Structure and Function in Biological Membranes. Volume 2
J . Lee Kauanau, University of California, Los Angela. Holden-Day, Inc., San Francisco, 1965. 437 pp. Figs. and tahles. 18 X 25.5 om. $14.75. Although Volume 2 of this work is no doubt likely to be very useful to biologists, the reviewer helieves that it will prove to have limited interest to most chemists. Volume 1, which was reviewed earlier in (42, A691 [September, ~ m JOURNAL s 1965]), laid the foundation of surface and oalloid chemistry on which the author proposes to explain 8. wide variety of cellular behavior described inVolume 2. The titles of chapters six through twelve are as follows: Factors Inducing Movement of Matrix; Transformations between the Open and Closed Configurations; ProtoplaamicStreaming; MembraneCoalescence andFragmentstion; Ameboid Locomotion; The Effects of Pressure and Temperature on Protoplasm; Activated Diffusion. The titles accurately describe the contents, hut the contents presume a much wider knowledge of cellular biology than most chemists possess and they are inevitably given in technical t e r n unfamiliar to most of us. By contrast, chapter 13, which is entitled Electron-Optical Evidence for Membrane Substructure, contains much material of professional interest to colloid and surface chemists. Indeed one might go further and say that this chapter should be of quite general interest to chemists, for it demonstrates how substantial is the progress that has been made in both chemical and structural understanding of natural membranes during the past decade. Painstaking, selective extraction of the constituents of the cell walls and the cell membrane has provided a re* sonably coherent picture of the protein, mucoprotein and lipid layers in the cell wall. This represents a high standard of chemial expertise applied to very difficult systems. The extraordinary elegance and detail with which electron microscopy has been exploited is well represented by the carefully chosen and beautiful micrographs with which this chapter is illustrated-ome forty in all, in addition to many in the earlier chapters. In recent years cell physiologists have shown great skill in the shadow-casting of specimens and in the use of selective staining agents such as osmium tetroxide and phosphotungstic acid. The details revealed by these techniques, when used by men such as R. G. Murray and M. R. Salton, are truly remarkable, and the hexagonal suhstruructnres chsr~cteristicof many membranes are convincingly displayed. Volume 2 resembles Volume 1 in being densely packed with references. The general reader would have profited from a more selective and more critical discussion of the extensive literature of this subject. It has become increasingly the fashion for authors of monographs to feel compelled to he exhaustive rather than entical, to the disadvantage of the general reader and certainly not to the advantage of the specialist reader. For example, Volume 1 contained 72 pages of bibliography,
author index and subject index; Volume 2 devotes 52 pages to bibliography (some of which is covered in Volume I), 21 pagea of author index, and 35 pages of subject index. I t is, of course, undeniable that good indexing is an important part of any hook, hut these two volumes have a combined total of 180 pages, out of 760, given over to bibliography and indexes. At the cost of $25.70 for the two volumes, such attention to the literature is exow sive, particularly when it represents a catalog rather than a critical appraisal. I t is true that the author haa undertaken a very large taek and that many will wish to purohase Volume 1 without Volume 2, so that some duplioation is excusable. The production of Volume 2 is again first-rate: format, printing, and reproduction of figures are very good.
It would he of practical value on the chemistry reference shelf of any college or university for general use by faculty and students, as well as in the personal library of those persons ~ u p e ~ s i n chemical g research Isboratotories.
JOHN M. FRESINA Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge
Labomtory First Aid
K . Guy, University of Natal, South Africa. Macmillan and Co., Ltd., London, 1965. 124 pp. Figs. and tables. 13 X 19 em. Paperbound. $1.25 approx.
Science is international, but first aid ERICHUTCHINSON procedures are not. I t is curious to see Stanford University how much of the content of this book from Slanjwd, California the University of Natal is simply not applicable to conditions in the chemical laboratories of the United States. The little m d late reliance on doctors and nurses and the general assumption that the amateur can deal with most problems Safety and Accident Prevention in was once common practice in the Unit,ed Chemical Operations States. Today this approach to caring Howard H . Faweett, General Electric Co., for injuries cannot be tolerated in most Schenectady, New York, and William American laboratories. One gets the S. Wood, Sun Oil Co., Marcus Hook, curious impression of reading a brand new Pennsylvania. Interscience Publishers hook that is twenty years old. (a division of John Wiley and Sons, "Lzboratory First Aid" can he recom617 Inc.), New York, 1965. xviii mended to certain readers far two reasons. pp. Figs. and tables. 16 X 23.5 cm. Anyone ins. laboratory that does not have $19.75. access to any type of institutional health service will find this book useful. Anyone The editors of this book have underwho is interested in the subject of lahorataken the task of compiling under one tory injuries will be impressed by the nine oover an inclusive reference source for photographs of such injuries. Apparently people responsible for chemical safety. the inimies are simulated. not real. hut the The reviewer feels that their efforts have resulted in a significant contribution to the field. greatest merit. This comprehensive treatment of the subject of chemical safety is not just a H. K. LIVINGSTON, tabulation of chemical hafiards. I t is a Wayne State Universitv systematic presentation of how knowledge Detroit, Michigan of ohemical principles combined with proved loss prevention practices can be applied to prevent chemical mishaps which may result in personal injuries and The Science of Smell property damage. The 24 contributing authors, each recognized as a specialR. H . Wright, British Columbia Reist in some phase of chemical safety, search Council, Vancouver, Canada. describe the techniques and methods of Basic Books. Inc.. New York. 1964. conducting chemical operations that have xii 164 p i . ~ i g s and . tables. 14.5 given the chemicsl industry such outX 21.5 cm. $4.95. standing aoeident and injury records. In this brief book, the author sets out Of particular interest to persons teschto "tell something of the fascination and ing chemistry or conducting research operthe importance of the so-far unsolved ations are the chapters on hazardous mystery of smell," and to "show somechemical reactions and operations by thing of the machinery of scientific inProfessor George T. Austin, Washington vestination as it functions not iust at the State University; on automatic controls lnbar&ry bench but also in thk technics1 by Donald Richmond, Monsanto Co.; literature and in the minds of the working on effects of toxic agents by John H. scientists." Fougler, M.D., Ph.D., consulting toxThe foreword well describes the work icologist; on eye safety by John Guelich, as "a survey of olfaction and olfactory Allied Chemical Cow.; and on fire exresponses: to be comprehended by intinguishing agents by Arthur B. Guise and telligent laymen and scientific specialists, Edmund D. Zeratsky, Ansul Co. both. It touches on fish migration, inThis treatise, well documented by case frared spectroscopy, nerve physiology, histories and illustrated with numerous organic chemistry, psychophysics, comphotographs, diagrams, charts, and tables, munication theory, animal behavior, and succeeds in its aim to provide a useful quantum mechanics." reference for people in chemical safety.
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Volume 42, Number 12, December 1965
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