Recent Books Nutrition. WALTERH. EDDY. Ph.D., Professor of Physiological Chemistry, Teachers College, Columbia University; Associate Director, Bureau of Foods and Sanitatmn. "Good Housekeeping Magazine." The Williams and Wilkins 237 Company, Baltimore, 1928. vii pp., with 37 tables. 12.7 X 18.4 cm. $2.50.
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The author's object in writing this book has been, he states, not t o compile a guide to correct eating after the manner of a book on etiquette hut rather t o attempt t o express in simple language the progress and the problems in the field of nutritional science. This he sets out t o do by presenting some of the vital facts that have been discovered in this field from the point of view that their use will not necessarily result in the same reactions. The first eight chapters are devoted t o an attempt a t making clear a point which modern advertising has sometimes obscured, namely, that the attainment of a good nutrition involves attention to many contributing factors and not to the use of any one particular food even though the merits of that article are beyond dispute. The remainder of the bwk is devoted to a rather detailed discussion of our newer knowledge of nutrition as it has been unfolded in a fifteen-year program of cc4perative vitamin research. Dr. Eddy condudes his hook "with full knowledge that it is not a complete guide to nutrition." The author has covered his field fairly completely in a manner which leaves no doubt that the facts presented are, by and large, technically correct. The book has not been written for the specialist but rather for the layman that he may learn some of the fundamental principles which the nutrition experts have found necessary to follow in selecting proper food for man. Yet in spite of the author's asswances of
simple lanmxwe. one may well question the expediency ot introducing in a treatise of this character such terms as lipins, glucides, acidosis, osmosis, and the use of chemical symbols without translation. I t is unfortunate that Dr. Eddy should have drawn a parallel in nomenclature between cane and milk sugars on the one hand and so-called corn s u p on the other. I t must be indeed irksome to those interested in the proper labeling of foods to read that one who is a colleague of "the father" of our present national food laws should have permitted himself this lapse of terminology for which there is no scientific basis. The specialist would perhaps find much t o criticize within its covers; the lay reader will find himself confused a t times because of a lack of chemical background; but the teacher possessing some of the fundamentals of chemistry will find this h w k on the whole a valuable guide t o a proper understanding of the scientific aspects of the selection of food. H. A. SCHUETTB UNIVSRSITY on WISCONSIN The Determination of Hydrogen Ions. W. MANSFIELD CLARK, Ph.D., DeLamar Professor of Physiological Chemistry, The Johns Hopkins University. 3rd edition. The Williams & Wilkins Co.. 717 pp. Baltimore, Md., 1928. xvi 1W fi-r. 15 X 22.5 cm. $6.50.
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I t is always a pleasure to read the writings of Dr. Clark. One is never in doubt as to his exact meaning. This third edition of his well-known work is no exception. Dr. Clark calls this book "An elementary treatise on electrode, indicator and supplementary methods." It is elementary in the sense that even one of very modest background can follow it with profit. Nevertheless, a moment's perusal
VOL.5, No. 10
RECENT BOOKS
will convince one that it will fill, to a very great extent, the needs of the most advanced worker. Although Chapter XXX is devoted wholly t o applications and particular cases, the aim of the book is to treat of fundamentals so as to give it maximum utility. No attempt has been made t o indude a discussion of all the uses of the hydrogen electrode. A large book is required t o properly cover merely the essentials of the subject. As the author says, "this enlarged edition remains more elementary in relation to the needs of today than was the first edition in relation t o the needs of its period." The third edition has been expanded enormously as the following comparison will show.
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a real necessity a t this time, hut is nevertheless pleased t o have the author's discussion of it available. I n conclusion, it is the reviewer's opinion that this is more than just another "new edition." It is so incomparably superior t o the earlier editions that one may view it as a new book, rendering them ohsalete. Certainly no teacher or advanced worker will fail t o have it on his bookshelf.
2nd edition 3rd edition 480 717 Pages Chapters 21 30 8 15 Appendices, etc. Pages of Bibliography 110 85 Figures 42 100
Nitroglycerine and Nitroglycerine Explosives. PHOKION NAO~M Ph.D., , Director of Scientific Laboratories, Alfred Nobel Dynamite Company, Hamburg, Germany. Authorized English translation with notes and additions by E. M. Symmes, Hercules Powder Company, Wilmington, Delaware. The Williams & Wilkins Company. Balti469 pp. Illusmore, 1928. xi trated. 15 X 22.8 cm. $7.00.
The bibliography alone has diminished. It has been made selective rather than comprehensive. This is because the number of papers on the subject has been increasing almost logarithmically with time. The book has been almost entirely rewritten t o accord with recent developments. The color chart has been very greatly improved. Most of the chapters are now prefaced by a quotation-sometimes whimsical, always pointed. Among the figures are included fine cuts of S. P. L. Soreusen, Svante Arrhenius, and Leonor Michaelis. Among the newer material one finds an expanded chapter on the choice of indicators, chapters on spectraphotometry and colorimetry, on free energy changes an quinhydrone and similar half cells; on metal oxide, oxygen and glass electrodes; on the theory of Debye and Hiickel; on non-aqueous solutions, etc. No really serious adverse criticism can be raised. One wonders whether the inclusion of a chapter on the interionic attraction theory of Debye and Huckel is
This book is the first to be published of the projected World Widide Chemical Series, under the general editorship of Professor E. Emmet Reid of The Johns H o ~ k i n s University. It describes the chemistry and manufacture of the most important of the peacetime explosivesand the civil uses of explosives are far more important than their military ones. Nitroglycerine explosives are used in engineering operations, for the building of canals, bridges, railroads, etc., and in coal and metal mining which lead t o the production of comfort and of power, of steel, and of manufactured articles of aII kinds. The hook, therefore, describes the science and the art of an industry which has been of great importance in making the world smaller and is fundamental t o the maintenance of the present industrial civilization. After an introductory chapter on the history of the subject, the book contains three principal sections which deal respeetively with Nitroglycerine, with Homologous and Related Nitric Esters, and with
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