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LICENTIATESHIP The establishment of Licentiateship as a new grade of corporate membership of the Institute has now been finally approved. I t had been necessary to amend the By-laws of the Institute in order to provide the constitutional frame-work for the introduction of the new grade and to prescribe the status privileges and obligations of persons admitted to membership as Licentiates. A resolution to make such changes in the By-laws as were deemed necessary or desirable for these purposes was accordingly submitted to a Special General Meeting of the Institute held in London on 20 July 196 1 and was passed by the requisite majority of corporate members voting in person or by proxy (J. 1961 336). The By-laws as so amended have now been allowed by the Privy Council without modification; they come into operation and have effect from 14 March 1962 the date of promulga-tion of the Order.Revised By-laws incorporating these and other amendments made since 1955 are being printed in full as part of a booklet which will also contain a reprint of the Royal Charter for issue to each new corporate member on election. Moreover in view of the extent and significance of the alterations to the By-laws the Council has decided to send a copy of this ‘Charter and By-laws’ booklet as soon as possible to every existing corporate member. STATUS PRIVILEGES AND OBLIGATIONS OF LICENTIATES The amended By-law 43 provides that Licentiates shall be corporate members and that any person while being a Licentiate of the Institute may use after his name the initials L.R.I.C.Amendments to By-laws 4 5 7, 11 and 12 prescribe the rights of Licentiates in relation to General Meetings and provide specifically that Licentiates shall not be entitled to participate in sub-mitting or to vote on any resolution which if passed, would effect an alteration in the Charter or By-laws of the Institute. Apart from being subject to such limitations of rights in connection with General Meetings and to certain specific restrictions imposed by Regula-tions Licentiates will have the same general rights and privileges and will be required to accept the same obliga-tions as Associates. Alterations to By-laws 2 46 48 52, 54 62 and 65 serve to specify or clarify the incidence of these rights and obligations and are largely of a formal character.I t follows from the terms of By-law 90 that a Licentiate will automatically be a member of the Local Section (if any) serving the area in which his registered address lies and except in so far as any restriction may be im-posed by the Rules of the Section will have the same rights and privileges and be subject to the same obliga-tions as any other member in relation to Section affairs. CONDITIONS OF ADMISSION TO LICENTIATESHIP Subject to the provisions of the Charter and the By-laws (as amended) the Council is authorized to prescribe the terms and conditions for admission to Licentiateship of persons who are British subjects Commonwealth citizens or citizens of the Republic of Ireland (or of such other country formerly within the Commonwealth as may in future be specifically approved for this purpose by a General Meeting).The Council with the advice of its Study Group on Qualifications has accordingly framed Regulations for Admission to Licentiateship which have been duly approved for issue by Order of the Council. It has been agreed that these Regulations shall be issued in the first instance as a supplement to the general Regulations f o r Admission to Membership. This supplement and forms of applica-tion for admission to Licentiateship will be printed as soon as possible but requests for copies cannot be dealt with before 1 May. I n order that existing members of the Institute may be fully aware of the detailed requirements the Regulations f o r Admission to Licentiateship will be published in full in the May issue of the Journal.The earliest date on which applications for admission to Licentiateship can be accepted for consideration is 1 June 1962. In framing the Regulations the Council has been concerned to give effect to the general intention (J., 1960 122) that the conditions of admission to Licentiate-ship shall be such as to provide ‘that Licentiates should be recognized as qualified scientists or technologists (as distinct from technicians) but at a lower academic level than the good honours degree equivalence that is required for admission to Graduate Membership or Associateship.’ The Regulations as adopted for this purpose follow closely the indications given in the Memorandum issued in connection with the Referendum (December 1960) and in the Statement appended to the Notice of the Special General Meeting (July 1961).Thus they provide inter alia that every candidate for admission as a Licentiate must produce evidence that-( a ) He is not less than 21 years of age. As regards academic attainments he has complied with the Institute’s normal requirements as to general education and in respect of physics and mathematics as ancillary subjects; he has pursued at a recognized institution a systematic course in chemistry covering the three main branches of chemistry (with or without an element of applied chemistry) and extending over at least two years of full-time study or equivalent period of part-time or sandwich-course study from G.C.E. ‘A’ 11 120 ( 6 ) JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY [APRIL level in chemistry; and has obtained a qualifica-tion or passed an examination approved by the Council for this purpose.He has had at least one year of approved experience in the practice or application of chemistry after satisfying the academic requirements or at least two years of such experience before satisfying those requirements. In an appendix to the main Regulation (Kl) there is a schedule of sets of qualifications and conditions that have been approved as satisfying the academic require-ments for admission under that Regulation. This refers to conditions under which various types of degrees of universities in Great Britain or Ireland diplomas of certain colleges Diplomas in Technology and Higher National Diplomas in chemistry and related fields of pure or applied science are acceptable; specifies acceptability of a pass in Part I of the Institute’s Gradu-ate Membership examination and an approved practical examination ; and prescribes conditions for acceptance of a Higher National Certificate in Chemistry or Applied Chemistry followed by a pass in an externally assessed examination taken after completing an approved course in a specialized field or fields of chemistry or related technology.A separate Regulation (K2) provides for special con-sideration to be given to applications from candidates who have been trained in Commonwealth or foreign universities or institutes and after obtaining degrees or other awards of a satisfactory standard have had at least one year of approved experience.Under a further Regulation (K3) a person over the age of 35 who holds and has held for some years a position of senior responsibility in the practice or application of chemistry but has not completely fulfilled the requirements of Regulation K1 or K2 may apply to have his claims for admission specially assessed. Notes to the Regulations indicate concessions that may be granted under transitional arrangements. LICENTIATESHIP IN RELATION TO OTHER GRADES OF MEMBERSHIP There are now two grades of non-corporate member-ship of the Institute-Student and Graduate Member-ship-and three grades of corporate membership-Licentiates hip Associa teship and Fellows hip. Student Membership is clearly a transitional grade open to students who have reached a suitable stage in preparing to fulfil the academic requirements either for Licentiateship or by qualifying as Graduate Members, for Associateship.Graduate Membership is also a transitional non-corporate grade for although it repre-sents a higher standard of academic attainment than is needed for Licentiateship it involves no requirement of experience in practice and is intended for those who are in course of acquiring such experience for admission to Associateship. Because Graduate Membership represents a qualifica-tion equivalent to a good honours degree in chemistry, the Council had deemed it appropriate to authorize any person while being a Graduate Member of the Institute to use after his name the designation ‘Grad.R.I.C.’ and this authorization has now been confirmed by the allowance of a suitable addition to By-law 49 (1).No other form of designation or abbreviation is approved, and it is desired that the use of initiaZs should be reserved for corporate members (F.R.I.C. A.R.I.C. and now L.R.I.C. but not G.R.I.C.). Licentiateship has been introduced as a professional qualification in its own right. It is intended primarily for those who do not proceed or succeed in gaining admission to Graduate Membership or to Associateship, but have reached a standard that may be described as the equivalent of a ‘good pass degree’ in chemistry and/or applied chemistry and related fields of science, and have had suitable experience in practice. Licen-tiateship is not to be regarded therefore as a normal step towards Associateship or Fellowship.It is expected however that some Licentiates will qualify in due course for promotion to a higher grade by making good the deficiency in their academic attainments e.g. by taking such additional courses as may be necessary to complete the required period of systematic study and passing Part I1 of the Graduate Membership examination or by obtaining any of the exempting qualifications prescribed by the Regulations then in force. Licentiates who obtain higher academic qualifications that would make them eligible for admis-sion to Graduate Membership will not be admitted forthwith to that grade-and thus pass from a permanent corporate to a transitional non-corporate one-but will remain Licentiates until they acquire the additional approved experience required for admission to Associate-ship.Nevertheless Licentiates who have qualified for admission to Graduate Membership will be regarded as having thereby become eligible for registration to work for the Institute’s Research Diploma or for any of the postgraduate Diplomas in Applied Chemistry. Licen-tiates as such are not so eligible. The introduction of Licentiateship will not affect the operation of existing Regulations F that provide for qualification for Graduate Membership through partial or complete exemption from the examination. Thus, under Regulation F5 it is still open to a candidate who has completed the full course for a degree or diploma on which complete exemption from Part I1 could be accorded but has obtained that degree or diploma without attaining the prescribed class of honours for such exemption to apply for entry to a special examina-tion for Graduate Membership (in lieu of Part 11) provided that he has been engaged in the study and practice of chemical science for not less than two years after obtaining the degree or diploma 19621 LICENTIATESHIP 121 On the other hand the Council had indicated (in the Referendum Memorandum and the S.G.M.Statement) that when Licentiateship was introduced the existing Regulation G4 should be rescinded. This Regulation provided that in exceptional circumstances a person of mature age and experience who was not a Graduate Member but had held for some years a position of senior responsibility in the practice or application of chemistry might apply for permission to take a special examination for direct admission as an Associate.I t will now be possible for such persons to apply under Regulation K3 (see above) to have their claims for admission to corporate membership as a Licentiate specially assessed and this provision will now re-place that of Regulation G4. Notice is accordingly given that no further applications under Regula-tion G4 can be entertained after the date of pub-lication of this announcement. Chemistry in the Service of Agriculture By SIR WILLIAM SLATER K.B.E. D.SC. F.R.S. * Agriculture is man’s oldest craft and marks his first step in the control of the environment in which he lives. Primitive man sought his food like other animals by hunting and by gathering the fruits of wild plants.His life was uncertain periods of repletion alternating with starvation. As his mental ability developed he tamed animals so that he could have them at hand to kill for food when he wished. He collected the seeds of wild plants and sowed them close to his home to provide a crop which he could harvest and store. Some the nomads-like many African tribes today-concentrated on the management of livestock moving with their animals wherever grazing and water were to be found. Others where climatic conditions were favourable began to develop the great agrarian system which is the basis of most modern agriculture; growing crops for their own food and for that of their animals; living a settled life surrounded by their fields their cattle and their storage barns.Slowly over the centuries man improved his farming methods. The plough drawn by oxen and later by horses replaced hand labour; the fallow was introduced, and the control of weeds was attempted; seeds were selected to provide heavier and better crops; and dung and other organic wastes were used to increase yields. The breeding and management of livestock became one of man’s most absorbing interests. This slow evolution of agrarian farming which had often shown little or no change for hundreds of years, was greatly accelerated in Great Britain during the eighteenth century. The same impetus the restless desire for knowledge which was driving scientists to seek to discover the nature of matter in the laboratory was causing the farmer to experiment with the crops in his fields and the stock in his yards.Under the influence of men like Tull Townsend Coke and Bakewell farm-ing in Britain reached a level which it was not to exceed for more than a hundred years until the infant science of chemistry had grown to a stature which made possible the next great advance of the twentieth century. Chemists from the earliest days of the science have been deeply interested in the growth of plants. Van Helmont carried out the first recorded experiment in which he grew a willow shoot in sterile soil moistened only with rain water to demonstrate his theory that water alone was needed for the growth of plants. Boyle repeated the experiment with ‘squash’ and satis-fied himself that van Helmont was right in his con-clusions and that ‘salt spirit earth and even oil (though that be thought of all bodies the most opposite of water) may be produced out of water.’ This theory did not survive long; Glauber arguing from the presence of saltpetre in the droppings of animaIs that it must have been present in the plants on which they fed and hence that it was the ‘principle’ of vegetation carried out experiments in which he demon-strated greatly increased growth when plants were given saltpetre.Mayow later supported Glauber’s hypo-thesis and showed that the amount of nitre in the soil was greatest in the spring and was decreased when plants had grown abundantly in it. Woodward in 1699, in a remarkable paper for his time describes a beautifully designed experiment which proved conclusively that the growth of plants supplied with water from the Hyde Park Conduit and garden mould grew much larger than those given rain or Thames water.From this he sets out the principle that the falling off in the growth of crops when they are grown for successive years on the same land is due to the exhaustion of the nutrients, which he believed to be vegetable matter. The addition of manure he concluded replaced this vegetable matter and restored the fertility of the soil. For the next 70 years there was much speculation and some experiment but the problem of the source of the organic matter in plants still remained unknown. It is to Priestley whose figure forms the centre of the Institute’s Seal and Presidential badge that we owe * Presidential Address delivered at the opening of the Symposium on Chemistry in the Service of Agriculture on 12 April at the School of Pharmacy University of London 122 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY [APRIL the observation which provided the key to this problem.In 1771 Priestley knowing that the air becomes vitiated by animal respiration combustion and putrefac-tion arguing that there must be some continuous natural purification-since if there were not life and combustion would cease-tried the effect of sprigs of mint on vitiated air. He found that the mint made the air pure and concluded that the mint instead of affecting the air like animal respiration reversed the process.He might have given the complete answer when he discovered oxygen and the nature of combustion had he not at that time overlooked the importance of light. He failed to repeat his earlier experiments when he was challenged by Scheele who showed that plants like animals vitiated air in darkness. It was not until 1779 that Ingenhousz demonstrated that both were right. In 1782 Senebier showed that green plants convert carbon dioxide to oxygen under the influence of light. De Saussure in 1804 by a series of carefully planned quantitative experiments finally established the essential facts of the gaseous exchanges involved in plant growth : respiration with the absorption of oxygen and the evolution of carbon dioxide and photosynthesis with the absorption of carbon dioxide in light and the evolution of oxygen producing the carbon compounds.He went on to prove that only a small part of the plant constituents the nitrogen and the ash are taken from the soil that the ash consists primarily of alkalis and phosphate and varies in composition with the nature of the soil and the age of the plant. When the stage of development of pure chemistry at the time is taken into consideration this work of de Saussure’s can only be regarded with admiration and wonder. The applica-tion of chemistry to agriculture has generally lagged behind the developments in the pure science but here it was in advance of the chemical thought of the time. Even Davy in his textbook on agricultural chemistry published in 1813 failed to appreciate the importance of de Saussure’s work and although admitting that some plants absorbed carbon dioxide from the air he still maintained that most carbon was taken up from the roots.It is not my intention to carry the history of the application of chemistry further. With the publication by Liebig of his British Association address of 1840 under the title of ‘Chemistry in its Application to Agriculture and Physiology’ began the modern approach to the study of plant nutrition a subject of ever-growing com-plexity which is still occupying the attention of agri-cultural chemists today. I must however mention one major outcome of Liebig’s work and writings. His influence on Lawes and Gilbert resulted in the establishment of the world’s first agricultural research institute at Rothamsted.I t is noteworthy that the cost of this institute was met by Lawes from the profits arising from the manufacture of super-phosphate. This is the first of the long record of instances in which the chemical industry has joined forces with agriculture to their common benefit-the products of the chemical works increasing the farmer’s yields the farmer becoming one of the major buyers of chemicals and the profits of the chemical industry con-tributing to research for the benefit of agriculture. I have dealt with these early studies because they illustrate with relative simplicity the approach of the chemist to agricultural problems and many of the difficulties he encounters in his work. Agriculture is a craft an art an industry but not a science.Its antiquity however sets it apart from other industries in that a code of sound practice has emerged by a process of trial and error. The first task of chemistry or of any other science that serves agri-culture is to explain the scientific basis on which these traditional practices rest. It is then possible to show how they may be improved or adapted when economic conditions make them no longer practicable or profitable, To explain and improve traditional methods is, however only one side of the scientist’s work; his most spectacular contributions to agriculture have been the evolution of entirely new materials and techniques which have brought about revolutions in agricultural practice, The fixation of nitrogen from the air which provided an abundant supply of nitrogenous fertilizers and the discovery of new and powerful insecticides and selective herbicides have gone far towards doubling crop yields, which were already thought to have reached their optimal levels.Chemistry differs however from the other sciences in that it has more to give to agriculture. It not only makes its own large direct contribution but it also provides the only quantitative basis for most of the other scientific disciplines serving the industry. Just as the early experiments by chemists on plant growth laid the foundation for modern plant physiology -a subject of vital importance to agriculture-so the modern plant physiologist finds it impossible to make progress in this field unless he possesses a wide knowledge of chemistry and is fully experienced in its techniques.As the secrets of plant growth are uncovered the work becomes increasingly concerned with the biochemical processes involved and the line of demarcation between the botanist and the chemist disappears. You will hear, I hope later from Professor Helen Porter an account of some of the recent work in plant physiology which will illustrate more clearly than I can that these investiga-tions rest largely on elegant chemical techniques. The geneticists in their work have in the past relied largely on the microscope and on statistics but now modern trends are leading them into biochemical studies. For many years they were content to think only of the beginning-the genetic structure-and the end-the physical characteristics of the plant or the animal-without examining the mechanism by which the one resulted in the other.Now they are concen-trating more and more on the intermediate steps. Tha 19621 CHEMISTRY IN THE SERVICE OF AGRICULTURE 123 every inherited physical characteristic is the result of an inherited biochemical system is now fully accepted. This has had two consequences the one to concentrate work on the nature of these biochemical systems and the other to draw attention to the fact that there may be many inherited biochemical characters which have no outward physical consequences but which may pro-foundly influence the metabolism of the complete animal or plant. To study either the biochemical systems involved in inheritance or the inherited bio-chemical characters requires a profound knowledge of some of the most complex branches of chemistry and a mastery of many of the most difficult techniques.The geneticist must become a biochemist or the biochemist a geneticist. Which is the better course to follow I shall discuss later. Although it is nearly 200 years since de Saussure established the basis of plant nutrition the final answers to many of the questions of what a plant needs for its full development and how it uses these nutrients have still to be found; the search for the solution of every problem involved will call for complex chemical investi-gations. The plant’s need for micro-nutrients will serve to illustrate the general character of this work. The failure of a plant to grow normally accompanied by characteristic symptoms can be shown by straight-forward pot trials to be due to lack of one of the elements normally found in small quantities in the soil.These trials however require the most rigid chemical control to ensure that the element the lack of which is to be investigated is reduced to the lowest possible level and, equally that all other requirements of the plant are present in adequate quantities. The symptoms asso-ciated with deficiencies of those elements already known to be needed in small quantities for the plant to achieve full growth have now been recorded but we may still have much to learn particularly about the inter-relationship between the different micro-nutrients. When the need for a particular element has been established the next stage is to find what part it plays in the plant’s metabolism.The evidence so far indicates that each forms an essential part in an enzyme system and that any advance in our knowledge can only be gained by the biochemical examination of these systems, to determine the part they play in the metabolism of the plant . It would be possible to give many more examples of the importance of chemistry in all those branches of research directed to higher crop yields-the immensely important fields of crop protection and weed control, for example have not been mentioned-but time must be left for a few examples of the application of chemistry in research concerned with animal production. The great advances in veterinary medicine in the inter-war years consisted primarily in the control and treat-ment of diseases caused by invading pathogenic organ-isms ; the veterinarian was essentially a bacteriologist or virologist relying for success on the production of vaccines.Over the last 40 years many of the diseases of this type have either been eradicated or so effectively controlled that they no longer give the farmer serious concern. Their place of importance has been taken by a new range of disorders which are metabolic in character. Hypocalcaemia and hypomagnesaemia are two of the most important of this group. The study of these conditions in farm animals must be essentially chemical. We must know whether the element con-cerned is present in the food in normal quantities, whether it is there in a form which the animal can use, whether there are other substances present which may prevent utilization what are the normal levels in the blood at different periods in the animal’s life and, finally how these compare with those found before, during and after the clinical symptoms.Each of these steps involves careful and often difficult chemical analyses. When the basic chemical evidence has been assembled it is possible to move to the next phase of the investigation the study of the metabolic processes in which these elements play so important a part. In milk fever which is the common hypocalcaemic con-dition we know that if the diet does not contain enough calcium in a form which the heavily lactating animal can ingest it can and does call on the calcium in its bones where there is a large reserve supply.The diseased condition occurs when the metabolic processes supplying this element to the blood from food or from the body’s reserves fail to keep pace with that which is taking calcium from the blood for the secretion of milk. The study of these processes clearly calls for biochemical knowledge and analytical skill of a high order. It would be impossible for the veterinarian to make progress unless he was also trained as a chemist. Quite apart from any abnormal conditions the proper balanced feeding of farm animals calls for the help of a chemist. You will I hope hear a more detailed account of some of these problems from Dr Kon but I would give one illustration now. Many farmers have been troubled by the low level of the non-fatty solids in the milk from their herds.This may be due to genetic factors but it is also influenced by the quality of the food which the animals are given. The determination of the variations in chemical composition of the highly complex diet of the dairy cow which are responsible for the appearance of a low level of non-fatty solids in the milk presents a most difficult problem to the nutrition chemist. I t is known for example that a change in the quality of the hay which forms the basis of the ration may result in a fall in the non-fatty solids in milk. What exact constituents in the hay are responsible and how the fall can be avoided by supple-menting the ration if better hay is not available is, however a problem so far only partially solved.My difficulty has not been that of finding examples of where the chemist has a major place in agricultura 124 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY [APRIL research but of selecting a few from the vast range of his activities in this field. A glance through the annual report of the Agricultural Research Council will serve to show in how many ways the chemist can apply his science for the benefit of agriculture. There is not an institute which has not a chemical laboratory; in many, chemistry in its numerous guises forms the major part of the work. There is in agricultural research still a vast un-charted world awaiting exploration by the chemist full of excitement and adventure. If however he decides to enter it he must be prepared to accept a new mental discipline.As a chemist he will have been concerned with non-living material with reactions which he plans and over which he has control. In almost every branch of agricultural research he must learn to think as a biologist to remember always that he is dealing with living organisms with reactions which he cannot plan and over which he can have little control. Within these organisms are forces much more powerful, within their own tiny world of the living cell than any at his disposal in the laboratory. There have been, throughout the history of agricultural research many instances when an over-simple or partial explanation of a phenomenon has been reached by ignoring all but the chemical evidence. The Priestley-Scheele disagree-ment on the ability of the plant to purify air arose from their consideration of the plant as a chemical system, which would normally not be affected by light.These early workers could not be blamed for this oversight; there was still so much unknown; but their difficulties should have been a warning to all those who have followed them into this most specialized application of chemistry. Yet today it is still necessary to warn the chemist of the danger of ignoring the fact that he is investigating a biological process. There are two main ways in which he can go wrong. The chemical reactions he is investigating take place primarily within the living cell. This complex structure is a miniature chemical factory taking in one set of materials using part to provide the energy it requires to carry out the reactions which are its primary function in the organism of which it forms a part.I t carries out these reactions with incredible efficiency, without the use of high temperatures and pressures; often with the reacting substances at low concentrations, following a bewildering series of steps to the end-product. This result is achieved by enzyme catalysis and by selective absorption which brings the reacting groups of the substance into immediate contact. If the cell is ruptured the result is very much as though a large petroleum-chemical plant were flattened by some gigantic force and all the reactants the catalysts and the materials of the structure mixed together. For a very short time it might be possible to identify the substances which were in the reaction vessels comprising the plant, but within seconds reactions would begin which would make it impossible to say with any certainty from the analysis of the resulting mess what processes had been going on in the plant before it was destroyed.Yet the first reaction of the chemist studying plant or animal tissue is to get his hands on something he can analyse, some constituents he can measure. He will be tempted to destroy the cell structure and hope that he can so delay the subsequent changes by freezing or other means that his final analysis will represent the con-stituents of the living cell. Experience has shown that he will be fortunate if he succeeds in this. At best he is likely only to measure the constituents which were present in major amounts and to overlook or dismiss as unimportant substances found only in traces.Yet these may well be the most important links in the chain of reactions being small in quantity only because the speed of the reaction which converts them into the next product is much greater than the one that produces them. In the living cell the quantity of the reactant need not affect the speed of the reaction; it may be held in high concentration at the point of production and passed on directly to the enzyme system responsible for the next step. Many of the secrets of the living cell have been uncovered by the patient study of the substances and enzyme system isolated from the ruptured cell but only by using the knowledge so won to develop hypotheses of the processes involved.These hypotheses can be tested in a variety of ways such as the introduction into the cell of some substance which is known to block a particular enzyme system or to combine with one of the substances in the chain of reactions. Finally it may be possible to build up the whole process step by step in vitro using the enzymes isolated from the cell contents. Rarely however is finality reached. Time after time, when the metabolism of a cell appears to have been fully explained another observation has shown that the explanation is incomplete. The biochemist is only too familiar with these problems-those who are present will I hope forgive me for speaking of them-but there are still chemists who are attracted into this field by their interest in the organic chemistry of the natural products and who move without the necessary broadening of their scientific approach into the study of the nature of the processes in the living cell.So far I have spoken only of the problems facing the chemist when he attempts the study of the living cell in isolated tissue. He has an even more difficult task in extending his field of research into the study of the whole animal or plant. To the complex structure of the cell are now added the mechanisms that control the inter-relations between the groups of cells forming the different organs. In all organisms both plant and animal but par-ricularly in animals there is an innate series of control mechanisms so that no organ acts independently.It is 19621 CHEMISTRY IN THE SERVICE OF AGRICULTURE 125 therefore not only necessary to study what takes place in the cells of any particular organ but also to take into account what happens to their metabolism when they are stimulated