B O O K REVIEWS which has been appearing in Chemical Engineering since February 1957. Reid and Sherwood give fever methods, but they show the accuracy of the methods and their final recommendations are h e l p ful t o the busy engineer. I n order t o make such recommendations a ccmplete literature survey of both data available and ealculation methods had t o be made. References are made t o 480 sources. The reader will find references t o original data and tables of data used for comparison with calculated values. There is hound to he disagreement on minor points whew there are so many equations, but certainly the better equations and methods are given. The reviewer believes that the Othmer and Diihringplot~could have been used much more ertensivelv. and Othmer was not mentioned. This hook will be used extensively by desien engineers. Students in chemical engineering will also use i t to estimate properties and tosee the development of approximation equations. Physical chemists will find the book useful t o point out deficiencies in data and in equations t o correlate these data. Many useful research projert,~can be based on areas pointed out in the hook.
KENNETH A. KOBE The Unive&,
of Tezas A wtin
Soviet Pharmaceutical Research
Chemistry Collection No. 4. Consultants Bureau, Inc., New York, 1058. Val. 1: Phnrmaceutied Chemistry. 447 pp. Many figs. and tables. Vol. 2: Phmmacognosy. 401 pp. Vol. 3: Medicinal Chemistry. 556 pp. All three volumes paper hound, 21.5 X 27.5 em. Vol. 1: $95.; Vol. 2: $90.; Vol. 3: $100. The set: $200. At a time when the Western World eyes the achievements of science in the U.S.S.R. with a mixture of admiration and apprehenion, it is gratifying to he able to road the Englinh translation of hundreds of Rwsian articles in the fields of pharmaceutical chemistry (Vol. I), pharmacognosy (Vol. 2), and medicinal chemistry (Vol. 3). These papers have been published in the interval hetween the end of World War 11 and 1055, mostly in the early 1950's and although they have heen abstracted in Chemical Abslmcts for t,he most part, their trandation offers the English-speaking reader a more intimate insight into the thinking, the trends, the methodology, and the advances of recent Russian mdicinsl science. One can only hope that the language harrier separating us from tho original papers will shrink as more Western studmts will study scientific Russian. By the same token, it may he hoped that the ~ e r t i n e n t American journals will become more freely availahle to Russian medicinal and phnrmaccutieal .(Continued on page A170)
A166
/
Journal o f Chemkol Education
BOOK REVIEWS investigators so that they will he informed sooner of contemporary researches outside their own geographical territory. The bibliographies in the three volumes a t hand indicate that it may take American journals a long time to reach the shelves of libraries in the U.S.S.R. I t has become apparent that in some fields of the physical and mathematical sciences, the Soviet literature is a t par with, or occasionally ahead of Western pnblications. On the other hand, the English-language reviews of Soviet medicine picture many areas of medical science in the U.S.S.R. s t a point which has long
since been passed in the American litersture. One gains the same impression from the three volumes under review. In the application of quantitative physical measurenlents to problems of phermacy, the careful recording of data, and their evaluation can he termed excellent. American pharmaceutical investigators will have much to learn from these researches (Val. 1). The trends toward practical problems are held on a relatively high plane, and testify to the good standards of applied research in the U.S.S.R. The srtioles in this volume are concerned primarily with problems of ~ohbility, stability, ion exchange and colloidal p r o p erties, and physical data of pure eompounds and pharmaceutical preparations.
The title of Volume 2, i.e., Pharmscognosy, is somewhat deceptive. Actually this book covers 61 papers on alkaloid isolation and chemistry in which the great Russian tradition in this field is eontimed. Seven articles on essentials oils. this volume. Volume 3, Medicinal Chemistry, contains papers on structure-activity relations in many areas, primarily in those of antiinfective drugs. The level of exprimentstion and scientific thought in these articles, some of which have been published as late as 1955, reminds one of the papers in pharmaoeuticsl chemistry as they were published in major Western journals in the late 1930's. There are exceptions to this generalieation, partieularly in several articles which try to explain biological activities in terms of resonance phenomena. I t is unfortunate that an apparent lack af communicstion led several Soviet investigators to duplicate experiments which had been reported in American and British journals years before. The rationale of basing medicinal chemistry on biological antagonism seems to have advanced but little in Russia. aecording to these papers. The few statements in this field which e m be found are more in the form of a review, and disregard essentially the innumerable intricacies of metabolite antagonism encountered in hiochemical ~tudies. One hopes that a part of the great scientific potential of younger Soviet chemists may be channelled into this fssoinating field of medicinal theory. The three volumes are printed by an offset process from typewritten copy, and are paper hound. Their extremely high cost reflects the effort of rendering an aoourate translation of 1400 pages of 8 X 11 in. manuscripts. Libraries of departments of medicine, chemistry, and pharmacy in universities and the pharmaceutical industry will find it essential to acquire the books, and for some specialists the pertinent volumes may become a storehouse of factual references. TJniuemity of Virginia Chadottesoille
Rapid Analysis of Nonferrous Metals m d Alloys Geo7ge Norwitz.
Chcmicd Publishing Co., Inc., New York, 1058. 112 pp. 12 X 18.5 cm. $4.25.
The author has presented methods for the determination of some 20 elements found in various combinations in nanferrous metals and allays. The book is divided into 16 brief chapters; for example, Chapter 2, Ingot Copper, Chapter 14, Lead-Tin Solders, and Chapter 1, Special Reagents. The methods stress the use of colorimetric procedures, use of perchlorie acid, mathematical eorreotion factors, and directions for making several determinations orr Lhe a m p l e (sequence procedures). (Continued on page AI74)
A170
/
Journol of Chemical Education
