BOOK REVIEWS compounds including electron repulsion terms which leads to an introduction to Slater Self-Consistent Field Theory, avery interesting development of symmetry classes and operations and their applications to the analysis of ultraviolet, spectra, an extremely lucid presentation of simple quantum mechanical methods of analyzing NMR spectra, an enlightening, if simplified, development of absolute rate theory, and finally the aforementioned appendix introducing the techniques of computer programming. Other subjects, far too numerous to mention here. msv be somewhat less works in the physical organic library. The subject matter of Part I, in particular, duplicates much of that in Streitwieser's "Molecular Orbital Theory for Organic Chemists." In his preface Professor Wiberg indicates that "Physical Organic Chemistry" is intended as a text "for a one-year graduate course, possibly in conjunction with s. test which mll present the more organic chemictll aspects." I for one will continue t o teach my graduate course with greater emphasis on the more organic chemical aapects; but I shall certainly use Wiberg's book to revise my notes and I shall recommend it, along with several ot,her supplementary texta, t o m y students. Typographical errors dn not appear t o be plentiful and most of them can be corrected on inspection. Our only major criticism of the text is the rather artificial separation of kinetic and equilibrium phenomena into separate rhaptem. We might have preferred, for example, a single discussion of linear free energy relationships, both kinetic and thermodynamic. I n summary Wiberg's "Physical Organir: Chemistry" is, in our opinion, an important addition t o the literature of orgrtnic chemistry ~ n should d do much t o educate students as well as pract,itioners of physical organio chemistry in the more physical aspects of that subject. RICHARD A. SNEEN
Purdue Univemily L q f n y e l l ~ Indiana ,
Spertrometrie Identification of Organic Compounds
Robert M. Silverstein and G. Clayton Bassler, both of the Stanford Research Institute, Menlo Park, California. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., Xew York, 1963. 23.5 X 30 em. l i i pp. Figs. and tables. $8.50. This short text is a welcome addition to the literature concerned with the tnstmmental determination of organic structures. The authon accomplish in good style what they set out to do; namely to compress into one text enough essential information about mass, infrared, nuclear magnetic resonance, and ultraviolet spectrometry so that the advanced under-
(Continued on page A808)
A806
/
Chemicol Education
BOOK REVIEWS graduate or beginning graduate student can learn to integrate spectroscopic data into chemical structures. The book is divided into seven main sections with the four areas of spectrometry discussed in individud chapters. The remaining portion of the text consists of forty problems. These sets are divided into three chapters. The first one, (Chapter 6) covers twenty problems in which the spectrometric information provided is translated in detail into a molecuhr structure. A second set of ten problems (Cbepter 7) is given simply with a. Beilstein Reference, and the remaining set of problems (Chapter 8) is presented without any identification. The major strong point of this hook is that it serves as an excellent inexpensive text in organic identification courses which we oriented toward instrument* tion. Although the information presented haa necessarily been pared to a bitre minimum, the instructor can easily delve more deeply into the four spectrometric areas by utilizing any number of excellent reference texts. The beginning student thus may avoid purcbasing a number of rather expensive treatises. Furthermore, other than Cains' text ("Spectroscopic Problems in Organic Chemistry"), which does not utilize mass spectrometry data, and Nakmishi's hook, which is entirely infrared (with a little ultraviolet) oriented, no other text of this type is currently available. The authors do a satisfactom job with
A808
/
Chemicnl Education
the chapter on maas spectrometry dthough a number of typesetting errors with the authors' notation will cause coufusion. The assignment of the base peak in phenetole to the phenol ion will mislead the student as to the initial poaition of hydrogen rearrangement, and the discussion of the cleavage of amide N-alkyl groups could use same expmsion. I t should be streased that the inclusion of mass spectrometry is another of the o u e standing features of this text which make it unique as a source of unified spectm metric problems in structurd determins, tiou. In the chapter on infrared spectrometry the authors unhappily introduce the student to the wavenumber aa a unit of frequency and incorrectly describe antisymmetric vibrations as asymmetric vihr* tions. The discussion of C = C stretching vibrations in cyclo6lehs is antiquated and, in addition, no reference is made to the excellent paper by Lord m d Miller concerning the factors influencing group frequencies. (R. C. Lord and F. A. Miller, App. Spec., 10, 115 (1956).) The authors happily employ the convention of wavenumbers fallowed by microns in Chapter 3 and 6 values followed by r values in Chapter 4. In the latter chapter the authors could have made the discussion far more straightforward by stating that as a result of the uncertainty principle the natural width of a spectral line is proportional to the reciprocal of the average time the system spends in the excited state, rather than heating around the bush on this point. The discussion of ultraviolet spectrometry (Chapter 5) is
quite satisfactory. Silverstein and Bassler have done a commendable job. This is an excellent text and will he invaluable to those teaching organic instmmentation courses as well as to beginning graduate students in organic chemistry.
DANAW. MAYO Bowdoin College Brunsurick. Maine
Juslus von Liebig in eigenen Zevgnirsen und solrhen seiner Zeitgenossen
Hertha von Dechend, Institut fiir Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Frankfurt/Main. 2nd supplemented ed. Verlag Chemie, Weinheim/Bergdtrasse, We8t Germany, 1963. 159 pp. Figs. and tables. 15 X 21 em. 14.80 DM (approximately $3.75.) This book was first issued under the auspices of the Gesellschaft LiebigMuseum Giessen in 1953 in connection with the commemoration of the 150th miversary of Liebig's birth. After due consideration, the author decided not to add another conventional biography to the long List of books dealing with the life and career of this famous founder of a system of chemical training, but thought it better to utilize the rich store of letters written by and to Liebig. Specialized collections of his correspondence with W6hler, Ber(Continwd n page A8101