by changes taking place in another part of the plant or animal organism. Many of these control mechanisms are operated by chemical substances-hormones and auxins. Their study calls for complex chemical investigations; they must be identified if possible measured sometimes synthesized and their activity defined. Some are chemically relatively simple others extremely complex, but they are always present in small amounts and this makes the chemical work difficult and challenging. Other mechanisms are operated by nervous impulses, but these also are basically chemical in character.They differ from simple chemical stimulation by a substance circulating in the body fluids only in that the chemical process is one that is passed from cell to cell resulting in a final chemical release at the site of action. The chemist has therefore a major place in any study of the intact plant or animal but he cannot take this place unless he is prepared to learn something of the anatomy and physiology of the organism he is studying. He will inevitably try to simplify his approach to any problem he investigates in order to get material on which he can exercise his chemical skill. This is a perfectly proper approach so long as he recognizes what this simplification involves.If he is examining say the effect of different con-stituents of diet on the growth rate of an animal he can feed special diets examine chemically the blood urine and faeces of the animal and measure the growth rate. The effect of the different diets on growth rate will be shown by direct measurement; the examination of the blood urine and faeces may indicate how the diet and the resulting growth rate are linked. Whilst knowledge of the growth rates resulting from different diets may be of great immediate practical value the understanding of why these variations occur will be far greater in that the effect of changes in diet can then be predicted. The analytical data on blood urine and faeces can only be interpreted by someone with an intimate knowledge and understanding of animal physiology and bio-chemistry.Herein lies the true difference between the organic chemist and the biochemist. Each can serve agriculture in his own way; the organic chemist’s approach is static that of the biochemist dynamic. Given an isolated substance of biological origin the organic chemist can purify it determine its structure, devise means for its quantitative estimation and in many instances synthesize it. The biochemist’s interest in the same substance will consist in establishing its place in a chain of reactions how these reactions are brought about the special part the substance plays in the meta-bolism of the tissue from which it has been isolated and whether it has a wider role to play in the control mechanisms of the intact animal.There is of course no clear-cut boundary between the organic chemist and the biochemist; the organic chemist is often attracted into the study of metabolic processes and the biochemist finds himself drawn into problems of pure organic chemistry. I t is when the no-man’s-land where the disciplines overlap is passed, and the chemist trained in the one wanders into the territory of the other without realizing that he is doing so that danger arises. The organic chemist with an imperfect knowledge of physiology and anatomy may attempt explanations of metabolic processes when the biochemist with his greater understanding of the complex biology of the plant or animal would consider the evidence inadequate. The biochemist may equally underestimate the difficulties that confront the organic chemist.Many modern techniques such as chromato-graphy and infra-red spectrophotometry appear at first sight to make organic chemistry a relatively simple affair and the unwary may be led to the identification and conclusions on the structure of a substance isolated from a metabolic process on the evidence of a spot on a chromatogram or a line in a spectrum which the organic chemist would only regard as a preliminary indication. He may be led too into the field of synthetic organic chemistry and spend many weary hours in learning the hard way that this like all other branches of chemistry is a field in which skilled perfec-tion comes only with long practice. There are the brilliant exceptions-those men who are both outstanding organic chemists and at the same time have all the knowledge and understanding of bio-logical processes that enables them to think in terms not only of the isolated cell tissue but also of the major physiological mechanisms in the intact plant or animal.For most of us lesser mortals the old advice that the cobbler should stick to his last holds good. If we master thoroughly one branch of chemistry and learn enough of the others to be aware of our ignorance we shall have done well. There has however been a tendency amongst some biochemists in recent years to carry this specialization too far and to concentrate their interest in one narrow field. The study largely in vitro of one group of enzyme reactions can be all-engrossing and of great practical importance but it is only one of the many interlocked processes involved in the overall metabolism of the animal or plant.Unless it is studied in relation to its place in the metabolic structure much of the value of the work will be lost; though the cobbler must stick to his last he should not forget that the shoe he is making forms part of the tout ensemble and must match the dress. Agriculture as I have tried to show has need for chemists of every kind working together in teams-the physical chemist the organic chemist the analytical chemist and most important of all the biochemist in that he is the link with the biologists who must make up the balanced group 126 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY I t is often asked ‘How should a scientist be trained for agricultural research?’ On one point there is general agreement; the preliminary training must be in one of the basic natural sciences chemistry physics, botany or zoology.A degree in agriculture does not form a satisfactory basis on which to build a research career. The course to meet the needs of those who are to farm or to advise farmers has to cover so many subjects that none can be studied at sufficient depth to give adequate mental training nor can the student give the necessary time to acquiring practical skills. In almost every agricultural research institute there will be men who remain essentially chemists with little knowledge or interest in biology. At the other extreme will be found botanists and zoologists concerned for example with classification which calls for no more than a passing knowledge of chemistry.The greater part of the workers however will be involved in investigations that call for a knowledge of both chemistry and biology. In this group will be men who have begun their careers as chemists and added biology by postgraduate study; others will have taken first a degree in botany or zoology and expanded a little under-graduate chemistry enough to meet their research needs, in very much the same way as the chemist has learned his biology. There are many instances of outstanding research workers who have followed either the chemical or the biological road to success. Equally there are chemists who have failed to reach their full potential because they never learned to think biologically and biologists who have been limited throughout their whole careers by their lack of knowledge of chemistry and of skill in chemical techniques.I have you will have noticed made a distinction between what is required of a chemist and what is needed by a biologist. The chemist has essentially to acquire a new method of thought a broad appreciation of the structure and functioning of an animal or plant depend-ing on the field in which he is working and a detailed knowledge of the particular organism he is studying. The biologist on the other hand must acquire a wide knowledge of chemistry and skill in chemical techniques, which can only be won by practice. I t is not sufficient that he has a general understanding of chemistry and knows in detail one main branch of organic chemistry.There are few groups of compounds he can be sure he will not meet in his work nor can he decide in advance the chemical techniques he will need. He must with few exceptions master both the theory and practice of a full training in chemistry. This difference between the additional training required by the chemist and the biologist rests on the nature of the problems posed by agriculture. These are almost all concerned with function whether it is of the plant or the animal. Growth reproduction lactation and resistance to disease give rise to the problems which the agricultural research worker must study. In the solution of these problems his most important tools are his chemical techniques; the material on which he must work is the living organism.He must have complete mastery of his tools but it is sufficient for him to have general knowledge of the type of material on which he is working. We therefore have to ask which is the more difficult to acquire by the more mature worker after graduation-a detailed knowledge of chemistry and skill in chemical techniques or a broad understanding of biological processes and the ability to think in terms of biology T The answer must I believe be in favour of a first degree in chemistry. Young minds will more easily absorb the large factual content of the chemistry required by the agricultural research worker and young hands the skill in chemical manipulation. The trained, more mature mind of the graduate should be better equipped to develop a new method of thought.Another factor in favour of the first approach through chemistry is that there will be less of the preliminary training to throw away. In the undergraduate courses both in chemistry and biology there will be material that the research worker will not need in his later life, but the detailed content of a biology course covers so wide a field that much must inevitably be of little future use in agricultural research. The ideal solution would be the honours degree course in chemistry from which was omitted references to industrial chemistry with a subsidiary biology course concentrating on general structure and metabolism to the exclusion of syste-matics. Undoubtedly the nearest approach to this is the course leading to a degree in biochemistry as it is taught in many universities.Too few chemists enter the field of agricultural research partly because it does not follow automatically on their undergraduate studies partly because industry offers so many attractive openings partly because their teachers are working in other fields to which they are naturally attracted and partly because they are unaware of the great possibilities for exercising their newly won skills in agricultural research. I hope what I have said may bring a few more chemists into this field. I can promise any who come that they will find an endless succession of fascinating problems awaiting them and a great reward in knowing that they are helping to feed the world’s teeming population RUSSIAN FOR CHEMISTS By P.L. WYVILL B.SC. PH.D. F.R.I.C. LESSON 4 Examples : THE PAST TENSE Y npo@kccopa 6bm The professor had the KapaHAaLLl pencil AkBymKH GbIn5 KHkra Y Manbqma 6dmo nep6 MeHri GMn npH66p Y Her6 6brnh Tpy6Ka Y Hee 6 d r n ~ xypHhnbI The past tense is very simply formed in Russian by replacing the Tb of the infinitive with an n. Thus the verb YllTilTb becomes YHTan and the verb rOBOphTb becomes r0BOplh. This past tense is made to agree in gender and number with the subject by means of the addition of an The girl had the book The boy had the pen I had the apparatus He had the tube She had the magazines ending -a -0 -M. Example : For a masculine singular subject : A qHTa.Jl I was reading (I read) Here the verb agrees in gender and number with the subject of the sentence.DECLENSION OF NEUTER NOUNS (1) Declension of neuter nouns ending in o rOBOpkJI I was speaking (I spoke) He was reading (he read) OH qHTaJI O H rOBOpkiJI He was speaking (he spoke) Singular Plural l-Ipo@>Cccop W~TBJI The professor was reading AkJIO affair Aena (read) Gen. Aha Aen rIpo@>Cccop rOBOphJI The professor was speaking AeJIaM T b I rOBOpkiJI You were speaking (spoke) Instr. A h O M AeJlaMH Acc. A h 0 Aena Prep. nine Aenax (spoke) For a feminine singular subject : R w d n a II rolsopkna OHa WiTaJIa OH^ roBopkna AkByIlIKa roBophna T b I roBopkna I was reading (read) I was speaking (spoke) She was reading (read) She was speaking (spoke) The girl was speaking You were speaking (spoke) (spoke) For a neuter singular subject : O H 0 rOBOpkin0 TO pasnarano This decomposed the I t was speaking (spoke) coeAMH6HHe compound For plural subjects the ending of the past tense is always -H.OHki WiT6.JIl.z OHh rOBOpk.JIll ~ > C B ~ I K - M rOB0pkinH ManbYHKH YHTAJIH Mbi roBophnH We were speaking BbI wran-M You were reading They were reading (read) They were speaking (spoke) The girls were speaking The boys were reading The preposition y followed by the genitive of a noun or pronoun is used with the past tense of the verb to be (GMJT 6b1na 661~10 6 B n ~ ) to express the past tense of the verb ' to have.' ( 2 ) Declension o f neuter nouns ending in e Singular Plural Nom.n6ne field nonri Gen. n6nx IIOJIkfi Dat. n6nm I I O J ~ ~ M Acc. n6ne n0JIri Instr. n6neM nonhMH Prep. n6ne nonix (3) Declension of neuter nouns ending in MSI Singular Plural Nom. BP~MFI time BpeMeHh Gen. Bp6MeH-M BpeMeH Dat. BpkMeHH BpeMeHaM Acc. B P ~ M R BpeMeHh Instr. BpkMeHeM BpeMeHaMH Prep. BpkMeHH BpeMeHgX In the neuter declensions the accusative and the nominative are always alike. You will note that the neuter declension in o is like the masculine declension of hard consonants except in the nominative and genitive plural and that the neuter declension in e is similar to the masculine in soft consonants except in the nominative and accusative plural. These points might help the memory. 12 128 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS In the third person these are very simple.The genitive case of the pronouns OH OH^ OH& OH^ is used as follows : Singular Nom. 6 H he OH& she OH^ it Gen. er6 his (of him) ee her (of her) er6 its (of it) Plural Nom. OHL~ they (The r in er6 is pro-Gen. MX their (ofthem) nounced like a v) Examples his house his book his pen her house her book her dress its growth its height its pressure their town their country his books her dresses The possessive pronoun formed in this way does not vary with the number or gender of the noun which follows it. SOME SPECIAL VERBS The verb mc6Tb to write is slightly irregular in the present tense x n ~ u l y Tbr nkulemb OH nkuler MbI n h e M Bbr rrkrrreie OHE~ nkiruy~. The past tense is regular n ~ c a n nmhna n~cano, IIMChJIH.Remember that after the letters Y x UI u we never write 10 x. These become y a. This is seen in the conjugation of COAepHcaTb to contain which is other-wise regular x coaepxy Tbr CoAkpxKkirrrb OH COA~PXHT, MbI C@A6pXMM BbI COA6PTkITe OHH COfi6pXaT. EXERCISE IVA Translate into English : 1. 2. 3 . 4. 5. 6. 7. 8 . 9. 10. 1 1 . INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY [APRIL 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. EXERCISE IVB Translate into Russian : 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. The chemists were working in the house. The students replied to the professor. He added a catalyst to the solution. Many metals are in the mixture.We had the girl’s book. I liked the library in the town. I thought about the experiment. He wrote with a pen. The mixture of liquids was in the flask. He wrote a letter to his father. He spoke about the matter. The water in the flask is boiling. The book was in my room. The professor spoke to the students. These metals formed an alloy. aJIIoMkHHfi 6 a 6 n ~ o ~ k ~ a 6 y p ~ 6 (adv.) BeUeCTB6 AJIX (+ gen.) &KH6 HaTp men630 36JIOTO M3YYaTb (1) HCn6JIb30BaTb (1) KayYYK n6TO ~ 6 ~ 1 6 a JI~TOM (adv.) MhJIbYHK MeAb (f) OT6JJ Vocabulary aluminium library violently vigorously substance for caustic soda iron gold to study to use rubber flask summer in summer copper father bo 19621 RUSSIAN FOR CHEMISTS 129 (gen.OT4a) OT (+ gen.) rIHCbM6 IIPHCY TCTBMe IIPOR3B6ACTBO pearhposan (1) pasnarh~a (1) CB~UCTBO co AeprnaHMe COCT~B cnnaB cn6co6 STOT (m) TO (n) CMeCb (f) 5ra (f) STU (PI.) KPeCTbhHMH 06pa30BiTb (1) ynpaXHCHHe from letter presence production to react to decompose property mixture content composition alloy method process this this this these peasant exercise to form Kty to Exercises EXERCISE IVA 1. The chemist was working here. 2. The girl was reading a book. 3. I was thinking about the matter. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 1 . 2. 3. 4. 5 . They were speaking about the experiment.6. 7. This liquid is boiling. