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11. |
Book reviews |
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Analyst,
Volume 83,
Issue 982,
1958,
Page 59-64
C. H. Gray,
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摘要:
January, 1958: APPARATUS 59 Book Reviews MICRO-ANALYSIS IN MEDICAL BIOCHEMISTRY. By E. J . KING, M.A., Ph.D., D.Sc., F.R.I.C., and Pp. xii + 292. Since the publication of the first edition in 1946, Professor King’s “Micro-Analysis in Medical Biochemistry” has been an essential item in almost every hospital biochemical laboratory in the I. D. I>. WOOTTON, Ph.D., M.A., M.B., B.Chir., F.R.I.C. London: J. & A. Churchill Ltd. 1956. Price 22s. 6d. Third Edition.60 BOOK REVIEWS [Vol. 83 country. Translations into Spanish, Italian and Serbo-Croat show that it is rapidly becoming essential in many laboratories of other countries as well. It sets out to describe clearly and concisely the routine methods of biochemical analysis used in the Department of Chemical Pathology a t the British Postgraduate Medical School.Since the accuracy and adequacy of these methods have been fully checked before they are acceptable for the routine work a t Hammersmith, and since they were employed there for a long time before they were described in this book, it is axiomatic that they may be accepted by 1aboratori.e~ in which the opportunities of checking them are limited. The present edition, of which Dr. I. D. P. Wooxton is now a co-editor, will enhance the reputa- tion enjoyed by the previous editions. An increase in the number of pages from 222 to 292 has been brought about by the introduction of a number of new procedures, including the estimation of uric acid by uricase, phosphatase by the determination of liberated phenol with aminoantipyrine, of lead and mercury in urine and faeces, as well as -the ethylenediaminetetra-acetate determination of calcium, the paper chromatography of urinary sugars and the vitamin-A absorption test.It is a tribute to the high quality of the methods described in the previous editions that the only section that has required to be extensively revised in the present edition has been that on colorimetric and spectrophotometric analyses. Quite rightly, the authors have decided to omit all considera- tion of the simple visual colorimeter in order to permit expansion of the section on spectrophoto- metry to 20 pages. This is an excellent section and not only includes a discussion of the principles of spectrophotometry and of particular instruments, but also gives full practical details of esti- mating blood oxygen saturation, carboxyhaemoglobin concentrations and blood barbiturates.The revolution in the estimations of electrolytes brought about by the introduction of flame photometry has made necessary increasing the section on this subject from three-quarters of a page to a total of 5 pages. It is surprising therefore to find that colorimetric methods of estimating sodium and potassium are still included. These techniques are so time-consuming that the flame photometer should be available in every department expected to estimate electrolytes ; otherwise the patient all too often is dead before the result of the analysis is available. The practical details of carrying out balance experiments will be especially appreciated by those to whom such investiga- tions are not a daily routine.In a short book review, criticism is apt to over-emphasise the bad features of a book, but the following minor criticisms are not intended to detract in any way from the opinion that this is a most excellent manual. It is the reviewer’s personal view that serum bilirubin is better estimated with a technique that avoids absorption of pigment on the precipitated plasma proteins. The introduction of tablet tests for many of the qualitative investigations of urine is sufficiently well established to require mention, whereas the fermentation and osazone methods of identifying reducing substances are unlikely to be employed when paper chromatography is available. The glucose - oxidase enzyme tests have probably been reported too recently to be ready for the manuscript a t the time the book was being prepared.It is surprising that, although there is a reference to the estimation of 17-ketogenic steroids in urine, this is not described in detail. This procedure is now widely used in the assessnimt of adrenal function in clinical patients. In the section on the urea clearance test, five examples of the calculation seems rather excessive; two would have sufficed and the space saved could have been used to explain inore clearly the concept of the standard clearance. Tables of logarithms, of international atomic weights and of solubilities of common compounds in water add to the value of this useful manual. Although it is not a critical compendium of methods in the sense of the original volume by Peters and van Slyke, it is nevertheless not a mere cookery book of methods.Every hospital biochemist and all others concerned with the analysis of biological material will consider it excellent value at the modest price of 22s. 6d. C. H. GRAY THE