Reviews of BooksComprehensive Chemical Kinetics. Vol. 15. Non-Radical Polymerisation. Ed. C. H. BUFORD andC. F. H. TIPPER. (Elsevier, Amsterdam-Oxford-New York, 1976). Pp. 660. Price 649.88/ $99.75.This is the latest volume of the large-scale work on chemical kinetics which was first publishedin 1969. The book contains eight chapters surveying the anionic polymerisation of olehs:homogeneous cationic polymerisation : Ziegler-Natta reactions ; the polymerisation of cyclic ethersand sulphides, of lactams and of aldehydes ; polycondensation reactions ; and the polymerisation ofN-carboxy-a-amino acid anhydrides.The authors achieve a high standard. The plan of giving special attention to particular repre-sentative reactions enhances interest and readability, and should be useful in conveying the “ feel ”of the subject to research workers coming to it for the first time.The book is also, of course, animportant reference work for specialists. The principal theme of kinetic results and their interpre-tation is well interwoven with critical appraisal of characteristic experimental problems, such assensitivity to trace impurities and identification of transient reactive species. There is a noticeableoverlap between chap. 2 and 4, which each include accounts of the polymerisation of tetrahydrofuran ;but the considerable differences in view-point and emphasis make this more instructive than irritating.Although very expensive the book may prove a better bargain than a collection of specialised volumescovering the same region of polymerisation chemistry.The availability, in one volume, of thesereviews of the wide field of non-radical polymerisation kinetics should broaden perspectives and bea stimulus to new investigation. It will be most useful to individuals who can afford it, and shouldcertainly be recommended to libraries.K. E. WEALEReceived 13th September, 1976Phase Transitions and Critical Phenomena. Volume 6. Ed. C. DOMB and M. S. GREEN. (AcademicPress, London, 1976). Pp. xviii+575. Price ;E21.50/$46.75.The sixth volume in the series edited by Domb and Green is entirely devoted to the renormalizationgroup approach to critical phenomena. This departure from the normal format of the series isfitting, however, given the very substantial development that has taken place in the comparativelyshort period since the publication (in 1971) of Kenneth Wilson’s pioneering contributions.As ithappens, the subject is already well served by review articles, and at least two other books arecurrently available which treat the problem in a relatively elementary way. The present work, incontrast, is clearly intended for specialists. The seven major chapters are all written by acknowledgedauthorities in the fieId and for good measure there is a brief introduction by Wilson himself. Standardtopics such as the E (Wallace) and l / n (Ma) expansions are treated at length and a notable featureis the strong effort made to establish the link between renormalization group ideas and the ideas ofquantum field theory: two full chapters (by Di Castro and Jona-Lasinio and by Brezin, Le Guillouand Zinn-Justin) are devoted to this difficult area.There are also two chapters of a more generalnature, by Wegner and Niemeijer and by van Leeuwen (the latter devoted to Ising-like systems),and finally a detailed account of spin anisotropies and long range interactions by Aharony.Multi-authored books have well-known disadvantages, but in this case a real effort has beenmade to cross-link the chapters. The production is excellent and the work as a whole is a fineaddition to a fine series. Everyone active in research into critical phenomena will wish to have thisvolume close at hand.I. R. MCDONALDReceived 27th April, 1977Atmospheric Chemistry. By J. HEICKLEN. (Academic Press, London and New York, 1976).Pp.xivS-406. Price E27.00/$38.50.The sudden growth of interest in atmospheric chemistry will inevitably produce a spate of bookson this topic and the authors and publishers of the ftrst books to appear must be praised for theirrapidity of writing and publication. However, the race is also against inflation in publication costs204REVIEWS OF BOOKS 2041and HeickIen’s book costs twice as much per page as McEwan and Phillips’ “ Chemistry of theAtmosphere ” which appeared the previous year at E9.75.The balance of these two books is quite different. McEwan and Phillips are largely concernedwith the stratosphere and ionosphere and one third of their book is devoted to the airglow and toion-molecule reactions. They provide an interesting discussion of the atmospheres of other planets,but only devote 22 pages to the troposphere and to pollution problems.In contrast, Heicklen’sbook considers only the Earth’s atmosphere and the bulk of the text is related directly or indirectlyto pollution problems. Much of the present volume is an account of those areas of chemical kineticsand photochemistry which are relevant to the atmosphere, but the atmospheric importance of thedifferent reactions discussed is not