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typical of the hydrogen compounds of all groups in which protiewidcharactercan bedeteetedhy any means. Theauthor apparentlv believes that aeenerdization isuseful ifit istruehalf the time f o r & often puts half-truths forward as "generally" true, and then says one should not t r u t them very far. Inconsistencies of detaildso appear: thuson page 103itisstated tbat it isnotknownfor surewhether electrolysis is applicable tothepreparationofhydrides of silicon, germanium, or carbon, but on page 113 it is said that low yields of germane may he oht,ained by that method. In sum, it would seem that the nuhject is too large for the space asaigned, and that the author has tried to extend himself beyond what he has had time to undewtand thoroughly. ANTON B. BURG UNIVE~S~ oT r Soo~nnnrr ICALIFO~NTA LOBANORLSB. CALIFORNIA
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WALTER C. SCHUMB MASSACBUBETTB INSTITUTE O X TICHNOLDRT C * u s m o o ~ ,M*ss*c"nsrTTs
GMELINS HANDBUCH DER ANORGANISCHEN CHEMIE. SYSTEM 3: SAUERSTOFF
Eighth edition. Verlag Chemie, GMBH, Weinheim, Germany, 1952. 218 (83-300) pp. 3 2 figs. 17.5 X 25.5 cm. $15.48. THIS bulletin deals with the occurrence of oxygen, ozone, and water; the technical preparation of oxygen, ozone, and hydrogen peroxide; and the purifioation of water. I t is a. good source of material on the geochemistry of oxygen, oaone, and water, and is fairly well up to date in such matters as isotope distribution and the cosmic distribution of both oxygen and water. Little, if any, of the literature within the last five years seems to have been covered, but thin may perhaps be expected in a handbook so extensive as this one. Every individual section of such an extensive handbook must be considered from the standpoint of its significance for specialists in a particular field. This section satisfies such a requirement. NORRIS W. RAKESTRAW
SCRIPPBI N S T ~ T U T ~OWO OCE*NOCR*I.HY N LA JOLLA,C ~ ~ l r o n m *
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of this thoroughness, the section dealing with the physical properties of arsenic may be pointed out. I t begins with a few general remarks, then turns to the nuclear characteristics of the &ious isotopes and the transformations induced therein by bombardment with different projectile partioles. The outer atom is next described in detail, fallowed by a consideration of the arsenic molecule. I n succession the crystallographic, meohanical, thermal, optical, magnetic, electrical, and eleotrochemical properties are covered, each of these topics being duly subdivided into their pertinent classifications. The editorial staff of more than a.score of men and women who have been engaged upon the revision of this volume have added one more black to the monumental structure that constitutes the eighth edition of the Gmeljn "Handlmch," which when completed d l doubtless represent the world's most reliable and authoritative survey of the entire field of inorganic ehemistry.
GMELINS HANDBUCH DER ANORGANISCHEN CHEMIE. SYSTEM 17: ARSENIK
~ i g h t hedition. ' Verlag Chemie, GMBH, Weinheim, Germany, 475 pp. 2 0 figs. 17.5 X 25.5 cm. $33.33. 1952. xv
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I N KEEPING with other units of this work which have appeared recently, the present volume represents a marked improvement over the corresponding portion of the seventh edition of the Gmelin-Kraut IIandhuch, Volume 111, Section 2, edited by C. Friedheim and published in Heidelberg by C . Winter in 1908. The revision has been thorough, both in the elimination of much superfluous material, and in the inclusion of considerable more recent informatisn. The literature coverage extends through December, 1949. The new format of the eighth edition, with its greatly improved t,ypography, makes for increased ease of reading; and the elimination of much of the "cookbook" style in tho passages dealing with the preparative aspects of the subject is also s. welcon~eehanee. The subject matte;'inoludes a brief historical introduction (9 pages), followed by aucxtensive treatment of the occurrence of the element and its compounds (74 pages), and of their uses (4 pages). The formation and preparation of the element in its several forms (12 pages) is followed by a thorough review of the physical and chemical properties of theelement (87 pages) and of the ohvsiological effects of both elementary arsenic and its eompo&s (8 pages). A detailed account of the compounds of arsenic with hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and the halogens; with sulfur, selenium, and tellurium; and with boron, carbon, silicon, and phosphorus completes the volume (281 pages). The general style and thoroughness of treatment are maintained a t the high level which has come to be expected in this standard comprshensive work of reference. As a single example
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GMELINS HANDBUCH DER ANORGANISCHEN CHEMIE. SYSTEM 27: MAGNESIUM
Teil A, Lieferung 4: Legierungen von Magnesium mit Zink bis Rhenium. Eighth edition. Verlag Chemis, GMBH, Weinheim, 336 (49M18) pp. 8 6 figs. 17.5 X 25.5 Germany, 1952. riv cm. $24.