CHEMISTRY OF THE COORDINATION COMPOUNDS. Edited by JOHN C. BAILAR, JUN. Pp. x New York: Reinhold Publishing Professor J. C . Bailar, jun., originally intended to write this book alone, but the literature on co-ordination compounds is so vast that he decided to ask twenty-three of his students and former students t o help him. No attempt has been made to cover the chemistry of co-ordination compounds completely, but an effort has been made to select ideas that are fundamental and stimulating. This is not a + 834.Corporation; London: Chapman & Hall Ltd. 1956. Price $18.60; 148s. American Chemical Society Monograph No. 131.January, 19581 BOOK REVIEWS 61 practical book, although there are chapters on subjects such as co-ordination compounds in electro- deposition and the use of co-ordination compounds in analytical chemistry. A considerable effort has been expended in systematising knowledge of co-ordination com- pounds, but a student will not find in this volume a logical introduction to co-ordination chemistry. For example, the book starts with a general survey of the chemistry of numerous compounds, but the meaning of co-ordination is not discussed in any detail until Chapter 2 (p. 100) on the early development of co-ordination theory is reached.Moreover, it is a pity that Chapter 3 (the electro- static theory) and Chapter 4 (the electron pair bond) were not interchanged, because the section on the electron pair bond gives the approach that is generally associated with co-ordination theory. The chapters dealing with structure are useful critical reviews that should be valuable to research workers. No doubt the story on p. 189 of the theorist who advanced a beautiful explana- tion for a fact that he had misread has a moral. The account of the analytical uses of co-ordination compounds occupies only twenty-six pages, so that each item has little space; thus rubeanic acid is merely mentioned by name and is dismissed with a short list of references. The text is remarkably free from errors, although it is unfortunate that no co-ordination has been achieved between the two parts of Mr.Trotman-Dickenson’s name (see p. 224). The con- ventional method of writing the substances on the right-hand side of an equation in the numerator of the equilibrium constant has not been employed on p. 572 and p. 591, although the normal convention has been used elsewhere in the book. The relationship between the diagram showing connected circles on p. 31 and the structure of the compound (C,H,),Au,SO, is not understandable without consulting the original paper. The book binding does not appear to be strong enough to hold together this 3&lb tome, for the covers had already started to break away from the texts in two copies that were examined. An undergraduate will probably find this work too detailed and too expensive and an analyst will find that this book does not contain enough experimental detail to satisfy his needs, but many a librarian will prize this volume as a valuable survey of certain aspects of co-ordination chemistry.E. F. G. HERINGTON AMINO ACID HANDBOOK: METHODS AND RESULTS O F PROTEIN ANALYSIS. By RICHARD J. BLOCK, Yh.D., and KATHRYN W. WEISS, A. B., and others. Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas; Oxford : Blackwell Scientific Publications. Proceedings of a Con- ference in Princeton, United States (1955), sponsored jointly by The Food and Agriculture Organisation of The United Nations (F.A.O.), The World Health Organisation (W.H.O.) and the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, New York. Edited by J. C. WATERLOW and JOAN M.L. STEPHEN. Pp. 194. Rome: F.A.O.; Geneva: W.H.O. 1957. Price 10s. The second part of “Amino Acid Handbook,” though it consists entirely of tables (95 pages of them), may well be the most permanently valuable to the analyst. It is certainly an up to date and comprehensive account of its subject-called by the authors “The Amino Acid Composition of Proteins” and constituting Part B of the volume. There does not seem to be any Part A, but this is presumably t o be understood as the first 245 pages, including 67 pages of bibliography and called “Methods and Results of Protein Analysis.” The usefulness of the figures tabulated in Part B must be wholly dependent on the validity of the methods described earlier in the book. The particular method used to establish any one figure is to be found-at least I hope so-via the reference given alongside the figure in the Tables.Then it is for the analyst to apply his critical judgment to the question how accurate, and how precise, is any figure required by him and taken from the Tables. The methods des- cribed include both chemical and microbiological (in chapters 111 and IV, respectively), after an introductory chapter and, sensibly enough, a chapter (11) on “Preparation of the Sample for Analysis.” This includes a short account of the Kjeldahl method-in its “macro” as well as “micro” and “rapid” modifications-the authors having given at the beginning of the chapter their reasons for thinking that the determination of “protein content (nitrogen x 6-25)’’ is an essential preliminary to amino-acid analysis.But I can find no discussion of whether the factor 6.25 is invariably applicable. The same chapter also describes the method of preparing and “purifying” amino-acid solutions, including the fashionable modern de-salting procedure on ion-exchange resins ; curiously enough, this stage is described before the method for hydrolysing the protein to be analysed. Pp. xiv + 386. 