145
BOOKREVIEWS
January 1963
Book Reviews Survey of Chemical Notation Systems. A Report of the Corninittee on Moderri Methods of Handling Chemical Information. Publication 1150. Xational A4cadeniyof Sciences. Yational Rescarch Council. Washington, 1). C. 1964. 467 pp.
Diiring the fii,st 40 years of the present century the principal routes to the world’s collection of chemical structures were through I3eilstein’s “Handhnch der Organischen Cheniie” and the S : m e Indeses in Clxemical -4bstracfs. T h e former set u p an arbitrary classification by structure; the latter evolved a nonienclnture in n-1iic.h strurtui‘al functions were identified by snffises :inti prefiscs under a most complicated system of m i t t e n rules :in11 verlxil understandings. Although these two compendia served the m e r well, the :irhitrariness of the systems and the v o m p l r s i t y ( i f the rules led to graduall>- increasing criticism from rheiiiists iind Iiiologists interested in struct,ure-ac,tivity relationships. The stiniulus from the dye industry, the finding of a graded relationship between structure arid antibacterial activity axnong the s>-nthetic suifonaniides, and the large, orgmized c 1 i e i i i t r t t i t i ~ : i ~ i e i i t istudies c~ in malaria and other tropiwl diseases supported 1)y Federal funds duling the Second IVorld IVar led t u the cre:ition (If several new types of structural ( d e s for characterizing n n t l arranging organic compounds. Perhaps the tn-o most widely putili(,ized codes are those of G. llalcolm I ) ~ S O I I , whose niodified li~It~iti(J1i was adopted as a ,‘standard” by the 1nteni:ttion:il I-nion of Pure a;ld Applied Cheniistry in 1939, and of M’illkiii J. \Viswesser. T h e heated controversy among the pnrtisans over the relative merits of these two codes has continued unabated for almost two decades. “The Survey of Cheniiral Kotation Systems” is :t report of the Coinniittee on IIodern 3Iethods of Handling Chemical Information, under the auspices of the Sational -4caderny of Sciences, Tatiili::tl Research Council, \\-ith funds provided by the Yational Science Fonnd:Ltion. It represents the latest but, by no means, the find nttenipt to evaluate the Dyson and Kiswesser codes, togetlier with others, less Tvidely known, from the st,andpoint8of utility, cost of input and output, machine requirements, intrllecdemands on coders and users, as well a s subjective appraisals by the groups involved in handling the operation. Dr. I. AIoyer Hunsberger, project director, and his committee members interviewed the staffs of 46 different organizations and the Survey records in detail the various interviews. Perhaps the most cogent conclusion is found in the recommendation, “At present, there is no record of any experiment in which the same group of compounds has been used wit,h different types of systems for performing generic searches and correlation studies in different ways in order to compare the effectiveness of the different methods of approach. Until such definitive experinients are performed on a large volume of encoded d a t a on chenii( ~ i structures, l controversy will remain. , . .It, is not reasonable t o espect t h a t any chemical organization will do work of this magnitude a t its own expense. Since the federal government is the largest supporter of scientific research, i t must supply the hadly needed funds for research on the retrieval of scientific information.” This Survey adequately portrays the presently confused state in the organization of chemical d a t a b y structure. Unfortuiiately, one has the feeling t h a t the coding groups are working on the ploblenis of the 1930’s and that, unless much more rapid progress is niade, the development,of satisfactory structural codes for the user will constitute an academic exercise rather than a major rontribution to the very early hoped-for goal.