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. a pen. 15. The water in the flask was boiling. The student had the sample. They had the bottle of acid. He showed his experiment to the professor. In summer the peasant worked in the field. The student writes the exercise with a pen. The girl wrote a letter to her father. She wrote with The boy received a letter from his father. They liked to work in the fields. He was studying the properties of rubber. They used this substance for the experiment. Analysis of the substance showed the presence of Silver and gold formed an alloy. Analysis of the alloy showed the qilver content This mixture contains many metals. Chemists were investigating the composition of These substances reacted vigorously to form a They were seeking a method of production of Sodium decomposes water to form caustic soda and The students were writing their exercises in the metals.(content of silver). the mixtures. compound. aluminium. hydrogen. library. National Lending Library.-It is hoped that the (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) National Lending Library for Science and Technology will become fully operational during 1962. During the year it is also hoped to survey the extent to which the NLL should cover the medical field and it is hoped that all users of the Science Museum Library will send to the NLL requests for medical literature they cannot con-By the end of 1961 loan requests were being received at the rate of more than 1,000 a week and are expected to reach three times this rate by the end of 1962.Users of the Science Museum Library loan service are asked to note that ( 1 ) all requests for 1962 copies of English-language periodicals should be sent to the NLL; veniently obtain from other sources. the NLL now has loanable sets of the titles on the Science Museum Library ‘non-loanable’ list ; all requests for foreign-language periodicals should now be sent to the NLL; publications should be returned to the library from which they were borrowed; loan requests should be in separate envelopes addressed to the NLL Loan Department; adequate references should be given for all publications required; if not complete the borrower should add ‘no further details available’ ; the address of the NLL is : National Lending Library for Science and Technology Boston Spa Yorkshire BOOK REVIEWS HETEROCYCLIC SYSTEMS WITH BRIDGEHEAD NITROGEN ATOMS.PART I. (THE CHEMISTRY OF HETEROCYCLIC COMPOUNDS. A Series of Monographs.) W. L. Mosby. Pp. 747. New York and London Interscience Publishers 196 1. 360s. As the author mentions in his introduction one probably imagines that the number of ring systems having bridgehead nitrogen atoms would be small and, anyway that such compounds could be of only limited importance. This however is very far from the truth. At the time of preparation of the manuscript almost 1,100 such ring systems had been recorded. Many of the compounds have considerable importance for the dyestuffs and pharmaceutical industries and many have been of the greatest interest to natural-product chemists.Whilst the author intended to review all known bridge-head nitrogen compounds he found the area of the natural products so extensive progressive and conten-tious that an exhaustive treatment here became im-practicable. Thus only scanty mention is made of the most important topics in this field such as penicillin, gliotoxin and the lupine strychnos reserpine and quinine alkaloids; but this was felt to be justified because of excellent reviews on these topics which had appeared in recent years. The remaining but still enormous section of bridgehead nitrogen compounds of purely synthetic interest has been treated sytematically to the end of Volume 50 (1958) of Chemical Abstracts and important journals have been covered to the end of 1958.The vast majority of the topics have never before been reviewed. The labour of collecting and collating from the literature the information relating to such a large number of different ring systems must have been very considerable A less obvious difficulty to the reader, but an enormous problem to the author was the organ-ization of the subject matter. There are two broad divisions firstly valence-bond-bridged systems such as pyrrocoline and secondly atom-bridged systems such as quinuclidine. But there are over 900 systems in the first category and the great problem was to arrange these in an optimum order. Whilst it is most usually desirable to place systems which form a homologous series together so that for example fused-ring pyrroles, indoles and carbazoles would be grouped consecutively, this arrangement proved impracticable and so the ring systems have been arranged in order of ring size.For this purpose only the two bridgehead rings are con-sidered. Thus all of the compounds claimed in the literature to have a 3-membered ring with a bridgehead nitrogen atom appear in the first chapter here there appear 3/3 3/4 and up to 3/8 bicyclic systems any of which either carry further rings fused on or not. Subsequent chapters deal with fused 4-membered ring systems fused 515 ring systems fused 5/6 ring systems with no extra heteroatom and fused 5/6 ring systems with one extra heteroatom. This organization undoubtedly results in a compila-tion which is amenable to reference.The reader has no difficulty in locating particular types of compound from amongst the very large number of systems included, so that the design of the book leads to great facility in use. One can criticize the arrangement of the subject matter in that it turns the book into a catalogue but this result is virtually inevitable considering the nature and size of the field covered. Dr Mosby has made an excellent job of a difficult and tedious task. His presentation is clear and efforts have been made to prevent the text from looking too much like a series of index cards. Inevitably the book is largely a compilation of information of a highly specialized kind but the author has taken pains to interpolate criticism of results and conclusions and to offer constructive suggestions wherever this appeared justified in the light of present-day chemical knowledge.A conscious effort has been made to arouse interest in controversial areas and the book is consequently a mine of research ideas. This Volume 15 is very well up to the standard established by previous volumes of the Series. In conclusion it seems appropriate to offer congratulations to the publishers for continuing their heroic task of covering fully all aspects of heterocyclic chemistry. J. A. ELVIDGE HETEROCYCLIC COMPOUNDS. VOLUME VII. Edited by R. C. Elderfield. Pp. vii + 878. New York and London John wiley €9 Sons 196 1. This is the latest volume in Professor Elderfield’s series. I t treats in the way now familiar polycyclic compounds with two oxygen or two nitrogen atoms in different rings.The ten chapters deal with compounds containing two hetero-oxygen atoms in different rings (W. B. Whalley) ; naphthyridines (M. J. Weiss and C. R. Hauser) ; carbolines and phenanthrolines (W. 0. Kermak and J. E. McKail) ; monocyclic triazoles and benzotriazoles and oxadiazoles (J. H. Boyer) ; thiadi-azoles (W. A. Sherman) ; s-triazines (E. J. Modest) ; 1,2,4- and 1,2,3-triazines (J. P. Horwitz) ; and oxadi-azines thiadiazines and their benzo-derivatives (G. W. Stacy). Professor Elderfield has evidently had to contend with serious editorial difficulties for some of the chapters were prepared several years ago. Those by W. 0. Kermack and J. E. McKail were originally completed in 1950.The editor himself has introduced later material in such instances and it is stated that important 300s. 13 BOOK REVIEWS 131 references from major English- and German-language journals up to 1960 are included. With such a varied subject matter it is difficult to decide how adequate is the coverage thus achieved. Again the editor states that for some of the topics good reviews are already available and for this reason they are treated in ‘lesser depth‘ here. This does not seem to me a justifiable editorial policy. In consulting a standard work one expects to find reviews which are in no respect deficient by comparison with other con-temporary works of the same character. Anybody who pays L15 for this book should be able to disregard articles which may have appeared in the review literature.The most important chapter is that by Whalley who writes on a topic on which he can claim unquestionable authority. No other review of his subject-matter is available and the lengthy treatment (197 pages) is fully justified. With a number of the topics the main preoccupation is unavoidably with synthesis. Nevertheless I find it irritating (to quote one example of a frequently occurring kind) that the simple physical properties (m.p. colour) of say benzo-lY2,4-triazine are simply not to be found (they may be there but I have not discovered them in many minutes of trying). The book is not designed to be an exhaustive reference book but surely there should be room for such things in a work of its size.This book is beautifully produced and undoubtedly contains reviews of interest and utility but it most definitely is not worth the price asked for it. K. SCHOFIELD ORGANIC SYNTHESES. A N ANNUAL PUBLICATION OF SATISFACTORY METHODS FOR THE PREPAR-ATION O F ORGANIC CHEMICALS. VOLUME XL. Editor-in-Chief M. S. Newman. Pp. vii + 114. New York and London John Wiley & Sons 1961. 32s. A distinguished organic chemist once said ‘I often wish that I could make something like p-bromoacet-anilide-something that would give a good yield.’ A perusal of Organic Syntheses should enable him to go far towards the realization of this desire with even more interesting compounds. As in earlier volumes in this series notes on alternative methods of preparation culled both from recent and from earlier literature are appended to each section.The scope of Organic Syntheses does not permit of notes on reaction mechanism but curiosity is often stimulated as for example in the synthesis of 2,5-dimethoxy-2,5-dihydrofuran. Sometimes perhaps reasonable even if not ’satiable curiosity might have been satisfied. Thus what is the red-brown solid insoluble in water and in light petroleum-benzene obtained during the prepara-tion of 2,4-dinitroiodobenzene ? Surely someone must have taken the trouble to find out. The increasing value of triphenylphosphine as an aid to synthesis may be seen from its use in three preparations methylenecyclohexane p-quinquephenyl and 1,4-dipheny1-1,3-butadiene. The phosphine is now obtainable commercially.This was not always so and it can be easily obtained by interaction of phenol and phosphorus trichloride followed by treatment of the unpurified triphenyl phosphite with magnesium phenyl bromide. Two preparations involving ferrocene are recorded and we may also note the elimination of chloroform when hexachloroacetone reacts with aniline and the lachrymatory properties of bis(dimethy1amino) -methane. The preparation of methanesulphinyl chloride illu-strates the manifold side-reactions which accompany the fission of dimethyl disulphide by chlorine. Condi-tions under which by-products such as methanesul-phony1 chloride can be obtained in quantity could be summarized and discussed in a future volume of this series. One deals with the explosive properties of ethyl azodicarboxylate.The other contains detailed comments on diazomethane which although emphasizing known dangers are most valuable. A future volume should contain information on diazoethane. Further details of the preparation of completely dry ethereal solutions of the diazoalkanes would also be very useful. Two insets accompany this volume. FREDERICK CHALLENGER BIOLOGICAL STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION. VOLUME I . Proceedings of the First IUB/IUBS International Symposium Stockholm September, 1960. Edited by T. W. Goodwin and 0. Lindberg. Pp. xii + 363. London and New York Academic Press 1961. 70s. This volume contains the papers presented at a meeting held in September 1960 at Stockholm together with a record of the discussion of each paper.I t is divided into three parts the first entitled ‘Macro-molecular Structure and Function’ has nine articles, the second ‘Microsomes and Protein Synthesis,’ has 12, and the third ‘Polysaccharides,’ has three. The papers in the first two sections are closely related and deal mainly with the structure of DNA and RNA, and the mechanism of protein synthesis within the cell, with exceptionally good papers on the structure and function of the endoplasmic reticulum. The speakers came from America as well as Europe and many of them are the highest authorities on their particular topic. The papers give a good account of the subject as it was at the time. However our knowledge about it is accumulating at an amazing speed and any volume of this type is out of date by the time it is published.Consequently the most successful research workers gain most of their new information by word of mouth and to them a book of this type is valuabl 132 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY [APRIL mainly for clarifying obscure points. The book will be most useful to research workers in neighbouring fields who feel it important to keep (almost) up to date on the subject and to advanced students. To them, volumes of this type are essential and Academic Press performs a useful function in publishing them. At the moment the book has not been superseded and it will maintain its usefulness until in a year or so it is. The three articles on polysaccharides though of high quality are rather out of place and give no general view of the subject.J. M. BARRY RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN THE CHEMISTRY OF NATURAL PHENOLIC COMPOUNDS. Proceedings of the Plant Phenolics Group Symposium. Edited by W. D. Ollis. Pp. viii + 237. Oxford Pergamon Press 1961. 70s. Though this book is based on the lectures given at the Plant Phenolics Group symposium the result is a success-fully integrated volume. The authors have considerably enhanced the value of their contributions by subscribing papers that also review their particular topic in relation to current trends in natural-product chemistry. The first three chapters are concerned with various aspects of biosynthesis. R. W. Rickards deals with the forma-tion of phenolic compounds from activated acetic acid units N. B. Whalley with a broader survey of structural and biogenetic relationships among plant phenolics, whilst Grisebach reviews the biosynthesis of isoflavones.Interest in phenolic compounds containing terpenoid substituents is reflected in the review by Ollis and Sutherland and recent work on the free-radical coupling of phenols of interest in natural biosynthetic routes is dealt with in chapter 5 (Hassall and Scott). The recent revival of interest in the chemistry of the tannins receives attention in the next three chapters with summaries of as yet unpublished work by the Sheffield School (Haworth and Haslam) and an account of Algarobilla tannins (Schmidt). The remaining four chapters deal with structural investigations which have led to the recognition of new classes of natural products.These include the biflavonyls widely distributed among the Gymnosperms (Baker and Ollis) the newly designated phenolic C-glycosides (Horhammer and Wagner) and the betacyanins (Dreiding). The final chapter on a new family of antibiotics (Ollis and Sutherland) is a fascinating account of structural investigations culmi-nating in very satisfactory international co-operation and agreement. The text of this excellent volume is enhanced by a plentiful supply of structural formulae well set out and free from errors. Containing as it does not only an up-to-date account of the biosynthesis of oxygen-containing natural products but much de nouo review material it will be of great value to all research workers in this field. D. WOODCOCK SOME RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN THE CHEMISTRY OF PHOSPHATE ESTERS OF BIOLOGICAL INTEREST.H. G. Khorana. Pp. x + 141. New York and London John Wiley €9 Sons 1961. The study of nucleotides has been regarded as almost esoteric and for a long period it was largely concentrated in Sir Alexander Todd’s laboratories. However its biological and potentially pharmacological importance is so great that many chemists must now be acquiring familiarity with this field. They will find this muno-graph indispensable. Its six chapters are based on lectures given at the Rockefeller Institute in 1959 but they are more complete and up to date than this state-ment implies. The topics are the synthesis of mono-esters of phosphoric acid the formation and behaviour of cyclic phosphates syntheses of nucleotide coenzymes and polynucleotides and reactions of carbodi-hides.Professor Khorana formerly at Vancouver and now at Madison Wisconsin is one of the most prolific of Todd’s pupils and this book gives a very good account of his view of the subject to which he has made notable contributions. Unfortunately the author has not been well served by the publisher. There is no index! The reader who is already familiar with the author’s papers will have an idea of two or three places where he is likely to find the discussion of a particular topic but the stranger will be lost. It might be argued that these are lectures to be read once from beginning to end. In that case they would not have been worth printing in this form and, in fact the author has done much more in preparing the manuscript.Another defect in printing is that the references merely numbered are placed at the end of each chapter and the reader will frequently find himself consulting the bibliography of an adjacent chapter. If this far from ideal system had to be adopted there should have been a note at the foot of each page stating ‘references on p. -.’ These services should be pro-vided for the price asked. Despite these criticisms the book is very well worth having because it contains so much material which is not conveniently collected elsewhere and the discussions are stimulating. 40s. G. W. KENNER PROCEEDINGS O F THE SECOND INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON ENZYMES IN CLINICAL CHEM-I S T R Y GHENT 1961. IUPAC. Pp. 383-511.London Butterworths 1962. 60s. This book contains 16 papers read at the Symposium. Of the 16 six papers are in English eight are in French and two in German. Each contribution is summarized, but no discussions added by other members of the Symposium are presented. To those not intimately associated with the field the title may be a little nebulous but a study of this volume indicates that the subject includes first enzyme deter-minations in human tissues as an aid to the diagnosis o 1962 J BOOK REVIEWS 133 disease and second the use of specific enzymes in the laboratory for the determination of tissue metabolites in body fluids and extracts of tissues. Within the scope of the former designation of the subject there are papers dealing with the determinations of lactic de-hydrogenase malic dehydrogenase alkaline phospha-tase triosephosphate isomerase phosphoglycerokinase, isocitric dehydrogenase aldolase sorbitol dehydro-genase ornithine transcarbamylase and leucine amino-peptidase in various pathological conditions.Of special interest are the studies on iso-enzymes enzymes of similar function but of slightly different physical prop-erties. Lactic dehydrogenase has been shown to exist in eight forms and different tissues have been found to contain different proportions of each of these forms. Included as examples of the use of enzymes as specific laboratory determinants are papers on the estimation of tissue lactic acid pyruvic acid and x-ketoglutaric acid, all of which are determined by means of the appropriate specific dehydrogenase.Some of the papers for example those describing the determinations of monoamine oxidase activity and the effect of bile salts on pancreatic lipase although relevant, appear to be a little out of place in this symposium and to belong more properly to the much vaster field of general enzymology. The book is well produced and although limited in scope will no doubt prove useful to all those interested in enzyme determinations as an aid to medical diagnosis. E. D. WILLS BIOLOGICAL ALKYLATING AGENTS. (Cancer Mono-graph Series.) W. C. J. Ross. Pp. xi + 232. London Butterworths 1962. 55s. Biological alkylating agents are compounds able to alkylate at a significant rate under physiological con-ditions namely in approximately neutral aqueous solution at ordinary temperatures.They are usually thought of as useful or potentially so in the treatment of cancer. Examples are the nitrogen mustards, derivatives of ethyleneimines and esters of sulphonic acids. Numerous reviews of these agents have appeared in recent years but in most of them the accent has been clinical or biological. In this book written by an expert who has made many substantial contributions to the field the approach is chemical and biochemical. Tumour inhibition mutagenic activity and other biological effects (except carcinogenicity) are never-theless frequently referred to and indeed form the bass accompaniment to the chemical tune. Part I of the book discusses the fundamental chemistry of the alkylating agents their reaction in uitro and in uivo with various radicals and cell constituents and lastly their biological effects and possible and probable modes of action The biological significance of reaction with The subject matter is in two main sections.cellular DNA is stressed. Part I1 is devoted to drug design. I t describes the search for compounds with greater specificity of anti-tumour action and considers the influence of changes in such variables as carrier structure and pH and the exploitation of the concepts of ‘latent activity’ (in uivo drug activation) and ‘latent inactivity’ (selective inactivation). In the final chap-ters the author presents the evidence for selective action, and indicates techniques for improving the specificity of the available alkylating drugs.There is a departure in the text from the more usual nomenclature of phosphate esters structures of type RO-PO (OH) and (RO) ,PO -OH are classified as secondary and primary esters respectively rather than vice versa but this should not seriously mislead. The book can be confidently recommended as the most informative general account available of the chemistry and mode of action of the biological alkylating agents. I t is comprehensive and as fully up to date as can be expected (there are many 1960 and 1961 references). I t is written in a readable concise prose and is copiously supplied with formulae. The book is well produced. Its main appeal will be to readers with a chemical or biochemical turn of mind but there is much of value for anyone interested in the biological effects of alkylation or in cancer chemotherapy generally.J. A. STOCK MICRODIFFUSION ANALYSIS A N D VOLUMETRIC ERROR. Fifth Revised Edition. E. J. Conway. Pp. xviii + 467. London Crosby Lockwood €5’ Son Ltd 1962. 42s. Professor Conway’s book was first published in 1939. The latest edition besides being very reasonable in price continues the process of revision and enlargement. The microdiffusion method is now preferred to any other for blood ammonium determinations in clinical biochemistry and precise instructions on how to get trustworthy results are given. A method of determining total nitrogen in brain slices combines microdiffusion with the use of a mercury catalyst in the micro-Kjeldahl digestion. Glutamine (and glutamic acid) are determined by the aid of a highly specific glutaminase present in washed suspensions of CZ.welchii. Details for adapting the method to microdiffusion are described. Pro-cedures for determining the enzymes mono-amine oxidase histaminase and acetylcholinesterase are fully set out. The present edition also has new matter on cyanide, azide sulphide methanol isopropanol and phenol determinations. The chromotropic acid reaction for formaldehyde can be adapted to the microdiffusion method and applied to formaldehydrogenic steroids with periodic acid or sodium bismuthate. Similarly glycine can be determined by converting it to form-aldehyde by the use of ninhydrin. Acetaldehyde i 134 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY [APRIL blood is determined by microdiffusion into semicarb-azide solution followed by ultra-violet photoelectric spectrophotometry of the diluted semicarbazide solution.A rapid clinical method for carbon monoxide deter-mination depends on visible blackening of the rim of a filter paper moistened with palladium chloride. Micro-diffusion by another procedure permits detection of CO in 0.2 ml of blood in five minutes. Improved techniques for micro-determinations of halogens make use of the dye Fast Green as absorbent. The technique of microdiffusion has been improved for special tasks and a type of vibratory table has been found to be an efficient shaker for the Conway units. I t will be seen that the new edition contains important additions in which advances in the wider fields of analytical chemistry have been combined with micro-diffusion methods.I t only remains to say that the virtues of the earlier editions have not been lost despite the changes in the book. R. A. MORTON POLYNUCLEOTIDES NATURAL AND SYNTHETIC ACIDS. R. F. Steiner and R. F. Beers Jr. Pp. viii + 404. Amsterdam Elseuier Publishing Co.; London: D. Van Nostrand Co. Ltd. 85s. At the present time the study of polynucleotides is perhaps the most important of all growing-points as our knowledge of the chemistry of living matter is extended. The feature which marks off biochemistry from the rest of chemistry is the existence of enzymes that render labile countless molecules that at the same temperature, can be stored for indefinite periods of time once they are isolated from the cells.As a consequence therefore, there exist inside these cells complex networks of enzyme-catalysed reactions by which atoms or groups are trans-ferred from one type of molecule to another at great speed. And yet amidst this ceaseless flux of materials there persists a permanent design; cell characteristics, rather than chemicals remain constant ; and despite the fact that he is not the same creature atom for atom, from one day to the next we recognize an elephant as an individual and we know that the same biochemical apparatus which determines the constancy of his design will also ensure that his offspring will be elephants and not mosquitoes. Although its present impact on human affairs is less dramatic than our recently acquired ability to shoot projectiles into outer space our recognition that the polynucleotides called DNA are the molecular blue-prints for protein synthesis is an even greater triumph for the mind of Man and its impact on human destiny will ultimately be greater provided that the projectiles remain directed at outer space.Within the last decade it has become accepted that DNA codes the structure for another group of polynucleotides RNA and that RNA codes protein; within the last five years it has been shown that the sites of protein synthesis are tiny ribo-nucleoprotein particles the ribosomes ; within the last year it has become probable that ribosomes cannot function until they receive particular polynucleotides, ‘messenger RNA,’ each of which carries a code which determines the amino-acid sequence for a particular type of protein; within the last month (at the time of writing) evidence has appeared which suggests that three bases in the polynucleotide are needed to specify one amino acid; and within the next year to quote Dr Crick and his colleagues the genetic code may well be solved.The present book is very welcome since the authors have collected a wealth of information about these vitally important polymers. They have dealt with the properties and chemical synthesis of the nucleotide subunits and the manner in which they are linked to form the primary sugar-phosphate backbones of the natural and synthetic polynucleotides. There is a group of chapters in which are discussed the various helical forms that polynucleotides can assume ; their interaction in solution with a treatment of various order-disorder transitions that have been observed; and also a detailed discussion of the helical fine structure of several poly-nucleotide systems as revealed by X-ray diffraction.It is clearly no fault of the authors that their valuable con-cluding discussion of the biological role of nucleic acids is already beginning to ‘date,’ although it was finished as late as October 1960. The book is beautifully pro-duced and clearly written. There are 11 chapters the average number of references to the original literature at the end of each being 65; and since a particular emphasis has been placed upon developments in the period 1955-1 960 many research workers in chemistry, biochemistry and genetics will find numerous observa-tions and discussions bearing upon their current problems.There is however one feature of the book which appeals to me particularly as a teacher of biochemistry. Most students are stimulated by speculations about macromolecules within whose structures are located the very plans of life but these high themes appear remote from the laboratory. I myself saw a sample of ATP (‘the fuel of the cell’) in the days when it was a rare chemical befogged so to speak with thermodynamics imperfectly understood ; and I remember half expecting it to disappear in a flash of vital energy. Now Drs Steiner and Beers provide an extensive appendix to their book in which they tell you how to obtain for yourself some of the remarkable matsrials discussed.Let us take one example. Ochoa shared the Nobel Prize for his discovery of the enzyme which catalyses the synthesis of polyribonucleotides and which has been used to prepare polymers restricted to one kind of nucleotide such as polyadenylic acid or polyuridylic acid. An artificial ‘messenger RNA’ in the form of polyuridylic acid was in fact supplied to ribosomes recently by Nirenberg and Matthaei and it led to the production of a protein-like material composed entirel 19621 BOOK REVIEWS 135 of the amino acid phenylalanine the inference being that the base uracil ‘codes’ for phenylalanine. Full details are given in the appendix for the preparation of this enzyme polynucleotide phosphorylase and also for deoxynucleotide polymerase from Escherichiu coli ‘the biochemist’s friend,’ and methods for assay of the en-zymes are also described.Isolations of bacterial DNA, and of yeast and bacterial RNA are discussed with notes on the separation of nucleotides and their components by ion-exchange and paper chromatography. This appendix will therefore provide the university teacher with good experiments for practical classes ; however, for the undergraduate student the book as a whole is too specialized to use as a textbook although certain chapters ill provide very valuable material for bio-chemical students in the final year of their degree course. S. DAGLEY THE ACTINOMYCETES. VOLUME 11. CLASSIFICA-TION IDENTIFICATION AND DESCRIPTIONS OF GENERA AND SPECIES.S. A. Waksman. Pp. ix + 363. London BuilliJre Tindall @ Cox Ltd, 1961. 120s. In the preface to this volume Professor Waksman says ‘I am now certain of one thing namely that the place of the actinomycetes is definitely among the bacteria and not among the fungi.’ Close affinity with the bacteria has for many years justified the prominence given to physiological and cultural properties in the delineation of actinomycete species. In recent taxonomic studies however these properties are tending to be replaced as leading criteria by morphological characters. I t is claimed that by combining the older and newer ideas there emerge useful principles for species differen-tiation and an outline of the species concept in a number of genera. There are I suppose two quite different groups of scientists vitally interested in the classification of the actinomycetes.First the taxonomists aiming at a natural system from which inter-relationships and evolu-tionary trends can be discerned do not yet agree on the value to be placed on the meagre and often incon-stant morphological characters used. Waksman’s use of thermophilic versus mesophilic growth to distinguish between genera or species groups will not satisfy some taxonomists especially since ability to grow at high temperatures is more widely distributed than he indicates. The second and nowadays the much larger interested group is primarily concerned with the metabolic products of the genus Streptomyces such as antibiotics enzymes and vitamins. For them the fact that a culture becomes important for the production of a particular metabolite may impart special significance for characterization purposes.With some 250 species described and refer-ence made to another 150 on which information is incomplete it is not likely that the present difficulties in identification will be greatly reduced. However we are indebted to Professor Waksman for a most scholarly review of the principles of classification and for his modified system presented in excellent format and beautifully illustrated. A. €3. CAMPBELL INDUSTRIAL MICROBIOLOGY. A. H. Rose. Pp. viii + 286. London Buttermorths 1961. 60s. This is an admirable book. I t is well written and interesting and the author obviously knows his subject well and has the necessary discrimination to pick from a multitude of references those that are really of importance in the development of the subject.I t is comparatively easy to compile a long list of references; it is by no means easy even when writing on so narrow a subject as fermentation technology to be critical in their selection and to put together a logical and coherent picture from a mass of often discordant information. The book includes much basic biochemistry and therefore not too much previous biochemical knowledge is needed for its appreciation. The earlier chapters deal with the broader aspects of the subject discussing classification of micro-organisms their chemical com-position nutrition and metabolism and the other factors that influence their growth.In the later chapters more specialized fermentations are considered including the mass culture of micro-organisms alcohol acetone-butanol and organic acid fermentations and the pro-duction of antibiotics vitamins amino acids and enzymes. The author is obviously an accurate thinker and writer; thus he stresses that yeasts are not a well-defined group and that it is more accurate to define micro-organisms as being in a ‘yeast state’ than as being yeasts. Similarly he mentions that Acetobucter mutate so readily and change their biochemical characteristics so easily that classification is virtually impossible. Later how-ever he states that A. gluconicum produces mainly gluconic acid and A. subo,yduns gives 5-ketogluconic acid; this is one of the few misleading statements in the book.I t is unfortunate that publication of a book is such a slow process as inevitably the volume is slightly out of date when published; no mention is made for example, of the production of bakers’ yeast by continuous fermen-tation. The subject of continuous fermentation is in fact only briefly discussed as are biochemical engineer-ing problems in general. I t is easy to make minor criticisms of any book. What is important about this one is that it is a well written accurate discriminating and interesting account of its subject to be thoroughly recommended to the student and all others interested in industrial micro-biology. L. M. MIALL I36 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY [APRIL TELOMERIZATION AND NEW SYNTHETIC MATERIALS.R. Kh. Freidlina and Sh. A. Karapetyan. Translated by M. F. Mullins. Pp. x + 102. Oxford Pergamon Press 1961. 