VOL. 7, No. 7
RECENT BOOKS
has presented a not inconsiderable amount of organic chemistry in a very readable form will awaken the envy of all those who have struggled with similar problems in their own teaching. Of course, it is always a relatively easy matter to handle a complicated technical matter if one is content t o give merely the bare outlines and then entertain the audience by anecdotes and startling statements, but to present both a popular and adequate account of a subject as the author has done is extraordinarily difficult. Not only are the more striking aspects of each subject considered, hut the whole chemical and physiological background is carefully explored; for instance, in the case of thyroxin the synthesis of this compound and the experiments leading t o the establishment of the constitutional formula are discussed in great detail. This part of the book will be of particular interest to the specialist in this field since it is well known that Professor Barger is in a unique position to speak with authority on this subject. He allows us here a glimpse of the actual steps by which an important investigation was brought to a successful conclusion. This portion of the book would make an excellent text t o illustrate the methods of organic chemistry. The same emohasis on the historical development of a subject is evident in all the lectures. In the preface the author says "The composite nature of my audience, consisting of biologists and of chemists, induced me when lecturing t o aim a t a general survey and the exposition of first principles." The author has succeeded in this aim and has produced a hook of great interest to biologists and chemists and of particular value for younger students who are first making their acquaintance with organic chemistry and its applications to biology. Portions, if not all of the baok, might very well be assigned as reading in a first course in organic chemistry. J. B. CONANT UNIVBRSITY CAYBPIDDE, MASSACmUJETTS HABVAPD
1725
The Normal Diet. W. D. SANSUM, M.S., M.D. Third revised edition. The C. V. Mosby Co., St. Louis, Mo., 1930. 134 pp. 13 X 19.5 cm. $1.50. The material of this baok is taken from a course of lectures given by the author to
patients suffering from nutritional diseases. The food requirements of the hody are fully explained. A chapter is devoted to each of the following topics: calorie, bulky food, protein, mineral, vitamin, and water requirement for the hody. The author points out the relation of diet to some of the nutritional disorders, for example, and acid-ash and the acetone types of acidosis, diabetes, and the typical diseases due to the lack of vitamins. The diet menus are completely revised, and many special menus are added. Sample menus for alkaline diet containing different calorie content, also those pertaining t o the proper carbohydrate and fat ratio, are of special interest and importance. Menus for reducing diets are included. The height and weight tables with explanations are a helpful part of the book. References are given a t the end of each chapter but the author has included only the ones mentioned in the text. I t would seem that this list of references should have been revised and made more complete for this later edition. The book is written to interest the medicsl man and to help the layman to a better understanding of the nutritional requirement of the body. It has more value in this place th,m as a scientific contribution. N. M. NAvwR IOWA STAT*COLL.LBDB AYES, IOWA
The Use of the Microscope. JOHN BELLING,Cytologist. Carnegie Institution of Washington. First edition, McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc.. 370 Seventh Avenue. New York City, 1930. xi 315 pp. 28 figs. 15 X 23 cm. $4.00.
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"For scientific work it is desirable t o get in the microscope the sharpest and most contrasty images possible with t h e
1726
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
apparatus a t hand. There are several dozen adjustments, or variations of methods, each of which will add slightly to the perfection of the image in the microscope. Alone, each of these slight improvements may not seem worth making; but combined they may cause a decided difference in the brilliancy and crispness of the micmscopical image. In this book, the most important of these methods have been brought together from the original papers, and to them have been added the results of the writer's experience gained in years of continuous work with the microscope." The author thus presents his hook as a work on critical microscopy rather than an elementary or general treatise. He discusses various important phases of microscopy, notably simple magnifiers, binocular microscopes, the water immersion objective, corrections of condensers, cover-glass thickness, and the limitation of illumination to the area of the field of view, as well as most of the topics commonly induded in elementary works. Each chapter closes with a list of "practical points." A glossary of terms and a chapter on the literature of [critical] microscopy with a bibliography are induded. There is also a set of study questions, of the "memory" type. Polarized light and ultramicroscopy are not discussed, and photomicrography is dismissed very sketchily. The work is mare of a commentary or o d e mecum than an exposition of principles: indeed, the reader will need to seek his fundamentals and theory elsewhere. It seems unfortunate that important manipulative technic, readily adaptable to all fields of microscopy, should not he described and illustrated in such a manner as to suggest its very wide significance. The sections on "Discoveries with the Microscope" and "A Hundred Microscopical Objects of Biological Interest" s w e further to place kmphasis on the c k m of objects with which the author and biologist in general are most concerned, rather than upon the microscope as an instrument for the revela-
JULY,1930
tion of h e detail in any sort of material. Since there is no mention of the chemical or technical use of the microscope, and indeed little specific reference to the problems of technic encountered in general biological applications, the chief value of the book is likely to cytologists. The chemist will profit most from the chapter on "Fifty Practical Exercises with the Microscope," in which the author has gathered together a series of experiments designed to exemplify the defects in microscopical images and the effectiveness of the different methods of correcting them. These exercises may profitably he performed by every user of the microscope, whatever his field, as an excellent training in obtaining optimum contrast and detail. Numerous items of information, and some criticisms of apparatus, will also he of particular value to microscopists who are qualified to recognize that on some there is a difference of opinion, and to evaluate them in terms of wider demands than those of cytology. C. W. MASON CORNBL'UNIVHBSITY ITS*"*. N. Y.
The New World of Physical Discovery. FWYDL. DARROW.The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis, Ind., 1930. viii f 371 pages. 15.5 X 23 cm. Illustrated. $3.50. This is a popular history of physics. Its author understands that recent developments cannot be set forth clearly except in the light of earlier history, and devotes several chapters to an account of the classical physics from earliest times to the establishment ,of the laws of the conservation of mass and of energy and the kinetic theory of heat. He describes the well-ordered Victorian universe, filled with ether and impenetrable atoms, where the future seemed predictable and where there seemed no more really important discoveries to he made. Against this background he delineates dramatically the disturbing discoveries of the new physics, the interconnectedness of matter and energy and the relativity of all things.
