THE VITAMINS: CHEMISTRY, PHYSIOLOGY, PATHOLOGY. VOLUME I
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Edited by W. H. Sebrell, Jr., Director, National Institutes of Health, and R. S. Harris, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Academic Press, Inc., New York, 1954. 676 pp. 15 X 23 cm. $16.50.
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T m s three-volume work as projected is, perhaps, the most ambitious of the authoritative efforts to treat vitamins eompre hensively. To secure the greatest possible competence in presentation, the editors not only assigned the several vitamins to different authors so as to he sure that each writer was an nxnerirnwd reernrrloer in thnt fold, bur wsignrd il~ffercntnspwts o i ihr precmtntion of enrh vitsmi~atu diihrrut *utllori. 'I'herc :,re, for twmple, right rontrihutors tu Cltuprw I, "I'iunmw A xnd WPOtenes." In a number of cases the same author writes parts of several chapters. R. S. Harris gives "Nomenclsture and formulas" for each of these four: vitamins A, ascorbic acid, BI2,and biotin, which comprise the material of Volume I. The editors seem to have been successful, in the main, in avoiding the bane of producers of works by various contributors, v i a , variability in style of presentation. Actually, fairly uniform methods of selection of material, relative detail of description, and balance between fundamental biochemistry (metabolic reactions, etc.) and practical matters (proper handling to avoid losses, etc.) seem to prevail in each chapter. About the same relative prominence of historioal matter, adequate hut not too wasteful of words, also prevails. This work will undoubtedly he of great use to all nutrition workers and other biochemists. One awaits with much interest publication of the two ot,her volumes. ~
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PHILIP H. MITCHELL
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VAPOR PRESSURE OF ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
T. Ecrrllordan, Puhlicker Industries, Inc., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Interscience Publishers, Inc., New York, 1954. ix 226 pp. 165 figs. 21 X 28 cm. $14.50.
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THISvolume is probably the most elaborate and elegant compilation of vapor pressure-temperature data. that has ever been published. Any library whioh has this work, the Stull tables ( I d . Eno. Chem.. 39. 517 (1947)). and the Dreisbach tables for may well claim practically complete coverage of significant p-t tabular information an pure organic compounds to date. The ten chapters include over 1500 specific compounds, far each of which is given name, formula, p-t values, literature reference, and entry in general alphabetical index. In addition, for each compound the particular m?Sification of the log p=A-B/T equation, appropriate to the example, is given when available. Finally, the p-t graph for each is drawn on a full-page plate, usually in company with several other graphs for economy in reproduction. In these plates the classical log p-reciprocal of T grsduation seems to have been used, but with the 1/T scale reversed, most conveniently, and marked left to right in Centigrade degrees. Theauthor has noted-asmsnypeoplo donot-that alogp-1/T plot in most cases yields not a straight line, hut instead a "droop-
ing" curve. Instead of drawing such a curve with s spline, he has saved time by pinpointing a few reference coordinates, e. g., the . then drawine 1 mm.. 10 mm.. 100 mm.. and 760 mm. ~ o i n t sand stra~ghtlines from point to point. Only minor errors arise from this economical trick. Elegance of typographical layout and convenienoe in use of this work have unfortunately been attained a t the cost of editorial extravagance. Space is wasted in excessively wide margins, in use of whole sheets (8 I/* X 11 in.) on each of which IS nothing hut a suht~tle,and in numerous redundancies of vapor-pressure numbers. The reviewer wonders if offset publishers, whose special art in earlier years was crude, have not yet realized that they no longer have to spread things out to make them legible. I t ia suggested that they take a look a t the Journal of the American Chaicol Society and have pity for the worried chemical librarian trying to find shelf room for fat books. Not only is this a good example of high-class offset publication, hut particular praise is due for excellent workmanship on the plates. Although a few errors were noteS, these are in the editorial blemish class an4 would not interfere with use of t,he hook.
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G. ROSS ROBERTSON
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ORGANIC CHEMISTRY: A BRIEF COURSE
Robert Ward Gefchell, Professor of Chemistry Emeritus, Iowa State Teachers College. McGmw-Hill Book Co., Inc., New 278 pp. 9 figs. 8 tables. 16 X 23.5 om. Yak. 1954. viii $4.
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TIIERE are not. a large numher of organic texts specifically designed for the one-tenn course. Of those availahlc many are unsatisfactory from the standpoint of the choice of material included and the treatment of the subject matter. This particular text has little either to commend or condemn it. While most of the traditional material of a regular organic chemistry course is covered, few topics are treated with sufficient depth or skill to either whet or satisfy the intellectud curiosity of the average student. In aidition to topics commonly treated in such a text, there are sections on plastics, rubber, proteins, polynuclear and heterocyclic compounds, vitamins, enzymes, hormones, and medicinals, whioh constitute more than ane-third of the textual material. These sections are chiefly a. compilation of products and uses with very little space devoted to the chemistry involved or to the relation of these materials to the various classes of organic compounds. This reviewer feels that there is a definite need to reconsider the purpoae of the so-called "short courses" and the texts to he used by students taking these courses Since such courses constitute a considerable part of the student's contact with science, it would appear logical to treat a few selecte3 topics as thoroughly as is commensurate with the students' background and thus send the students into their respective fields, such rts agriculture, homemnkin~,and the srtr, nith the aswmncr th~stehrmistry is a syatrmstlc although ineomylttr Iw
