book reviews T h e hook is divided into seventeen chapters. Chapters 1-7 cover the use of Lbrssies, primary literature sources, abstracting services, Rmsinn literature, and the use of standard tables of physical data. Chapters 11, 9, 11 and 12 specifically cover the literature of inorganic chemistry, nuclear chemistry, organic chemistry, and polymer science. Chapter 10 gives a brief introduction to the organization and use of BeiL3tein's Handhoch. Chapters 13 and 14 describe patents and the other readily ma.il.ilzhle government pohlications. Ch;tpt,er 15 provides many meful ideas on less conventional methods of ohtaining information, e.g., i t is sometimes easier and more economical to obtain inform%tionby calling the company that manufactures t h e than t,o look in the Chemical Abstracts Subject Index. Chapt,er 16 is devot,ed to the histoyy and biography af chemistry and while veyy readable hardly me& inclusion in a work of t,his type. There are two appendices which include R glo~smy of ahhrevistions and useful terms and rt section devoted to practical exeroi~es. The book seomn free of errors, h o t on p.143 the statement that Beilst,ein "gives no guide to t h e recent literature" is certainly misleading. I n t,he t,hird supplement the Beilstein editors have always made i t their policy to update entries right up tn t,ho date of publication of fhe pnrticulnr volume of the supplement. T h e only criterion, of course, is t h a t the compound
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thought of any possible ethical questions. These missives are vahtahle in some ewes because of their scienlific content., while others reveal charactet.isat,ions of t,hc then current scientific frateniity and conlain appraisals of individunls that never would be permitbed in the farnml scienlific press. Much of the conbent of such correspow dence has only ephemeral worth and ill time these let,ters reqoire ext,ensive atmolatioos by a competent, editor t,o render the let,t,etri explicable to the present,-day reader. In t,he present case the editor has dune his wwk well. The let.ters wl.it.ten by Boltwood are pl.eserved s t Cambridge University and t.hose from Rutherford are in the Yale Universky Library. Same are t,yped, some in longhand; Rutherford's writing is not always easy to read. The edit,or has included adequate biographical det,ails and DAVIDS. G~FPORD also a competent int,roduction t,hst, ontChemical Abstracts Sellrice lines the main features of the "second Colwnbus, Ohio 45681 scient.ific revolut.ion" or (,he birth of modern physics t h a t has centered around t h e Rutherford and Boltwood: Lenerr on discovery and development of radioact.ivRadioactivity it,y. Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937) son of a Edited by 1,aw~meoBarlash, Ul>iversit,y poor New Zealand farmer, t h e centml of California, Santa F3at.hnl.a. Yale figure in t,he early sbages of this new physUniversily Press, New llaven, C o w ics, st,udied under J. J. Thomson and nect.ieut,, 1060. xxii 378 pp. Phot,abecame his socceasar nl Camhridge in graphs. 16 X 24em. S12.50. 1919. He was st hIcGill Universi1.y iu Montrenl from IS98 t.o 1907 and soon Thoogh "nice" people do not read ot,her developed there a world-renowned labor? people's lett,err except by direcl invitation, tory. He ret,urned to England and headed numerous collections of lett,ers that have the physics laborstory a t >Ianchest,er pawed bdween scient,ist.slst,er appeared in University and fimlly transferred to book form and have been read a i t , h profit, and enjoyment by many with little or no (Contlnued a page A730)
must have first been described in the period 193049. This reviewer is aware of a case where the structure of t h e triterpene alcohol "jegosapogenin" was reported in Tetrahedron Letters 1967, 2353 and appeared in Volume VI of the third supplement of Beilstein before the corresponding entry appeared in the Chemical Abstracts Subject Index. An interesting fesbure of the hook is that all reference works cited in the text are printed in italic3 so one can get an immediat,e overview of each chapter by merely scanning t h e tit,les. For any chemist who wishes to became aware of the vast numbew of reference sources available and how to use them, this book should be a welcome rtddit.ion s n d well-worth the time spent in reading it.
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