348 JOURNAL OF ANALYTICAL ATOMIC SPECTROMETRY AUGUST 199 1 VOL. 6 Book Review Continuous-Flow Fast Atom Bom- bardment Mass Spectrometry Edited by Richard M. Caprioli. Pp. x+189. Wiley. 1990. Price f27.50. ISBN 0 471 92863 1. This book is based on a workshop entitled Continuous-Flow FABMS held in November 1989 at Annapolis MD USA and is aimed primarily at workers new to the technique and requiring sufficient detail to be able to use and apply the procedure. Of necessity it 'is restricted to topics presented at the workshop but these appear to have been well chosen for they cover a wide range of applica- tions. The authors generally present their own experience of the technique with the result that coverage is not necessarily comprehensive. This ap- proach has considerable value how- ever as it is less formal and intro- duces the reader to the problems actually encountered and the means of overcoming them.Some seven authors plus additional contributors have written eight chap- ters each of which covers the opera- tional aspects applications and spe- cific experiences in application to particular analytical tasks. The whole book is based on examples and each chapter gives details of instrumenta-JOURNAL OF ANALYTICAL ATOMIC SPECTROMETRY AUGUST 199 1 VOL. 6 349 tion and analytical methodology rele- vant to a particular application. Of particular importance is that difficul- ties and disadvantages have not been overlooked. The first chapter introduces the reader to aspects of design and oper- ation and gives details of individual designs of probe.Special attention is given to the need to achieve a stable operation and a comparison is made with the standard FAB technique. The next two chapters cover aspects relevant to trace analysis and quanti- tative analysis of polar organic com- pounds the latter tending to concen- trate on solutions adopted by the authors in order to overcome particu- lar problems encountered. The remaining chapters are orien- tated more to applications of the technique and cover direct analysis of biological processes LC-MS CZE-MS analysis of low-polarity substances and various other applica- tions. Information on instrumentation and probe design is included in each chapter in particular those on LC- MS and CZE-MS which consider the interface between separation system and MS. In general the applications are to the determination of large biomolecules but they cover a wide range including the on-line measure- ment of drug levels in live animals and applications of tandem MS. In most respects this is an attrac- tive book. It is of manageable size yet is full of valuable and relevant infor- mation laid out in a well-ordered style. It is a book that could be read cover-to-cover or used as a reference to a particular application. Although the information is over 18 months old this book can be recommended especially considering the reasonable cost. J. R. Bacon The Macaulay Land Use Research Institute Craigiebuckler Aberdeen AB92QT UK