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THE eighth edition of Gmelin's famous handbook is similar in style and arrangement to the earlier editions, and little description of i t need bo given. ARwith the earlier editions, the book is being published in small units, each of which is published as soon a s i t is ready. This enables the reader to get information which is fairly well up to date. For example, the hook being reviewed here covers the pertinent literature up t o the end of 1949. Unfortunately, the differentportions of the work do not always cover logical divisions of the suhject matter. This volume discuases the alloysofmagnesium with the metals in periodic groups IIB, III(exceptaluminum), IV (except silicon), VB, VIB, VIIB, VIII, and IB, and the surface treatment of magnesium and its alloys. The alloys of magnesium with silieon, and with the metals of Groups IA, IIA, and VA were included in an earlier issue znd the allays of magnesium with aluminum will he included in the volume an aluminum. Magnesium oompounds will he discussed in Part B of the magnesium section. This hook is indispensable far those who are working with the alloys of magnesium, for i t contains s. eomplete bibliography on the subject as well as brief descriptions of much of the work in the field. Many phase rule diagrams are included. While this volume of the series will have little appeal to the general reader, every ehemicd library should have a. complete set of "Gmelin," for i t is by far the most complete reference hook of inorganic chemistry. JOHN C. BAILAR, JR. U N W E R ~ ~OF T TILLIXOIS URBINA,I ~ r w o ~ e
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STATISTICAL TABLES AND FORMULAS
A. Hold. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New Yoik, 1952. 9 7 19 tables.
22 X 28 em. $2.50.
pp.
THISpamphlet is composed of two parts. The first part cont a i n ~fundamental formules and examdes of the uses of the various tables that follow in part two: Frequent reference is made to the author's toxt, "Statistical Theory with Engineering Applioations." Among the standard tables t o be found in part two are tables of the normal density function, the normal distrihution function. prohits of the normal distrihution, percentiles of the 1, x2, x2/d.f., and F distributions and confidence hmits for the parameter of the
MARCH, 1953
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binomial distribution. The above tables contain 21 preentiles of t and x', and 17 percentiles of F, constituting an extension of previously published tables. By including the 97.5, 99.5, and 99.95 percentiles for t and F, the author has, in effect, provided critical values for "two-tailed" tests a t the 5 per cent, 1 per cent, and 0.1 per cent levels, respectively. There are, in addition, tables of the distribution of the range, the one-sided truncated normal distribution, and the one-sided censored normal distribution. The range table includes 21 percentiles and the first two moments for sample sizes from 2 to 20. The remnining tables are devoted to the "arc sine" transformation, logarithms of factorials and binomial coefficients, squares, square roots, reciprocals, logarithms, and random sampling numbers. EDGAR P. KING
THE PETROLEUM CHEMICALS INDUSTRY
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Richard Fmnk Goldstein. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1950. xiii 449 pp. 41 figs. 92 tables. 5 charts. 16 X 25 cm. $8.50.
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PETROLEUM is one of three large-scale sources of raw materials for the chemical industries. Hence it is not surprising that so many processes have heen devised to manufacture the finished products demanded by our level of oivilizstion. What irr 8°Fprising is that this book, written by an Englishman describing in the main American industries and processes, happens to be the only hook of its kind. (This excludes, of course, the compilation of Ellis.) This reviewer can certainly concur with Sir Robert Robertson, who wrote the Foreword that "this work deserves to ." For within 20 chanters an amazin~lv be t,ermpdmonumental.. .~ ". lnryp fund uf information is found about rhrmirnla and rhemkul rrrrrriom. I'ractictllg all of the mutc.rinlq uw thoee tnkrn from publioations since 1940. Abbreviations of journals and companies inaugurate the text; an introduction giving a brief review of nomenclature and thermodvnamic symbols and data follow. The first chavter. Sources of Pktroleum Hydrocarbons, includes compositioti, tables of physical properties, and proeess of refining. The next ten chapters are mainly concerned with the s)mthesis and reactions of aliphatic chemiealr from petroleum. Heavy emphasis is placed upon the role of the unsaturates. Tables of properties, oharts of reactions, short flow diagrams, techniques of purifications, and uses to which these chemicals are put are all emphasized. Other topics included in the tent are: naphthenea, aromatics, acetylenes, aldehydes, ketones, acids and acid derivatives, ethylene oxide, nitriles, and amines. Chapter 20 deals with bv-nroducts of interest to other industries. These inclnde nitrosen. oxveen. and sulfur comaunds ..~,~ ,,. ~,~~ .\ppcndiu I vontainr live reartion rhxrt *ummurirs, our of whirh shows h o , ~nutl or ivrmvntatim procw;rs can tx wrrl w sources of aliphatic chemicsls. Appendix I1 has eight tables of statistics on petroleum production and comsumption. Appendix 111 contains data. and statistics on synthetic organic chemicals in the U.S.A. for the years 1 9 2 1 4 5 . Four indexescompletethe book. A large number of folded charts are contained which me comprehensive, and offer many lesser known reactions. These charts help make the book more valuable as s. reference. By necessity, the elementary organic texts cannot cover petroleum chemistry adequately. Yet every instructor does go beyond the text he assign8 in discussing what ueeful chemicals can he made from hydrocarbons. In Dr. Goldstein's book, essentially for the first time, assignments can be made to find answers for specific questions as: Why was tbiophene sold by a petroleum company? What is the synthetic p m e s s for the manufasture of glycerol? What are some of the polymerization products of metylene? What m e uaphthenes? Naturally, no book of about 400 pages of text is absolutely complete, and certainly much hm been accomplished since the text was printed. However, practically all immediate infor~~~~
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mation that theorganic instructor needscaneasily be found in thir work. Every school library should have a reference copy. Where petroleum chemintrv courses are given, this may be the very text sought.
