Frontiers in Chemistry, Volume III—Advances in Nuclear Chemistry

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RECENT ROOKS FRONTIERS IN CHEMISTRY, VOLUME 111-ADVANCESIN NUCLEAR ular weight and the solubility of solids, the determination of CHEMISTUYAND THEORETICAL OROANICCHEMLSTRY.Edited equilibrium constants, and the examination of physicochemical by R. E . Burk, Plastics Department, E. I. du Pont de Nemours standards. The chapter on "Boiling and Condensation Phenomand Company, and Oliver Grumnzifl,Department of Chemistry, ena Observed under High Pressure" is well done and most Western Reserve University. Interscience Publishers, Inc.. interesting, although its inclusion in this work seems somewhat New York, 1945. ix 165 pp. 37 figs. 7 t a b l a 15 X 23 illogical. The photographs of this chapter are unusually clear. cm. $3.50. This book is well written and very readable. The illustrations This third in a series of books published under the auspices of are good. The text is supplemented by 88 tables of data, many Western Reserve University deals with the ways in which modern of them being of general interest. A novel feature is the lumping physical concepts are aiding in the solution of problems in in- of the 85 literature references a t the end of the hook. Besides organic and organic chemistry. The material is presented on the usual subject and author indexes there is an unusually dethe same high level of scholarship a the previous volumes. tailed table of contents. The surprise shown, page 55, "that no Again the book is not intended as a text but will be useful to the negative heteraazeotropes have bee6 found" is not entirely warranted. The hypothetical phase diagram of such a system teacher and research worker. points to the existence of two immiscible gaseous phases. Type, The series of lectures includes the following: Albert S. Keston, "Isotopes and Their Application to Bio- format, e t c , are all very good. No serious worker in the fields mentioned can afford to be unchemistry." The technique of using radioactive elements a< familiar with ebulliometric techniques and possibilities. T o tracers in studying biochemical problems is related. all such this hook is recommended without reservation. Hugh S. Taylor. "Applications of Isotopes in Catalytic Reac. MALCOLM M. HARING tions a t Surfaces." Studies of reaction mechanisms in surface UNIYBFSITY 0 s M&RYL*ND catalytic reactions have been greatly aided by using deuterium in COLLBOBPm., M A ~ Y L A N D various exchange reactions with hydrogen. An authority on catalysis has brought the subject up to date here. The use of other isotopes is included. BACTE~~OW AND G YALLIEDSUBJECTS. LOUISGershenfdd, ProH. R. Crane, "Techniques in Nuclear, Physics." This is a fessor of Bacteriology and Hygiene and Director of the Bacdescription of the apparatus (vacuum tubes, Van de Graaff teriological Laboratories a t the Philadelphia College of Phargenerator, and cyclotron) needed and methods used t o produce macy and Science in Philadelphia. Mack Publishing Comparticles for bombardments of atoms. pany, Eastan, Pennsylvania, 1945. xxiii f 561 pp. 20 figs. Leslie G. S. Brooker, "Resor,ance and Organic Chemistry." 17 X 25 cm. 56.00. A brief rCsum6 of the theory of resonance is given as well as its This book has evidently been developed by extending t h e application in describing the directing influence of substituents author's lecture notes on bacteriology and parasitology. I n this in benzene, the acidity of compounds containing the OH group, sense i t is peculiarly a product of Dr. Gershenfeld's energy and and the reactivity of compounds containing the carbonyl group. interest. It falls midway between a combined elementary and But this longest chapter in the volume (about half the entire intermediate teat and a reference book. In the first role its book) is devoted mainly t o the application of the theory of organization is overambitious; i t becomes too much of too little resonance to the problem of color and constitution. from the wide current ficlds of general and medical bacteriology. W. H. Rodebush, "The Hydrogen Bond and Its Significance to sanitary science, parasitology and pest control, immunology. Chemistry." Evidence for the existence of this phenomenon and chemotherapy. Few teachers would wish to include all of from infrared spectroscopy and the properties of the hydrogen these topics in a two-year bacteriology course, hut many might bond are discussed. desire a fuller development of the separate specialties. LEALLYN B. CLAPP The hook is much more valuable as a reference survey, or BEOWN UNIVBR~ITI source finder, and for this purpose i t should be particularly useful PPOVIDGNCB, RBODB ISLAND to biology and chemistry teachers who will want to use a variety of original materials from bacteriology and allied fields to vitalize EB~LLIOMET MEASDREMENTS. ~C W. Swielorlawski,Professor in absentia of Physical Chemistry of the Institute of Technology, their courses. The original journal sources are cited throughout Warsaw; Fellow, Mellon Institute of Industrial Research. the text; the more recent developments are treated extensively. but each major topic is developed historically. Reinhold Publishing Corporation, New York, 1945. xi In attempting such a comprehensive work, Dr. Gershenfeld 228pp. 646gs. 15.5 X 23.5cm. $4.00. demonstrates the difficulties inherent in integrating the large The work of Professor Swietoslawski on ebulliometry has been amount of empirical information and numerous special systems made available through numerous papers, but especially through that make up the field that is loosely called bacteriology. the 1936 English translation of his book of that title. "EbullioCHARLES E. RENN metric Measurements" is a thoroughgoing revision and marked MASSACIUSBTTS DBPABTMSNT OF PUBLIC HBALTB expansion of the farmer work. All new material since 1936 has CAXBRIDCE. MISBACHVSBTTS been woven in, and an entirely new chapter on critical phenomena added. DE QuiMICA ORGANICA.Enrique V . Zappi, Professor of The hook contains 18 chapters. The 6rst three deal with the TRATADO Organic Chemistry in the Universities of Buenos Aires and L a apparatus and general techniques, and the comparative method 532 pp. Plata. First Edition. Volume 11, Part 11. xiv which includes a thorough discussion of primary standards in 15.5 X 23.5 cm. Volume 11, Part 111, xii 522 pp. 15.5 X ebulliometry. The rest, save one, deal with applications of the 23.5 cm. Published by Libreria y Editorial "El Ateneo." method. Among these may be Listed the calibration of thermomBuenos Aires. Argentina, 1942. eters, measurement of pressure changes, the determination of Parts I1 and I11 complete the second volume, dedicated t o the the degree of purity of liquid substances, the study of azeotropy, the purification and analysis of liquids, the micro and macro "Cyclic Series" of this extensive treatise on organic chemistry. determination of water content, the micro determination of The general characteristics and purpose of the work have already impurity in solids and of the adsorption of vapors by them, the been indicated in THIS JOURNALin the reviews of Part I of study of thermal decomposition, the determination of the molec- Volume11 [19,98 (1942)l and Part I of Volume I [21,468 (1944) 1.

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