25s. Free-radical chain-addition of a molecule XY to an olefin RCH:CHR can lead to the formation of the 1 1 adduct RCHXCHRY and/or products consisting of more than one molecule of olefin and one molecule of addendum i.e. telomers RCHX( CHR-CHR) ,CHRY. Variation of the olefin the addendum XY and con-ditions of their reaction with each other and hence of the structure of the resulting telomer clearly adumbrates many synthetic possibilities many of which have been realized. There is therefore a place for a good account of the telomerization reaction. The publishers of this little book state that it is the first to be devoted to an exposition of telomerization reactions.This is true but those who expect a general account of such processes will be disappointed and should refer to more comprehensive monographs and reviews dealing with radical reactions where better accounts of telomerization occur. From the title of this book it would not be unreasonable to expect a dis-cussion of the structural factors which influence telo-merization versus the formation of 1 1 adducts. A reader will seek in vain for this however and also for information concerning the scope of the reaction. This monograph is an account of the research of the authors and their co-workers into one telomerization reaction that of ethylene with carbon tetrachloride, their particular objective being the preferential forma-tion of the telomer Cl(CH,),CCl,.Much effort has been expended by the Russian workers on this reaction and on the conversion of the product into the corre-sponding w-aminocarboxylic acid and hence to the polyamide which can be processed to give a useful synthetic fibre ‘enanth.’ There can be no doubt that the original research is of the highest quality but it is difficult to know what to make of its account presented in this volume. The authors claim to have written for the reader with an average school knowledge of the fundamentals of chemistry and physics. This is largely so but with the result that there is much which is trivial to the practising chemist. On the other hand a fairIy detailed description is given both of the laboratory and pilot-plant processes for continuous-flow formation of tetrachloro-alkanes.The largest chapter is devoted to ‘enanth’ fibre and ranges from a general discussion of the types of synthetic fibre including two very obscure figures depicting views of a machine for the continuous production of viscose thread to the methods of determining the breaking strength of fibres. In order to keep down the cost of this work and to save time the publishers have produced the text by non-letter-press setting and photolithography i.e. typewritten and reduced in size. As to the first of these reasons the book is still too highly priced to be of good value and for the second there is nothing of sufficiently pressing interest to warrant great haste in its presentation. J. I. G. CADOGAN THE SURFACE CHEMISTRY OF SOLIDS.Second Edition. S. J. Gregg. Pp. xvii + 393. London: Chapman 6’ Hall Ltd 196 1. The first edition of this work appeared in 1951 and Dr Gregg has clearly undertaken a substantial revision in the production of the second edition. There are numerous references to papers published in the period 1951 to 1960 and several plates from recent work have also been included. The author’s objective for this edition remains the same as for the first-the provision of a volume which covers a broad field of study without attempting to achieve the detailed treatment to be found in monographs on particular topics. Sections on chemisorption and heterogeneous catalysis, in addition to material on physical adsorption are included in a substantial chapter on the gas-solid interface.The chapters on the solid-solid and solid-liquid interfaces are shorter but include references to adhesion friction and lubrication in the former and spreading of liquids on solids as well as adsorption from solution in the latter. Methods of assessing the external and internal (pore structure) surfaces of solids are given in considerable detail. Other chapters include accounts of the surface-chemical aspects of chromatography and ion exchange and the part played by solid surfaces in various kinds of chemical reactions. The result is an interesting volume which can be highly recommended for the purpose of teaching physical chemistry. I t will also prove attractive to others, whether academic or industrial who wish to be brought up to date with progress in this expanding field of chemistry.There are a few minor blemishes e.g. the author gives the impression (only corrected in an appendix considerably later) that the constant c of the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller equation is determined solely by a difference of enthalpies. Again on p. 87 it is suggested that oxygen on most metals is in the form of negative ions-a conclusion which is not supported by the known values of the surface potentials. However, these are minor points which do not detract seriously from the value of the whole. The fact that the second edition costs exactly twice as much as the first is not entirely attributable to the times in which we live, because this is a bigger and better book. 60s. C. KEMBALL DYNAMIC PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY.A TEXTBOOK O F THERMODYNAMICS EQUILIBRIA AND KINETICS. J. Rose. London Sir Isaac Pitman 6’ Suns Ltd 1961. 75s. This book is an advanced text on the equilibrium and kinetic aspects of physical chemistry intended for 19621 BOOK REVIEWS 137 ‘student with an elementary knowledge of the subject and some mathematical concepts.’ It treats a larger range of material than usual for example reactions in solids and in flames are dealt with and the section on the phase iule discusses systems containing up to six com-ponents. Its scope is suggested by the last half-dozen entries in the index which are ‘Zeotropic mixtures, Zero-point energy Zeta-potentials “Zeta” reactor, Zwitterions and Zwolinsky-Eyring energy model for flames.’ I t is arguable that it is impossible to write a satisfactoi\ single text of this range and Dr Rose’s book unfortunatelv does little to convince one to the contrary.Perhaps the most serious fault of the book is the absence of a clear logical line of development in many of the chapters. This allows astonishing duplications and omissions. For example over half p. 723 consists of a repetition in closely similar but not identical language of a passage occurring earlier in the same chapter on p. 691. In addition to this general lack of logical a n angement there are important particular passages in which the author fails to communicate the impression that he has himself mastered the ideas con-cerned. The point is made in the preface that the book treats the principle of Carathkodory-described sur-prisingly as a recent development.The treatment turns out to be closely similar to that in another physical chemistr) textbook but deviates from it in omitting to point out that much of the discussion is applicable only to perfect gases. Again in treating the quantum mechanics of molecule formation it is stated that ‘two types of interaction are possible repulsion at interatomic distance due to coulombic forces and interaction due to electronic spins.’ I do not find this a very meaningful remark. This impression of ‘wooliness’ is heightened by an excessive number of misprints and minor mistakes. One of these is the statement (clearly not a misprint) on p. 17 that the heat of vaporization of graphite is 145.9 kcal mole-l.This quantity was the subject of much controversy until about five years ago when a value of about 170 kcal became generally accepted. The values previously advocated were 125 136 and 141 kcal mole-l. Although the book contains over 1,000 references to the literature no reference is given for this heat of vaporization or for many of the other thermodynamic data quoted. Other quantities wrongly stated somewhere in the book are the Bohr radius and the Rydberg constant. Finally the book suffers from a lack of a sense of proportion both in the ground covered and in the difficulty of the treatment. A book on thermodynamic and equilibrium properties which has 130 pages on the phase rule and none on the equation of state of gases must be considered idiosyncratic and so too must a book for chemistry students-even with ‘some mathematical concepts’-which includes without comment the phrase ‘.. . where the Xk’s are the characteristic roots (eigen-values) of the matrix obtained by setting A = Bzeht and where B, are the eigenvectors of the matrix.’ The student will find this book confusing and difficult, and the practising physical chemist will prefer to turn to monographs by experts on the subjects about which he requires information. T. L. COTTRELL VALENCE. Second Edition. C. A. Coulson. Pp. ix + 404. London Oxford Universzty Press 1961. 30s. While it is possible to apply the methods of quantum chemistry to many problems other than those of valence, there is no doubt that the theory of valence is much the most interesting application to chemists generally.Professor Coulson‘s book already well known from its first (1952) edition is about chemical bonds in the widest sense. The first chapters deal with atomic orbitals and wave-mechanical principles and in subse-quent chapters there are discussions of the binding in diatomic and polyatomic molecules in conjugated systems metal complexes and in solids. In the 10 or so year that have gone by since the first edition quantum chemistry has come to play a much more important part in the attack on chemical problems, and has become a far more prolific source of published papers. One might hazard that the number of papers in 1952-1961 exceeds the whole previous output during the years 1927 to 1951. The selection of significant material from all this is a major problem and it is of special interest to be able to stand in Professor Coulson’s shoes and to find out by comparing the old and new editions what a leading authority sees as the major developments of the decade.The one big addition is a 26-page chapter on ligand-field theory. This describes, among many topics the theory of the electrostatic splitting in square and octahedral fields the spectro-chemical series the occurrence of high and low spin complexes n-bonding and ferrocene-like molecules. As well as these there are numerous smaller additions and the whole book has been brought up to date with new references and often by substantial rewriting. The result is that Valence remains an excellent text on the quantum mechanics of chemical binding for senior undergraduates and postgraduate readers.I t also bears the characteristic of all Professor Coulson’s scientific exposition a surpassing lucidity that makes reading a pleasure and adds greatly to the value of the book. D. P. CRAIG THE RADIATION CHEMISTRY O F WATER AND AQUEOUS SOLUTIONS. A. 0. Allen. Pp. xi + 204. Princeton and London D. Van Nostrand Co., 1961. 45s. The study of the chemical effects of high-energy radiation was almost completely neglected until th 138 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY [APRIL discovery of atomic energy. The subject has developed enormously in recent years and radiation chemistry is now well on the way to becoming an important branch of physical chemistry.However because of the rapidity of the development this is not yet universally recognized. This book the first to be published on the radiation chemistry of aqueous solutions will do much to put radiation chemistry on the map. After brief introductory chapters on energy dissipation in matter and experimental methods Dr Allen goes on to discuss the theory that radiation acts on water and aqueous solutions through the intermediate formation of free radicals and molecular products from the water. He then develops the theory quantitatively first with regard to the number of radicals and molecular products formed by a given amount of radiation and then with regard to the variation in yield with type of radiation and the apparent variation in yield with concentration of solute.He also gives attention to those systems where the main interest is in what happens to the solute rather than to the water inorganic solutes organic solutes and large molecules of biological interest are treated. Dr Allen claims in the preface that aqueous radiation chemistry has achieved a degree of order and under-standing not possessed by other parts of radiation chemistry but his critical discussion of the subject exposes several areas where further work is required, and indeed there are major advances which are in the process of being made at present. The most far-reaching is the elucidation of the true nature of the reducing species present in irradiated water. When this problem is solved it will necessitate appreciable revision of the whole book not because the present picture is wrong but because it is not yet the whole truth.Dr Allen is one of the top radiation chemists and has played a leading role in the development of the subject. This book is a logical step in his own work and is a model contribution to scientific literature. The book is very readable. There are few misprints or mistakes. The price is low enough to enable individual scientists to buy it for their own personal libraries and it is to be hoped that not only radiation chemists but also many other chemists will buy it and incorporate its teachings into their own picture of physical chemistry. A. J. SWALLOW THERMOSTATICS AND THERMODYNAMICS. An Intro-duction to Energy Information and States of Matter with Engineering Applications.M. Tribus. (University Series in Basic Engineering. Edited by W. W. Hagerty.) Pp. xxxii + 649. Princeton and London D. Van Nostrand Co. 1961. 82s. 6d. This book makes a radical departure from existing textbooks in its development and presentation of the subject of thermodynamics. Generally speaking the majority of thermodynamics textbooks follow a set pattern which treats the subject divorced from the particulate nature of matter and from statistical mechanics. This enables students early in their studies to make use of the subject in solving many problems while perhaps leaving doubts as to what exactly some thermodynamic quantities mean par-ticularly entropy. Such notional difficulties are then supposed to be dispelled after a study of statistical mechanics a subject generally considered too difficult to precede the thermodynamics course.In statistical mechanics Dean Tribus maintains that ‘the mysteries of macroscopic thermodynamics are ‘‘cleared upy’ though they are replaced by more formidable ones. “We are confused but on a higher level”.’ I t is his stated object to remedy this alleged situation by attempt-ing this new approach. The foundation of this approach lies in information theory from which Jaynes has shown that it is possible to derive all the formulae of statistical mechanics. The contention is that the degree of abstraction necessary for this is much less than that used in deriving the formulae of statistical mechanics by the standard methods based on the work of Gibbs.Once this is accepted it is then held that it is possible for the student to begin at the statistical end using the Jaynes formula-tion and develop the complete subject including irre-versible processes in a logical manner. The book is intended basically for engineering students and an incidental advantage for them is that the mathematical methods employed in this treatment are of importance in other engineering topics such as optimization procedures and probability theory. For the chemist one advantage of the text will lie in its extremely wide coverage of topics a coverage which must stem partly from the necessity of showing that the method is of general applicability. Inclusion of the final chapter on irreversible processes which is some-what sketchy may however appear premature as a suitable derivation of the Onsager reciprocal relations using Jaynes method is not yet available.This extremely interesting book is well written and produced. However the main question posed by its appearance namely does it present a more readily assimilable and convincing approach for students than present methods must await more information on the results of trial experiments with groups of students. E. MCLAUGHLIN ORGANOMETALLIC CHEMISTRY. A.C.S. Mono-graph No. 147. Edited by H. Zeiss. Pp. xiv + 549. New York Reinhold Publishing Corporation; London Chapman G’ Hall Ltd 1960. The series of monographs published by the American Chemical Society is intended nowadays to perform two main tasks to present to those chemists who are not 140s 19621 BOOK REVIEWS 139 working in the field covered by the monograph a com-prehensive review of the topic and secondly to stimulate further work in the field in question.The task set to some of the authors whereby they were to present a review which contained as complete a picture as possible, and at the same time outlined further research in what is sometimes a highly competitive research field both academically and industrially was a difficult one and on the whole a good balance has been achieved in the 10 articles collected together in this monograph. Every chemist in whatever field his own specific interest may lie must surely be aware of the immense impact made upon inorganic and organic chemists alike by the discovery just a decade ago of the first of the metal cyclopentadienes.The vast amount of work on cyclopentadiene and arene metal compounds which has since been recorded has by some people been regarded as representing by far the major interests in organometallic chemistry during this period. Alterna-tively the organo-aluminium compounds might be regarded as the major development. This monograph sets out to present a more balanced picture by a series of up-to-date accounts of work in a number of fields by the authors engaged therein rather than by the pro-duction of a still massive though compendious edition. This object has been achieved in some cases by merging, as joint authors members of different laboratories. The individual chapters are therefore uncorrelated and in consequence the same points are sometimes dealt with b) different authors in different chapters (in different ways).The authors have responded to the intention of the series by producing an extensive set of references. These are listed at the end of each chapter so the lack of correlation results in multiple references (which makes the author index look most impressive) but even so there must be about 1,700 distinct ones. In the preface the editor states that the book consists of a series of chapters which deal with research topics ‘under active investigation-at the present time-by their respective authors.’ Just how well the monograph covers the contemporary field is illustrated by the chapter titles and their authors carbon-metal bonding (J.W. Richardson) ; benzyne chemistry (R. Huisgen) ; vinylmetallics (H. D. Kaesz and F. G. A. Stone); organoboranes (H. C. Brown) ; organo-aluminium com-pounds (K. Ziegler) ; organosilylmetallic chemistry (H. Gilman and H. J. S. Winkler) ; cyclopentadienyl metal compounds (P. L. Pauson); arene complexes of the transition metals (H. Zeiss) ; transition metal alkyls and aryls (G. E. Coates and F. Glockling); and metal carbonyls and related compounds (J. Chatt P. L. Pauson and L. M. Venanzi). Thus it is clear that organometallics of non-transition elements get a fair presentation in chapters 2 3 4 and 5 and silicon chemistry in chapter 6. The book is very well produced contains references up to and including 1960 and the usual subject index as well as the author index for those who prefer to follow workers rather than topics.At a cost ofL7 however, it seems that once again librarians will become the largest purchasers; this is a pity because one could recommend this book for most to read but scarcely to buy. 0. S. MILLS SMALL PARTICLE STATISTICS. AN ACCOUNT OF STATISTICAL METHODS FOR THE INVESTIGA-TION OF FINELY DIVIDED MATERIALS. G. Herdan. With a Guide to the Experimental Design of Particle Size Determinations. M. L. Smith W. H. Hardwick and P. Connor. Second Revised Edition. Pp. xxiii + 418. London Butter-worth 1960. 80s. The study of particles in the sieve and the sub-sieve range stands in great need of statistical criticism and refinement yet suitable systematic literature is very sparse.This book is designed to meet this need and so far as the reviewer is competent to judge succeeds admirably in its aim. Part I deals with the determination of the fineness of solids; part I1 with the technological importance of the fineness of solids; part I11 with the attainment of a specified fineness and homogeneity in a substance; and part IV with principles of statistics of coarse disperse systems. The treatment is thorough and predominantly mathematical and the interconnecting descriptive matter often contains points of great practical importance. The significance of the correlation co-efficient for example is made particularly clear the absence of a functional relationship between particle size and some property X does not necessarily imply that there is no relationship at all between them.The author has deliberately and wisely chosen to expound general principles by reference to actual data from definite practical problems and he demonstrates how such problems may be successfully attacked by statistical methods. Comprehensive in scope and packed with relevant detail this is a book not for the fireside armchair but for the study or the reading desk in the laboratory and it demands careful reading and close attention to detail. Part V (by M. L. Smith W. H. Hardwick and P. Connor) is a more ‘practical’ section and the authors discuss two main sources of error in particle-size analysis, uiz. the experimental conditions of the determination, and the pre-treatment of samples. Six of the more important methods are described in sufficient detail both to serve as a useful introduction to the experimental side and also to facilitate the selection of the most suitable method for a particular problem.In the table on p. 10 the figure ‘181’ appears where ‘1 18’ is intended; on p. 199 it is implied that the Langmuir equation yields an S-shaped adsorption isotherm though Errors and misprints detected were very few 140 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY [*APRIL on the next page the BET equation is correctly quoted as reproducing this type of isotherm. Also the ‘volume of the monolayer’ (p. 200) is not clearly defined; and the definitions of ‘aggregate) and of ‘agglomerate) (p. 24) could perhaps be made more precise. The additions in this the second edition include material on mixing on molecular-weight distribution of polymers analysis of variance and graphical representa-tion of particulate matter; also in the practical section, on centrifuge methods sizing of aerosols automatic counting procedures and application of‘ radioisotopes in the sedimentation method.All in all this book represents a very valuable addition to the literature of fine particles and is a ‘must’ for all who are concerned with the quantitative aspects of particle size and size distribution. S. J. GRECG CHEMICAL CRYSTALLOGRAPHY. AN INTRODUC-T I O N T O OPTICAL A N D X-RAY METHODS. Second edition. C. W. Bunn. Pp. xiii +- 509. Clarendon Press Oxford University Press 1961. 60s. The first edition of Mr Bunn’s book which appeared in 1945 gave an excellent account of the various applications of crystallographic methods to chemical investigations and proved of great value in crystallo-graphic teaching.While much of the text of the first edition has been retained unchanged in the present volume the incorporation in the latter part of the book of recent developments in structure analysis has led to an overall increase in length of 88 pages. The first part of the book is concerned with the identification of crystalline materials by examination under the microscope and by X-ray powder photo-graphs. There are clear descriptions of crystal growth, the indexing of crystal planes crystal symmetry the measurement of refractive indices the examination of optic figures and elementary theory of X-ray diffraction.In the second section of the book the author deals with topics connected with structure determination. He describes in a lucid and individual style the measure-ment of unit-cell dimensions the concept of the reciprocal lattice and its application to the indexing of X-ray photographs the assignment of space groups the measurement of intensities and the calculation of structure factors. These procedures are then illustrated by a chapter devoted to examples of detailed structure determinations ranging from simple inorganic sub-stances to complex organic molecules such as ascorbic acid and long-chain polymers. The subsequent chapter deals with Fourier and Patterson methods the heavy-atom and isomorphous replacement methods comput-ing procedures and the elucidation of absolute con-figuration by Bijvoet’s method.The author has provided us with a most useful intro-ductory survey of the many varied subjects which make up the science of crystallography. His book is very readable and is beautifully illustrated. There is a very complete table of contents and an extensive list of references to original papers. The few minor errors which marred the first edition have now been corrected. Considered in terms of present-day prices the book is extremely good value. G. -1. SIM SEPARATION OF ISOTOPES. Edited by H. London. Pp. xvi +- 488. Londox George Newnes Lrd 1961. 80s. The separation of isotopes has inherent scientific interest and provides material for many experimental and technological purposes.This book describes in a very thorough way the principles on which the various methods of separation are based and their application in both small laboratory-scale and large industrial equipment. It provides an up-to-date authoritative account of theory and practice for those xvorking in the field a useful reference source for those interested in the separation of other materials and a great deal of rewarding reading for other physicists chemists and engineers. Dr H. London A.E.R.E. Har\\.ell is the editor ; the other contributors are also \vell-known authorities drawn from the same establishment and, more widely from Capenhurst Winfrith the universi-ties Australia U.S.A. France and Germany. The editor’s general introduction skilfully brings the various methods into relative perspective and his wide outlook is reflected in the comprehensive coverage provided in the four sections into which the book is divided.In Section I Dr London deals theoreticall>- Lvith the separative power of a separating element and its power consumption in reversible and irreversible processes. He then considers multiple stages in an ideal and a square cascade and equilibrium times. This clear, economically written section includes a useful table defining the symbols he uses and showing their corre-lation with those employed elsewhere in the text and in other works. Section 11 Reversible Statistical Processes includes chapters on fractional distillation and solvent extraction (T. F. Johns) chemical exchange theory (J.Bigeleisen) liquid-gas and liquid-liquid (T. F. Johns) exchange distillation (R. W. McIlroy), gas-gas and dual temperature exchange (H. R. C. Pratt) chromatography (E. Glueckauf) and gas centri-fuges (W. Groth and K. Beyerle). Section 111 Irre-versible Statistical Processes has chapters on thermal diffusion (K. E. Grew) diffusion processes (C. Boorman), the separation jet (E. W. Becker) molecular distillation (T. F. Johns) ionic migration (H. C. Cole) electrolysis (P. T. Walker) and biological processes (P. J. Syrett). The last section entitled Separation by Specific Methods, has chapters on the photochemical method (R. H. Bernas) and on electromagnetic methods by R. H. Bernas (electromagnetic separators) and M. G. Ranc (resonance separation and the isotron) 19621 BOOK RE\-IEM*S 141 The different subjects are treated in articles which are complete in themselves and conclude with their own list of references; the methods and their variants are not however considered in isolation but usually with a good deal of comparative appraisal that markedly adds to the value of the whole work.The proportion of space devoted to theory equipment and operation and the total length varies from topic to topic-naturally, since these range from interesting but not very successful experiments to well-established major industrial pro-cesses. Most of the writing is attractively clear and the presentation is helped by the open layout and liberal use of bold-face cross-heads graphs line-drawings and plates. The volume is excellently produced on good paper; it deseives to be so because it will constitute a valuable source of‘ information for many years.There is a good subject index. P. L. ROBINSON U L T R A - V I O L E T AND VISIBLE SPECTROSCOPY. CHEMICAL APPLICATIONS. C. N. R. Rao. Pp. xiii + 164. London Butterworth 1961. 30s. The introduction to this book states that ‘an attempt has been made to represent the basic concepts of electronic spectroscopy and to survey its analytical and structural applications in the different branches of chemistry.’ This aim has been fulfilled on the organic side. to which most of the book is devoted but inorganic chemists will be disappointed to find that the inorganic section is covered in part of a chapter devoted to miscel-laneous topics and consists largely of a short discussion of ligand field theory and its applications to the spectro-s c o p ~ of transition-metal ions and their complexes.The first chapter contains a short survey of basic concepts and of apparatus and techniques somewhat optimistically described as ‘experimental methods.’ This is the weakest chapter; it might have been more semantically written to avoid the loose expression due largely to excessive compression. The theoretical discussion is in marked contrast with the more detailed treatment given in chapter 12 on charge-transfer spectra, by a co-author who is not named on the title-page. The following five chapters are devoted to the theory of absorption spectra of organic molecules and are well provided with tables and absorption curves.The next chapter on applications of this theory begins with the disclaimer that only a few typical examples will be discussed; the 98 references listed a t the end of the chapter however cover a wide field and may well prove to be more useful than the text. Chapter 9 on far ultra-violet absorption spectra is very short; in this context the far ultra-violet extends to about 170 p. Chapters 10 on fluorescence and 1 1 on charge-transfer spectra are by co-authors; the second of these co-authors has a more condensed style than the main author and his chapter sets a higher standard than that of the main text. The last chapter contains miscellaneous topics such as ligand field theory colour centres radicals and ions, pigments and dyestuffs optical rotary dispersion solvent and temperature effects and hydrogen bonding and is the most highly documented of all with 122 references.An appendix on proteins is too sketchy to be of much value; the book ends with a well-chosen bibliography. The book is attractively bound and the format is pleasing; few misprints were noted but on p. 22 line 29 a ‘wrong fount’ E was found which possessed much mere colour and character than the rather weak Greek alphabet and mathematical signs which unfortunately go with Times New Roman typeface. Some structural formulae are of irregular outline (p. 57) or of ugly proportions (p. 49). These are minor blemishes in an otherwise well-printed book. L. H. W. HALLETT EXPERIMENTAL CRYOPHYSICS. Edited by F.E. Hoare L. C. Jackson and N. Kurti. Pp. xv 4- 388. London Butterworth 196 1. 