done, but in clear and understandable words points to new approaches and areas of future research with a good potent’ialof success. Introduced b,v a n interesting and anecdotal history of chemotherapy by E. K. lIarshallj Jr., the book leans heavily on studies in the field of neoplastic and viral diseuses and thus reflects t,lie great conteniporary interest in normal mid abnormal nucleic avid metabolism. The chenioprophylasis and chemot1ier:ipy of vi.ul dise:tses is described by R. L. Thompson: cell culture and c’anrer cheniot,herapy is dealt with authoritatively bl- G. E. Fole?, :md Y. S. Epstein, and drug synergism in antineoplastic? cheinotherapy by J. 31. Venditti and A. Goldin. A long-needed review of the chemistr!-, pharm:icology, and clinicd use of the T-inca :dkaloids is presented by a group from the I A y Research Laboratories led by 5 . Seuss. Two excellent chapters deal with s~ititrypanosoinal chemotherapy (B. A. Xewton) :md iiiirii~iiroreac.ti!,nsin antiparasitic, chemotherapy (F,C. Goble). Rut the first :tnd last rhaptpi-s of the h(>olioffer niost ftmd for thought for the not-too-spec,ializeci render. C. G. Zuhrod espluim qunntit;itive ronrepts in the c~linicdstudy of drugs: every rlinicd investigator is advised to read this autstanding sechon especislly ili these difficult days of contrnls and popular distrust of neiv drug investigation. For iiiedicinal chemists searching for new leads, the cahapter by S . 0 . Kaplan :tnd 11. Friedliin on new concepts of the use of inhibitors in chemotherapy should be of special interest. illthough oriented towards aberrations of functional disorders and cani’er, the intelligent planning of drug synt,hesis in any area on the hasis of noncompet,itive (allosteric) inhihition should lean on this review and its predictions. I t shows clearly the deep impact of biochemistry on the design of therapeutic agents, arid outlines some of the paths one should enter i n the imniediate future. The editors and publishers are t o be congratulated upon this volume. Scientists concerned lvith fundamental and prac,tical questions of cheniot,herapy, from t,he chemical 1:iboratory to the clinic, are advised to read it attentively. ALFREDRYRGER
L-SIVERSITY O F 171RGISI.k CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA
The Background to Chemotherapy of Virus Diseases. By C. H. S T U ~ R T - H A Rand R I ~LOIS DICKIXSOX.Charles C Thomas, Publisher, Springfield, Ill. 1964. xi 173 pp. 23.5 X 16.5 cm. $10.50.
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T h e fly-leaf reconiniends this book to t’he general reader (for whom i t is much too technical) and particularly the clinician to assess for himself the failure of chemotherapy against viruses a s compared with its success against bacteria, fungi, and protozoa. The publisher’s blurb does not do justice to t,he modern clinician who should no longer be classified as a general reader. Also the chemotherapy of fungal diseases has not progressed far beyond that of viral infections. Indeed, there are quite a few effective antiviral agents, even though most of t’hem cannot be used clinically. Their structures contain with great frequency the N-C-X moiety, especially amidine and guanidine groupings. This does not hold, of course, for those antibiotics which are effective against the rickettsiae, and the psittacosis-lymphogranuloma inguinale-trachoma groups of “untrue” viruses. All these are considered in this book, as wrll as clinical procedures using such drugs. I n addition, steroids, various serum fractions, and vaccinations are reviewed briefly. Interferon is given considerable space. 1ntroductor)- chapters make informative reeding on the SQI-IRR I S S T I T T T E F O R FREDERICK T.ITISELOGLE chemistry, multiplication, and pathology of viruses. ~IEDICA R ELS K ~ R C H The blurb is probably right t h a t the clinician would enjoy this S E W ~ ~ R U X S K I C KSET?, JERSEY book and ought to read it. Nevertheless, medicinal chemists will find it informative, easy t o understand, and not so heavily documented by clinical and therapeutic references t h a t reading is Advances in Chemotherapy. Volume I. Edited b y A B R ~ H A M constantly side travlted. On t h e other hand, some important experimental drugs published in chemical journals have not been GOLDINand FRASKHAWKIXG.Academic Press Inc., New mentioned. Those interested in contributing to antiviral chemoI-ork, N. E’. 1964. xi 579 pp. 23.5 X 15.5 em. $17.50. therapy will find the book a fair survey of explanations, of sucOf the many recent first volumes of projected series of “Adcesses, and of failures which should stirnulate new ideas. vances” and “Progress” in fields of medicinal science, this first ALFREDBPRGER UNIVERSITYOF VIRGISIA volume impresses the reviewer as perhaps the best one. It CH.~RLOTTESI ILLE, VIRCISIA offrrs not only descriptive and interpretative reviews of Tvork
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