1956. Price 80s. HUMAN PROTEIN REQUIREMENTS AND THEIR FULFILMENT IN PRACTICE. Certainly he has plenty of material on whkh to exercise that judgment.62 BOOK REXIEWS [Vol. 83 After the chapters on microbiological and chemical methods comes one on paper chromato- graphy and another on column chromatography of amino-acid mixtures in solution. I t is grati- fying-for more reasons than one-to note frequent references to British workers in this and other fields covered by the book, though it is a little odd to find no mention whatever of Gale (even in the index) or consequently of the fact that he has incidentally invented a new method of amino- acid analysis by the use of the amino acid decarboxylases. Why no one has developed and applied this method, which is at least in theory by far the most specific available, is hard to understand.The modification of microbiological assay procedures so as to use Petri dishes or “large plates” and to measure “zones of exhibition” rather than turbidity or acid production, so successfully applied in this country to routine vitamin determinations, appears, from the lack of any mention in this book, never to have been tried on amino acids.Perhaps this is because so far their measure- ment has almost always been a research job and 110 “fordising” of procedure for control purposes has been called for. The time must come-and sooner perhaps than many expect-when food manufacturers arid others will no longer to any useful purpose standardise, or even control, their products for co,ntent of “protein,” that is, of nitrogen x 6-25. In the report just published jointly by F.A.O. and W.H.O. entitled “Human Protein Requirements and their Fulfilment in Practice,” there is given a full account of the Conference held at Princeton in 1955 (it is nowhere disclosed in the book exaclzly when in 1955 it took place, though internal evidence indicates that it must have been near the beginning of the year).This book has been SO well edited and put together in so realistic a manner that to read it continuously-and at one sitting-is a pleasure and conveys a strong sense of active participation. The report makes abundantly clear how the minds of experts-physiologists, biochemists, nutritionists, paediatricians, epidemiologists, pathologists-are turning from consideration of proteins to consideration of their constituent amino acids, that is, to the nature, quantity and properties of each individual amino acid, and to their interactions. Even though the promised forthcoming report of the meeting held later in 1955 by the F.A.O. Committee on Protein Requirements can hardly carry us much further, it is bound to speed the day when none of these experts will accept as having much value any statement about the “total protein” content of a food or a diet.The demand will then be at least for a statement of individual amino-acid percentage as of individual vitamins and indi- vidual mineral elements. The food analyst, in local or national government service, in hospital laboratory or in industry, will have to answer the challenge implicit in such demands. That he will then be able to do so will in no small measure be due to the pioneer work: of Professor Block and his colleagues. Always outstanding among their contributions will be the compilation, arrangement and presentation of the material in this book to end-for the present anyhow-all other books on the subject. These circumstances will assuredly change.A. L. BACHARACK A GUIDE TO QUALITATIVE ORGANIC CHEMICAL ANALYSIS. By R. P. LINSTEAD, C.B.E., D.Sc., D.I.C., F.R.I.C., F.R.S., and B. C. L. WISEDON, D.Sc., Ph.D., A.R.C.S., D.I.C., F.R.I.C. pp. xii + 169. London: Butterworths Scientific Publications; New York: Academic Press Inc. 1956. Price 21s.; $4.50. This book, based on a manual of instruction evolved at Imperial College during the years .since 1930, bears all the marks of the work of practised teachers. Written for students preparing for their first degree and for the Graduateship of the Royal Institute of Chemistry, the book, although essentially an instructional book, is at the same time refreshing and readable. The scheme of analysis described in the first 100 pages of the book is no simplified routine process devoid of educational value, but a sound approach to the subject of qualitative organic analysis.Although restricted to the requirements of the undergraduate, the training offered in dealing with the twenty-three functional groups covered by the book provides a sound basis for the analysis of more complex compounds. The pre- parations can rightly be called “small scale,’’ but it ILS to be regretted that the Authors have nowhere given a description of the size or design of the