, Inc., New York, 1949. 10 tables. 9 3 figs. 15.5 x 23.5 Em. $4.50.
TEEmost recent volume in the series based on the Frontiers in Chemistry lectures presented a t Western Reserve University consists of a survey of the fundamental background and of the current status of half a dozen of the active fields of contemporary analytical chemistry. In keeping with the other volumes of the series, the volume is well printed and illustrated. The subject matter, as one would expect from the authors of the different chapters, is well organized and presented. The volume would be valuable to anyone engaged in analytical chemistry as well as to any chemist who would desire a knowledge of certain contemporary analytical techniques and of their possible applicability to his own problems. The book wauld serve admirably as the text for a graduate seminar in analytical chemistry. The chapter on voltammetry (polarography) and amperometric titrations by I. M. Kolthoff (30 pages) devotes two-thirds of its length to an excellent introduction to the fundamental phenomena observed at a polarizable microelectrode. The five pages of applications and the five pages on amperometric titrations are well bdmced discussionsof what can be done with the dropping mercury electrode and the rotating platinum electrode, including the limitations of the two types of electrodes. The reviewer is sorry that two of the examples cited on the use of polsrogrephy in organio chemistry (effectof halogen on acetone reducibility and study of keto-en01 equilibrium) were included since studies published since the lectures were given have indicated the incorrectness of the earlier interpretation of the experimental data. The two chapters on inorganic analysis with organic reagents and on some recent colorimetric and gravimrtric organic reagents by J. H. Yoe (48 pages) are refreshingly new treatments of the subject. The former chapter is divided into short disoussions of the various ways in which organic reagents are used; the greater portion of the chapter covers chelate compounds on the basis of the types of the two reacting groups. The reviewer would be inclined to debate the statement that "comparatively few chemists at the present time have seemed to realize the adwntages and possibilities of organic reagents in inorganic analysis." The first part of thesecond chapter by Yoeis devoted to an outline for the development of a new colorimetric method in which the various fsotors to be studied are discussed. The latter half of the chapter discusses some of the reagents for five commonly determined cations. The material presented is largely based on Yoe's book written with Sarver and on his published research. In his chapter on the application of infrared spectroscopy in analysis (33 pages), Otto Beck, after a short but informative account of Beer's law and of the origin of infrared spectra, surveys the development of infrared instrumentation for analytical work during the past decade and indicates the merits and faults of
112
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