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STRUCTURAL ASPECTS OF CELL PHYSIOLOGY
Sympwda of the Society for Experimental Biology, Number Vl. Published for the Company of Biologists on behalf of the Society for Experimental Biology. Academic Press, Inc., New York, 1952. vi 357 pp. Illustrated. 16 X 25.5 cm. $7.50.
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THEmorphological and the phy~iologicalapproach to biological problems have developed largely independent. Attempts to bring both lines closer together are evidently of great imporh e e and one of the nrereouisites for the.ultimnte -.-., rrnal a. - frill understanding of the life prooess. The present book is a useful summary of what is being done at present to achieve such a synthesis in one segment of the biological sciences, that of cellular life. I t comprkes 21 papers presented a t Bristol in July, 1951, 15 originating from British, two each from Americrtn and Swiss, and one each from Swedish and Belgian laborrttories. The contributions appear to he grouped roughly around three main themes. The first eight or nine papers deal largely with various aspects of membrane properties. Danielli discusses the factors important in cell permeability and secretion, stressing the importance of the theory of activated diffusion and pointing out t,hat phosphatases, in secretion, may be of significance primarily as contractile proteins. Katr reviews the properties of the nerve membrane and its relation to the conduction of impulses. Runnstrom has an extensive chapteron cell surface in relation to fertilimtibn, based almost entirely on experiments done with sea urchin eggs. The followingtwo papers by Swann and Mitchison, respectively, are closely connected, presenting a theory relating mitosis and cleavage. Goldacre studies and illustrates by means oi very clear microphotographn .the action of anesthetics a n amebas, while Kitching's paper deals with the contractile vaeuales of protozoa, discussing such features as the mechanisms of systole and diastole and the question of osmoregulation. Coons, in a very brief chapter, state8 that intravenously injected antigens find their way in a surprisingly short time into the eytoplssm and even the nuclei of a variety of tissues. The next series of seven papers is grouped around the theme of growth and development. Brachet discusses the respective roles of nucleus and cytoplasm in synthesis and morphogenesis, developing the interesting view that the nucleus participates in the coupling between oxidations and phosphoryl~tions. Sanders studies the mechanism of virus reproduction within cells. He brings out the point that the virus parts responsible for the initiation of multiplication are smaller than the infectious units, and that hence the conclusions drawn by geneticists from findings on completed virus particles may be misleading. Pontecorvo presents B genetical analysis of cell organization, while Baltzer reviews the behavior of nuclei and cytoplasm in amphibian interspecific crosses, a field to which he bas contributed so much. Callan draws at.tention to the potentialities offered by amphibian oocyte nuclei far experimental research. Hughes points out that inhibitors of mitosis have so far heen usednrimarilv. for nraotienl p u r p ~ c srather than fun,lnmrntol a n ~ l w i sfor whirh they might IIP quite importnnt if applid to suitnlrlr iorms. \Valkcr and Ystrs studied the ulrravidt~tahsorptiort of living uuclci during growth and development, a procedure destined to supplement the purely biochemical approach. While the first two series of papers dealt largely, though not exclusively, with animal cells, the last six contributions are devoted to plant cells. A very instructive picture of the structure of the yeast cell is given by Lindengren, while that of the root meristem of Vicio faba is discussed by Chagen. Manton's interesting account of the fine structure of plant cilia. is illu~tmted
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