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APRIL, 1954 of hydroxide ion controlled by a heneoate buffer serves to precipitate basic compounds of the metals of higher valence. A saturated solution of mdiumfluoride is used tonrecinitste lead and the identification rertotions provide an excellent medium for the teaching of chemical equilibrium and the authors have shaped the text to this end. The laboratory aection of the text, which follows two brief introductory chapters, includes preliminary tests and group separations of the usual cations. The anions are treated more briefly. The second part of the text develops the fundamental theory logically and contains many graphic illustrations from every day living that should be helpful to the student. Coordination complexes are discussed in detail. The authors use a classicel spproaeh to acid-base theory with rather too brief a. mention of Briinsted concepts. The reviewer feels that the authors have done real service to the teaching of qualitative analysis and that the text should be challenging to the student and enjoyable for student and teacher. LUCY W. PICKETT
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HUMOUR AND HUMANISM IN CHEMISTRY
lohn Reed, Professor of Chemistry, University of St. Andrews, Scotland. The British Book Centre, Inc., New York, 1953. xxiii 388pp. 90figs. 15 X 22 cm. $4.50.
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ALTHOUGH this hook was published in 1947 in England, and has been known to many ever since, it is now being distributed in the United States by the British Book Centre of New Yark, and so a review in an American journal is appropriate. This is, in a sense, a continuation of Read's earlier work, "Prelude to Chemistry," and like this book, it is bertutifully illuatrated. I t has, however, a much more personal character. It begins, it in true, with a discussion of alchemy, but this is more a collection of anecdotes about individual alchemists whose lives appealed to the author. As might be expected from his position in the University of St. Andrews, there is a strong Scottish tinge to these anecdotes, as indeed there is to the entire book. The story of the flying alchemist and the account of the research activities of James IV make absorbing reading. The transition from alchemy to chemistry is illustrated by a.discussion of men whose major activity was teaching, men such as Lemery and Boerhaave. In their books and lectures Read traces the growth of the scientific spirit and illustrates it again with many anecdotes. In the same style the true chemists are considered, from Joseph Black down to Alfred Werner. Read worked with Werner a t Zurich, and so this portion of the book is enlivened with many personal reminiscences of student Me in the SWISS citv. appears in a new light. Yet there are many examplea of contributions to the history of chemistry which slip into the discussion so easily that the reader hardly realizes the scholarship behind the apparently simple style. The last two chapters are of a different character. The sew tion entitled "Chemistry reaches the Australian hush" is largely an account of the chemistry of the essential oils of the eucalyptus and other Australian trees and plants. This chapter has little or no relation to the r e d of the book, and seems distinctly out of place. The final chapter is a play, written to he performed a t the centenary eelebration of the chair of chemistry a t St. Andrews. There ari a large number of local references which would only be understood by an alumnus of that university, and the plot is somewhat feeble. but the collection of chemical nuns is mobahly the greatest ever to he found in one place.
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There is no doubt that the author enioved . " himself m a t "h in writine this book. and his enthusiasm ouieklv ,onmmunieates itself to thr reader. Ilesidrs the uound hisrorirnl rcscwrh, rl,e humor of the book 39 well H* tIw "Hamtur" i r l rhrmiatry which it vonsidpra will make this work ideal for the leisure hours of every chemist.
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HENRY M. LEICESTER COUIEBEOI P R Y ~ ~ C I A A NNDBSUAOEONB
S m FRANEISCO. CALIFORNIA
THE ALKALOIDS: CHEMISTRY AND PHYSIOLOGY. VOLUME I11
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Edited by R. H. F. Maoske, Dominion Rubber Research bboratory, Guelph, Ontario, Canada, and H. L. Holmes, The Canvin Company, North Haven, Connecticut. Academic Press, Inc., 422 pp. 16 X 23.5 cm. $11. New Yo*, 1953. viii
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THEEis the third volume in a series devoted to a review of the chemistry of alkaloids. The two previous volumes have been reviewed in THE JOURNAL (27,530 (1950); 30,54 (1953)). This volume suffers the drawback of all reviews of an active field of study: the current literature cannot be reported completely. That this drawback has been minimized in this book is evidenced by observation that about one-third of the references in the c h a ~ t e ron solanum and veratrum alkaloids are as recent as 1950; about one-third of these are from the 1952 literature. There ia alno an addendum from the 1953 literature. The other ohapters do not contain so many recent references but are complete up to 1950. Included in this volume are nine chapters: "The chemistry of the cinchona dkaloids" (R. B. Turner and R. B. Woodward); "Quinoline alkaloids other than those of cinchona" (H. T. Openshaw, Scotland); "Quinazoline alkaloids" (H. T. Openshawl; "Lupin a,Iksloids" (Nelson J. Leonard;) "Imidaaole alkaloids" (A. R. Battersby and H. T. Openshaw); "Solarium and veratrum alkaloids" (V. Prelog and 0. Jeger, Switzerland); "&Phenethylamind' (L. Reti, Argentina); "Ephedra bases" (L. Reti); and "Ipecac alkaloids" (Maurice-Marie Janot, France). Each of the chapters is well written and is systematically arranged in the style followed in the two earlier volumes. The authors, who are obviously familiar with their subjects, pfesent a lucid acrount of the chemistrv of the alkaloids thev d~scuss.
book. The chemistry of solanum and veratrum alkaloids is treated together because of the close relation of both classes to steroids. The chapter on cinchona alkaloids is unusually well written. The section in this chapter dealing with stereochemiatry will be of interest to all organic chemists. Like its predecessors, Volume 111 of "The Alkaloids" will he a. valuable addition to the library of every chemist who is active in the fields of alkaloid and heteroryelic chemistry. WILIIAM B. COOK
CIBA FOUNDATION COLLOQUIA ON ENDOCRINOLOGY. VOLUME VI: HORMONAL FACTORS IN CARBOHYDRATE METABOLISM G. E. W. Wolstenholme, General Editor. Little. Brown and CO., B O S ~ O1953. ~, xiv + 350 pp. 94 figs. Tables. 14 X 0
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THIScolloquium met under the chairmanahip of Professor C. H. Best and was attended bv 45 evoerta assembled from all mrts of the world. Of these, 24 presenied the papers which cohstitute
