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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