apparatus required. The quantities prescribed for many of the test-tube experiments are often of the order of 5 ml-these could with advantage be adjusted to a total volume of 3 to 4 ml, thereby allowing the use of a 3-inch x $-inch or “semi- micro” test-tube. In any work dealing with the analysis of organx compounds a list of melting-points is essential and the last 50 pages are occupied by 27 tables gi.ving melting-points of derivatives of some 800 The details given of the experiments described in this Guide are clear and precise.January, 19581 BOOK REVIEWS 63 simple organic compounds, Here it would be helpful if some indication could also be given of the most suitable derivative to be prepared in each instance. The authors are to be congratulated on a fine piece of work, which teachers in Universities and Technical Colleges would do well to examine.The book is well produced and, for a first edition, remarkably free of printer’s errors. H. HOLNESS SUPPLEMENT TO MELLOR’S COMPREHENSIVE TREATISE ON INORGANIC AND THEORETICAL CHEMISTRY.Supplement 11. Editorial Board: H. 1‘. -4. BRISCOE, D.Sc., A.R.C.S., D.I.C., F.R.I.C., A. A. ELDRIDGE, B.Sc., F.R.I.C., and G. M. DYSON, M.A., D.Sc., F.R.I.C., M.I.Chem.E., F.Inst.Pet. Pp. lii + 1153. London, New York and Toronto: Longmans, Green & Co. Ltd. 1956. Price 170s. “Mellor” has long been out of date; the first volume appeared in 1922 and the last in 1937. Yet throughout the years it has retained with distinction its place on our library shelves with “Beilstein.” Now, like “Beilstein,” it is to have its supplementary volumes and they will be welcomed warmly if they are all of the high quality of the first. The Editorial Board and the Publishers have most wisely decided not to have the whole work re-written. The supplements are intended to be used with the original volumes and are arranged similarly.The many contributors to this work on the halogens are experts in their fields and have produced most valuable surveys with copious references. Many subjects entirely new to the main edition are included. Radiochemistry, embracing fission isotopes, radiation chemistry and excited-atom chemistry, occupies nearly 200 pages, spectro-chemistry and photo-chemistry are fully surveyed, and a good account of modern fluorine chemistry, including the fluorocarbons, is given. Astatine, the 10-year-old member of the halogen family, is well discussed in a section of fifteen pages. Very good summaries of analytical methods are given, with references to original papers, and adequate notes upon the biological importance of the halogens and their compounds are provided.The contributors and publishers have produced an excellent reference work, which will be an essential in every chemical library. No reference has been found in this book (dated 1956) later than 1953; it is thus already 3 years out of date. However, reassurances can be taken from the aim of the Editors, which is declared in the preface: “to produce the series of Supplements as quickly as possible and at relatively low cost so that it might be possible in the future as in the past for the individual chemist himself to possess the Volumes dealing with fields of inorganic chemistry in which he was especially interested.” VITAMIN A. By THOMAS MOORE, Sc.D., D.Sc. Pp. xx + 645. Amsterdam: Elsevier Publishing Co.; London: Cleaver-Hume Press Ltd.; New York: D.Van Nostrand Co. Inc. 1957. Price 76s.; $14.00. The amount of published work on vitamins is now very large, and this substantial volume deals only with the provitamins and vitamins A. It is interesting to note that even so the author has been able to cover the ground only by dint of careful selection. Dr. Moore has been engaged in research on vitamins A and E and in other nutritional matters for 30 years and has himself made noteworthy contributions to knowledge. He is therefore well equipped to survey the subject of vitamin A, and in doing so is willing to “be guided by the incomplete pattern which research has actually followed.” Part I of the book consists of an interesting historical introduction and Part I1 is devoted to the estimation of vitamins A and provitamins A by biological assays and by colour reactions, fluorescence and spectro-photometry.Part I11 deals with the chemistry of vitamin A and its provitamins and congeners. Part IV is concerned with the comparative biochemistry and natural history of the carotenoids and vitamin A. Beginning with absorption of provitamins A, the argument proceeds via the conversion of provitamins to vitamin A to the absorption of vitamin A itself. The next step is the storage, distribution and mobilisation of vitamin A; this leads to requirements and then to transfer of vitamin A from mother to offspring. Then comes a section on vitamin A and vision, and from this follows a discussion of both cis - trans isomerism and vitamin A,. The pathology of vitamin-A deficiency is then fully described, and hyper-vitaminosis A is reviewed carefully. A long section is then given over to vitamin A in human health and disease.Part VIII surveys the state of knowledge about vitamin A in farm and domestic