BOOK REVIEWS One of the resonance structures of hntadiene (p. 45) is missing a minos change.
RICAAED HIATP Broek University St. Cathalines, Ontario
The Investigation of Organic Reactions
Ross Stewart, University of British Columbia. Prentice-Hdl, Ine., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1966. xii 125 pp. Figs. and tables. 15.5 X 23.5 em. Clothbound, $5.50; paperbound, $2.50.
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This book takes up equilibria, reaction intermediates, transition states, study of reaction paths, and catalysis in that order. As an introduction to organic reactions it is n splendid job and could well be reeommended to every beginning stndent of nrgrtuie chemist,ry, regardless of what other text hooks he might have. One wishes it could have been a bit longer, that Professor Stewart had devoted more space, in hi nsrticularlv lucid stvle. to thermodvnamic book and the preceding one, appears to have fallen between two stools.) There are t,wo odd slips. On p. 29, in a disr~rssionof acid sbrengths, the ionization of carbolt acids such as triphenylmethane is described a q "slow." Slow or fast has no relevsnee, as Professor Stewart well know*. On p. 60,Oxygen-18 is descrihed as having "a half-life of infinity." "Half-life" surely has no meaning if the isotope is stable. I t is difficult enough to wean students away from t,he idea that all isotopes me radioactive. Statements of lhis sort are no help. Bnswers t.o the ~ r o b l e m sare included at the hnck of the book. RICHARD HITT Block Universitzi
St. Cathaenes, Onlaria
Ionic Aliphatic Reactions
William H . Saunders, Jr., University of Rochester, Rochester, New York. Prentice-Hall, h e . , Englewood Clifis, New Jersey, 1956. x 113 pp. 15.5 X 23.5 cm. Clothbound, $4.50; paperbound, $1.95.
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This is the first book of the series to deal with a rather specific topic instead of a broad general ares, and thus the first chance for anexposition "in depth" (at the undergraduate level). Professor Saunders does very well within his 100 page limitation but, as previously mentioned, it is not so much what could be pot in 100 pages, as what can he said in 6 to 8 leotnres. Rather frequently the student i3 told that to go
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A1004
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Journol of Chemical Education