made c1ea.r enough for someone who is unfamiliar with the topic.For such a reader the treatment of the all-important transport processes is disappointing. Threescale heights are defined, but not discussed and one could be left with the impression that the verticaltransport rate varied exponentially with altitude.The relative importance of transport and chemistryfor different species and at different altitudes are not well brought out, neither are the parameterisationof transport by eddy diffusion coefficients nor the magnitude of the natural sources and sinks ofmany trace components.Nevertheless this book is a useful source of accurate chemical information (apart from out-of-dateradiative lives for singlet molecular oxygen) and its intelligent use of steady state analyses to explainthe balance of chemical processes occurring in the atmosphere will appeal to kineticists. Havingworked their way through the intricacies of hydrocarbon oxidation, smog formation and sulphurdioxide photochemistry and chemistry, it is to be hoped that readers will realise that there is no directrelation between the length of a section and its importance to atmospheric chemistry.It is also tobe hoped that they will not try out Heicklen’s suggestion of releasing diethyl hydroxylamine toinhibit photochemical smog. Only three years ago, CFCIJ and CF2C12 were considered to becompletely inert and innocuous in the atmosphere and, although we are learning rapidly, it will be along time before we understand atmospheric chemistry well enough to contemplate such an experi-men t .B A.THRUSHReceived 27thApri1, 1977Dispersion Forces. By J. MAHANTY and B. W. NINHAM. (Academic Press, London, 1976). Pp. ixf236.Price E9.20/ $20.10.Dispersion forces between molecules or larger bodies result from correlation in the fluctuationsin the charge distributions in the interacting systems.There is much interest in the topic, for itimpinges on many branches of science, including physics , chemistry, crystallography, polymerscience, colloid science, molecular biology and even astronomy. So the appearance of this newbook by two mathematical physicists from the Australian National University is timely. It isintended for “ graduate students and researchers in areas spanning physics, chemistry and biologywhere dispersion forces play a role ”.There are seven chapters, four short appendices and a postscript containing several references topapers published in 1976. The theory of dispersion forces is developed from the field point of viewand emphasis is placed on macroscopic interactions.The last two chapters are on the role ofdispersion forces in adsorption and in polymer solutions, and on the effects of electrolytes andconduction processes.The authors are well known for their original contributions to the theory of long-range forcesbetween macroscopic bodies; their book is clear and concise and it contains much elegant mathe-matics and lively prose. It is a specialised monograph, and is not a text book on intermolecularforces. The reader is not instructed in how to deduce the full interaction potential for even thesimplest atoms. On p. 88 (see also p. 94 and p. 158) it is stated that “the important observationis that the magnitude and selectivity of van der Waals forces acting between macromolecules shouldbe accessible through macroscopic measurements which are model independent ”.This is misleading,for selectivity is associated with short-range forces and hence with the complementarity of theinteracting molecules. Chemistry is not a sub-branch of dielectrics!While most of the text is clear and authoritative, a few blemishes exist. The Kirkwood-Shumaker interaction energy between proteins resulting from fluctuations in their total charge variesas the inverse square of their separation r and not as r-6 (p. 86). On p. 73 it is stated that themeasurements of Israelachvili and Tabor of the force between crossed cylinders of mica “ are inremarkable agreement with the Lifshitz theory ”; but in the postscript (p. 228) we read of discrepanciesbetween theory and that experiment. On p. 129, there is a brief discussion of the relative stabilitiesof the face-centred-cubic and hexagonal close-packed lattices for the solid inert gases. It is state2042 REVIEWS OF BOOKS‘‘ that any difference in energy must arise from the long-range dispersion part. For point moleculesthe dispersion energies turn out to be the same within the limits of computational error ”. Boththese assertions are unjustified, for short-range non-addivity may be an important factor, and the energydifferences between f.c.c. and h.c.p. lattices for a Lennard-Jones potential are accurately known(see T. H. K. Barron and C. Domb, Pruc. Roy. Suc. A, 1955, 227, 447). The symbol n is used forthree different quantities in Chapter 1. S.I. units are not employed.This will be a useful book for the specialist, and colloid scientists in particular will be very gratefulto the authors. The price (4p per page) is reasonable.A. D. BUCKMGHA~VLReceived 1st May, 197