The seventh volume of the H i g h P o l y m e r s series is devoted to the plastic polymers formed t j y t’he inter:tct,ioii of plieiiols a n d aldehydes. 111 t\cent>--seven chapters the subject is tliol,ouyhly preseiitcd. iiiclutliiig the polymers of various :ilcleli>.,les aiid phenols, their physic,al structure aut1 niccli:uiicd, chemic:il. electrical, and therninl properties. .\lsri discussed are the oil-soluhlr : r n d t h e ion-esriiuiige ~)Iieiiopl:ist~, : i i i [ l their techiiic:rl m:iiiu f w t u r e arid molding technique. The miscell:ineous tec1inic:d :igplic:itioiis :ire niimei~oiis arid importaut. The tCxt, \vel1 provided ivith t:Ltilcs, cIi:rgr:ims, : ~ n drhemicul formul:ir, brings 3 modern trwtmeiit fitted t o t h e present p o n . i n g i i i t p w s t : i i i d importnricr of the S U I ) ,iect.
s, ( < ,I , I s l l . I.cr isotopes. 1 1 ‘ u p p o t ~ t c. ~l rliucii u n r . Scwiitli (‘onierence 011 Chemistry of the Instirutm Internationale (le C:liimic Solvay. 411 pp. 13russels : 11. Stoops. 1948. This confcreiicc. held :it I3russels September 32-27, 194i, was attended I)y eight participants giving pnpei’s, niric nicmhers presrntiny prepared discussions, nine invited members, sis members froin the I.’:iculty of Science, :tiid sis auditors, professors of the Cniversiti. Libre of Brussels. The pxpcrs :itid discussions arc>iii English or French :tccording to the n:ttionality of the spe:ikcr The countries represented were Erigland, Relgium, Switzerland, France, the Uriit,ctl States, Swedeii. and Denmark. It is impossible t o reviem:iIl of the interesting ur in1port:tiiL points presented or discussed. Prof. Joliot introduced t,he (’onference 1)y revieiving the methods of formation, the constit,utiou, and the filiations of the rulio:tctive isotopeij, especially t,he artificial ones. I n the ensuing discussion Prof. l’niietli questioned thc validity of regarding the new r:ire e:trtli series :is heginning witli :ict iniuni, ;tiid corit~~iidetl t h a t urnniuni, particularly in the h e m v:ileiit s t a t e , t:iixs its ~)l:tcequitt: iiuturally lielow tungsten. .\dmittedly elements 93-96 do have the propei.tics rlt:ir:trteristic of r:irc r:irtha. While endorsing the names given t o t,hem by Seaborg, I%neth f::cetiously refors 1 0 the emb:irrassment hoth in English and French of designatiiig the salts of thr loivri, vnlcncc state of curium the “curious s i l t s ” or, i n French, “les sels curieus.” Hainbridge presentrd :in escellerit :tc:couiit of “Sonic Results of .\lass Sprctrum -111alysis,” which was tiir subject, of a n intei,estiiig discussion including the ratio of He3 t o He‘ in th(1 atmosphere :tnd in ii:itur:d gases. The vari:itions i n the latter :we now known to br inuc,h greater t1i:iii represented by eightfold :is given :Lt t,he conference, but all arc i n t h e wrong directtion t o he rsplained by greater diffusion of He3 from the top of thc atmosphere as wits pointed out b y Paneth. T h e report of Ingolcl presented his very eskiaustive studies of the spectroscopy of henzene a n d of t,he deutel.o-siil)stituted benzenes, \chich \wre proclaimed a, classic of spectroscopy. I n his report on the “Properties of Ilatlioactive Tracers” 1’:Lneth reviewed the production and availability of the most-used t,racer elrments. I n the discussion Hevesy emphasized the need in some casea of carrier-free tracers and gave sonic methods for their preparation. Langseth presented methods of preparation of organic deuterium compounds. IIevesy gave a n exhaustive review of the applications of labeled phosphorus. Calvin discussed the application of radiocarbon in chemistry :tnd biology, in which, after special attention t o the methods of measuring C’:, the results of some studies of reaction mechanism were given as examples. I n the biological applications some problems of animal nietabolisni were discussed, a s well as some initial results in photosynthesis. Rittenberg reported o n t,he use of N15and deuterium in the st,udy of chemicd processes in t h e living cell. S. C. LIXD.
Reagentsfor Qttalztatzve Iilorqanzc ilnalysis. Second Report of the International Committee on New Analytical Reactions and Reagents of the Internntiorial Union of Chemistry P. E. WLNGER .4ND 1: D ~ C K C R (Editors), T and c. I. ~ I E I ~ \ J ~ E Y R C iRSOD ,I GILI.I-