animals; there are two good chapters on vitamin A and sex, and another on vitamin A and the thyroid. The final chapter is a shrewd assessment of our present knowledge of vitamin A. Part 1-F, C1, Br, I, At. A. J. LINDSEY Parts V, VI and VII are outstanding.64 BOOK REVIEWS In the preface Dr. Moore says- “At the same time we must, to some extent, condense our account of the crowded and fashionable fields of investigation, and deal more expansively with topics which have been less popular than their importance would have justified.” In tracing the historical development of knowledge about vitamin A it may be seen that the second great phase turned on estimation-the development of biological and spectrophoto- metric methods.From this came criteria of purity, isolation, characterisation and, eventually, elegant syntheses to close a great chapter. The third phase was the elucidation of the chemistry and biochemistry of vitamin A in relation to vision. The fourth and by far the most incomplete phase is the clarification of the biochemistry of vitamin A, its modes of action in tissues generally. The second and third phases have gone far enough to be presented in a tidy and concise fashion at the cost of some over-simplification. The new generation of research workers faces difficult problems in the fourth phase; as an unrivalled gu-ide here, Dr.Moore is definite when the facts are clear and is scrupulously fair to all hypotheses that may or may not be valid. R. A. MORTON ORGANIC ANALYSIS. Volume 111. Edited by J. MITCHELL, jun., I. M. KOLTHOFF, E. S. PROSKAUER New York and London: Interscience Publishers This third volume of the series is half as large again as the previous member (Analyst, 1956, 81, 676), and the number of review articles is reduced to six. Instrumental methods as such are repre- sented by the analytical applications of the mass spectrometer (56 pp.) ; the opportunity to operate such expensive equipment is given to few, but this chapter should serve to illustrate its capabilities to the many. The first four chapters describe analytical methods for various functional groups : organic acids (96 pp.); acid anhydrides (32 pp.); amines and amides, with some brief notes on imides, imines and quaternary ammonium compounds (74 pp.) ; olefinic unsaturation (184 pp). Chemi- cal, physical and instrumental methods are described ; among the newer procedures covered are gas chromatography for acids and olefinic substances, ion exchange for the former and non- aqueous titration for acids and amines. The article on olefinic unsaturation-which, from its title, will be understood as not being limited to hydrocarbons-is a remarkable achievement, presenting in condensed form no less than just under seven hundred papers. The last chapter breaks new ground in this whole series by dealing with applied analysis; the subject is synthetic organic coating resins, to which the author has felt it necessary to add a sub-title indicating the necessity to limit his field. to “some commercially important classes.’’ This branch of technology is one in which there have been great advances, particularly during the last 20 years, resulting in the appearance of some complex analytical problems. To say that this article will prove of particular value to the analyst faced with an occasional sample is not to deny its general worth. A few corrections for volume I1 are given; the in.dex is cumulative, though in less detail for the two earlier volumes. and A. WEISSBERGER. Inc. 1956. Price $11.50; 92s. Pp. viii + 546. B. A. ELLIS
ISSN:0003-2654
DOI:10.1039/AN958830059b
出版商:RSC
年代:1958
数据来源: RSC
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12. |
Publications received |
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Analyst,
Volume 83,
Issue 982,
1958,
Page 64-64
Preview
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PDF (44KB)
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摘要:
64 BOOK REVIEWS Publications Received THE CHEMISTRY OF THE ACTINIDE ELEMENTS. B y JOSEPH J . KArz and GLENN T. SEABORG. Pp. xvi + 508. 1957. Price 63s. Editor: H. S. ROOKE, M.Sc., F.R.I.C. Pp. 795. London: The Society of Chemical Industry. 1957. Price 100s. By K. ARIMA, W. J. NICKERSON, M. PYKE, H. SCHANDERL, A. S. SCHULTZ, A. C. THAYSEN and R. S. W. THORNE. Edited by W. ROMAN. The Hague: Dr. W. Junk, Publishers. 1957. Price 25 Guilders. Eiy J. H. LECK, M.Eng., A.M.I.E.E., A.1ns.P. Pp. 144. 1957. Price 30s. London: Methuen & Co. Ltcl.; New York: John Wiley & Sons Inc. REPORTS ON THE PROGRESS OF APPLIED CHEMISTRY. YEASTS. Volume XLI: 1956. Pp. 246. PRESSURE MEASUREMENT IN VACUUM SYSTEMS. London: Chapman & Hall Ltd. cln behalf of the Institute of Physics. A publication in the Physics in Industvy Ssries. VOLUMETRIC ANALYSIS. VOLUME 111. TITRATION METHODS : OXIDATION - REDUCTION RE- ACTIONS. With the co-operation of V. A. STENGER and G. MATSUYAMA. Pp. x + 714. New York and London: Interscience Publishers Inc. 1957. Price $15.00; 115s. By I. M. KOLTHOFF and R. BELCHER.
ISSN:0003-2654
DOI:10.1039/AN9588300064
出版商:RSC
年代:1958
数据来源: RSC
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