75s. In the preface the editors explain that the word ‘cryophysics’ has gained such general acceptance in recent years that it seemed appropriate to include it in the title. Certainly the increasing demand for physical investigations at the lowest attainable temperatures has created a specialist field of study broad enough to merit a special designation; moreover the market for the major liquid refrigerants (air nitrogen oxygen hydrogen and helium) has grown enormously with the advent of rocket motors and with the use of hydrogen and helium bubble chambers so that there are very practical reasons for developing and teaching the necessary skills for successful experimentation at low temperatures.This volume is a co-operative work by 19 contributors (11 from Great Britain seven from N. America and one from France) and the subject matter covers to a greater or lesser degree most of the current interest in cryophysics. In the opening chapters F. E. Hoare presents an historical sketch of the development of low-temperature physics and a lucid outline of the theory of gas liquefaction. There follow chapters on the production of liquid air hydrogen and helium (D. H. Parkinson); the design and methods of construction of low-temperature apparatus (A. J. Croft) ; and the storage and transfer of liquefied gases (A. Wexler). These are comprehensive and contain numerous valuable items of technical know-how e.g. the construction of Dewar vessels soldering (‘a joint made in this way cannot fail to be sound!’) and the drawing of glass to close limits.The magnetic method for producing temperatures below 1 OK and the techniques for cooling other substances by contact with paramagnetics are described in some detail (E. Mendoza) as is the difficult problem of low-temperature thermometry (R. P. Hudson) and the relation of low-temperature measurements to the absolute temperature scale 142 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY [APRIL In the final chapter 12 different cryogenic techniques and applications are separately described by different authors. The coverage of these topics is necessarily brief-indeed there is scope for a second and larger volume based on the subject matter of the last chapter.If produced and written as well as the present book, such a volume would be very welcome. H. A. SKINNER CHEMICAL KINETICS-FOR GENERAL S T U D E N T S OF CHEMISTRY. (Physical Chemistry Textbooks Series.) B. Stevens. Pp. viii + 107. London: Chapman &? Hall 1961. This book is the first of a series of monographs on physico-chemical topics designed for students reading chemistry as a subsidiary subject. Dr Stevens is to be congratulated on this excellent work which offers a really sound and lucid introduction to kinetic principles and methods. One of the primary considerations in teaching chemical kinetics is to instil a complete under-standing of the handling of its results. In this work, this is well provided for by a host of examples worked out in the mathematical detail necessary for the majority of students it is written for.These illustrations are nearly all drawn from original sources and it is good to see these quoted throughout the text. The manner in which they are constantly referred back to as the author progresses painstakingly chapter by chapter deter-mining the rate the order and the energy of activation of the reaction is particularly noteworthy. Besides dealing with the fundamental principles and the theoretical treatment of reaction rates the author covers in 10 chapters such topics as homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis the influence of radiation on chemical reactions and atom and free-radical reactions. This book fills a need especially for biological students. It will be welcomed generally and can be recommended, as a useful alternative introduction to the topic for honours chemists.I t can also be read with pleasure and profit by intending and practising teachers of the subject. The book is very well produced at a reasonable price. 12s. 6d. H. E. HALLAM ELEMENTARY CHEMICAL THERMODYNAMICS. G. Hargreaves. Pp. viii + 120. London Butterworths, 1961. 10s. 6d. This book provides a serviceable though far from rigorous introduction to chemical thermodynamics. I t emphasizes the definition measurement and uses of thermodynamic functions such as entropy free energy and chemical potential rather than the older approach to thermodynamics through cyclic processes and heat engines. In Part I there is a preliminary discussion of important terms like reversible and irreversible changes and properties of state together with definitions of the symbols and functions that are used by chemists in dealing with energy changes and with phase and chemical equilibria.In Part I1 these ideas are expanded. Energy changes are discussed in relation to the First Law of Thermodynamics and entropy changes are introduced as a measure of the spontaneity of chemical and other processes a measure that arises naturally from one form of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. The last two chapters of Part I1 deal with the meanings of free energy and of chemical potentials and their applications in criteria of equilibrium or spontaneous change. In Part 111 the Thermodynamic Laws and functions are applied in detail to thermochemistry and to phase and chemical equilibria.The important equations such as that of Kirchhoff the Gibbs-Helmholtz equation and the isotherm and isochore are derived simply and applied to realistic chemical problems. There are two appendixes; in the first the various mathematical relationships used in the book are collected together; the second contains problems on the later chapters. There are some weaknesses in the presentation which probably arise through efforts to retain simplicity. The definition of AH on page 7 is not correct for the extrapolation suggested is rarely possible and example 2 given on page 63 provides a more general definition as an integration constant. There should be some indication that the terms po in equations 10.14 10.15 and 10.16 are not in fact the same quanti-ties and involve different standard states; and similar restrictions apply to the AGO terms in equations 12.6 and 12.7.Although some other textbooks write dq and dw for infinitesimal additions of q and w it is better to confine the differential notation to infinitesimal changes in properties of state if only to emphasize that q and w are not properties of the state of the system. The reviewer finds considerable difficulty with equations 12.4 and 12.5 and their application in deriving equation 13.10. By starting the section entitled ‘Proof of the Law of Mass Action applied to Equilibrium’ with a chemical system in equilibrium the author does not derive the expression for AG for a change between two non-equilibrium states of the system.Thus equations 12.4 and 12.5 are true only for AG = 0. If they are applied to a reaction in a chemical cell they must lead to E = 0 because they require the cell to be ’at equilibrium.’ A more correct expression for AG in terms of pressure is AG = AGO + RTlnQp where Qp is of the same form as K p but the pressures involved are initial pressures of reactants and ,final pressures of products for the change considered. Similarly with standard states of unit concentration the change in free energy when x moles of X at concentration [XI are changed toy moles of Y at concentration [Y] is 19621 BOOK REVIEWS 143 AG = AGO + RT In [Y]”/[X]“ Thus equation 13.10 should read for the reaction RT ZF and as a corollary E” = - In K,.In a similar manner equation 9.9 is really an ex-pression for a general change in G at constant pressure and temperature and it is only a condition for equilibrium if In summary the earlier chapters of the book give an interesting introduction to the functions of thermo-dynamics which are of use to chemists but the later chapters contain some confused arguments and some equations that are incorrect. P. G. ASHMORE c HEMISTRY. Second Edition. M. J. Sienko and R. A. Plane. Pp. xiii + 623. New York McGraw-Hill Book Co. Inc.; London McGraw-Hill Publishing Co. Ltd 1961. 58s. This is a good specimen of an American ‘College Chemistry’ text. The authors have based their book on lectures given by themselves in the introductory course at Cornell University and assume no previous knowledge of the subject; in 600 pages they succeed in giving a very adequate survey of modern chemistry.Roughly half the book deals with principles-atomic theory states of matter equilibria electrochemistry, etc.-and half with a group-by-group survey of the elements. Although the treatment is necessarily com-pressed and selective surprisingly many of the important aspects of current chemical knowledge do emerge. For instance a random selection produced the following topics energy-levels of electrons in atoms; oxidation numbers ; lattice defects ; electrophoresis ; electrochemical series ; dissociation of acids ; properties of transition elements; structure and uses of borates; hydrazine as a rocket propellant; and fluorocarbons.As in most American books of this kind organic chemistry is dis-cussed in a single chapter. The book is very nicely produced and in general layout and binding might well serve as a model to British publishers. Diagrams are presented on a half-tone background which makes them stand out more than the conventional black and white line drawings, and tables of’ physical properties (of which there are surprisingly many) are given in the same way. Molecular structures are usually shown as drawings of a balls-in-contact model and thus convey a good impression of the actual spatial relations hips. Differences between the British and American educational systems must necessarily be taken into account in assessing the usefulness of such a volume in this country.Thus Sienko and Plane’s book would not serve as a text for any school examination; it does not contain much of what is needed for ‘0’ level and, conversely it includes many topics ordinarily considered of degree standard. I t would be very useful for ‘A’ level courses based on the kind of syllabus which may emerge from the S.M.A. proposals but would still be incomplete in many respects. Books of this kind ought, however to be prescribed background reading for all scientists in sixth forms and even for some at higher levels. This one too could be read with profit by the more intelligent arts specialist who had done some science at ‘0’ level. By present-day standards the price is not unreasonable but it is still high enough to preclude many schools from buying even a single copy for the library.J. E. SPICE TOWARDS INFORMATION RETRIEVAL. R. A. Fairthorne. Pp. xxiii + 21 1. London Buiter-worths 1961. 40s. This is a collection of papers published by Mr Fair-thorne between 1947 and 1960 and necessarily exhibits some overlap ( ‘informational redundancy’ in the language of the author!). Nevertheless we see in this collection an original mind at work; here is true basic research-not the investigation driving towards a proximate solution of a given problem but a broad advance on a wide front where all aspects are considered irrespective of the probability that they can contribute immediately to the solution of a specific problem. Reading Fairthorne’s essays again we are led to re-examine the basic purpose of deposit and retrieval (for both must be considered together despite the title of the book).This is a signal service since between excessive detail and overemphasized relevance or correlation on the one hand and the slap-happy descr$tor-curn-‘thesaurus’ approach on the other hand the main purpose can be overlooked. This is to provide a display of information for the searcher which will properly comprise his current interest. I t involves the assump-tion that complex and exacting questions are seldom asked with accuracy or answered profitably. I t is not the task of the ‘system’ to produce an infinitely detailed and intricate scheme of classification and relevance in which the interrelations of all observations are traceable. The system must be so constructed that when its operator understands the needs of the seeker he can place rapidly before him signposts to the sub-repositories in which are stored the knowledge he needs neither embarrassing him with an excess of irrelevant matter nor injuring him by omission of essential information.All this is visible to those who read these essays if only they can penetrate the author’s mind. Fairthorne exhibits the true mathematician’s mind not excluding the mathematician’s foibles of dressing instinctive trut 144 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY [APRIL in the garment of symbolism and taking as axiomatic propositions which are clear only to him and to Macaulay’s schoolboy. This combined with a strong tendency to mix metaphors makes the language of these essays delightful but difficult; one has a tendency to end by visualizing a clerk busily pigeonholing black and white slips with holes in them while at the same time running a railway shunting j-ard of infinite dimensions, gazing meanwhile at a heavenly host of documents in macroscopic Brownian movement.Despite the difficulty everyone working in this field should keep this stimulating book on his desk and read and re-read it. I have known these essays in their original context for some years but have never known them to fail to stimulate my thoughts. It is good to have them collected in this volume. G. M. DYSON T H R E E H U N D R E D S C I E N T I S T S . P A R T I . B I O -LOGISTS. Pp. 74. 5s. 6d. PART 11. CHEMISTS. Pp.59. 5s. 6d. PART I I I . PHYSICISTS. Pp. 101. 6s. D. M. Diamond and R. Innes. London: Science Club Publications 196 1 . With a series of thumb-nail sketches of the lives and work of prominent scientists arranged in chronological order the authors have tried to describe ‘the people who made the science in the school syllabus.’ On the whole they have done their work well. There could of course, be endless debate as to who should be included. In the general preface the authors claim to include and emphasize ‘that part of the work which is met with in the “0” Level G.C.E. syllabuses.’ Many of the scientists chosen would not be mentioned at ‘0’ level, though most of them could be encountered at ‘A’ level. This being the case it is surprising that Paracelsus, Proust Hess Stokes Hofmann and Ostwald have not found places whereas Norman Glisson Hamilton, Blane Crompton and Murdock have.There are a few minor points for criticism. Mendelkeff, when in London spelled his name with the ‘ff’ ending. Is Deacon’s process obsolete? The impression is given that the Avogadro Number was determined in Avo-gadro’s day. As a description of the relevant part of Marsh’s test ‘the solution suspected of containing arsenic is treated with hydrogen’ leaves much to be desired. Aristotle receives far less than his meed of praise, particularly as a biologist. Some laws have been expressed untidily e.g. Gay-Lussac’s (no physical conditions) Henry’s (constant temperature omitted) and Graham’s (little meaning unless related to other gases).Page references in the index would have been helpful. In this self-sufficient age a few textbook writers assume that ‘history is bunk.’ A larger number find that when room has to be found for newer material, historical matter is most easily shed. This work, therefore is to be warmly welcomed partly as a healthy antidote to such attitudes and partly for clothing the dry bones of textbook names with flesh and blood. These booklets should be in every science library at pre-university level. No one could scan their pages without improving his general scientific knowledge. J. H. WHITE T H E SMALLER F I R M AND T E L H N I C A L EDUCATION. P. F. R. Venables and W. J. Williams. London M a x Parrish 196 1. Pp. 223. ‘British industry is preponderantly composed of small concerns.Of nearly 56,000 manufacturing firms about 95 per cent have less than 500 employees each and about 74 per cent have less than 100 employees each.’ This statement tends to exaggerate the importance of small firms and a truer picture would have been obtained if number of employees or value of production had been taken instead of number of firms. Nevertheless small firms do make a significant con-tribution to British industry and if they are to continue to play their full part in our economic life their require-ments in trained manpower must be fully understood. This book gives a clear picture of the facilities and courses available today in the new four-tier structure of technical education now being established in this country and also analyses the actual and potential facilities for education and training in various industries and firms.In their investigations the authors have found that small firms have a greater proportional need for skilled men than larger firms and a small numerical deficiency can be catastrophic. In spite of this these firms make very little contribution by means of training schemes to the total number of technologists technicians and craftsmen produced and in general rely on obtaining them from the larger firms with highly organized training schemes. The chapter on ‘Training Schemes‘ is of considerable practical value to top management in a small firm as it classifies the types of skill required ranging from that of professional technologists to craftsmen and also gives details of training facilities available and bodies which are able to assist in establishing a training scheme.The importance of one person in a company having the responsibility for education and training is properly emphasized and the section on group apprenticeship training schemes gives a clear account of one method which has already been used with success to overcome some of the difficulties of small firms. A considerable amount of detail is provided on the financial aspect of training resulting from the authors’ survey and they concluded that few firms had carefully analysed the costs involved or indeed the benefits accruing to the company. There is an interesting discussion of future trends and possibilities together with an appendix giving a statistical analysis of the results of the inquiry.30s 19621 BOOK REVIEWS 145 Managements of companies with under 500 employees who are concerned with the problem of competing with large organizations will find this book worth reading for its informativeness and the positive and practical suggestions put forward by the authors. H. A. COLLINSON TECHSICAL GLASSES. M. B. Volf. Pp. 465. London: Written by an acknowledged authority in the field of chemical compositions and physical properties of glasses used for technical and scientific purposes, printed in Czechoslovakia and co-published in this countr) this book is an outstanding achievement in the compilation and communication of reliable information. The range of the subject matter is limited by the omission of glasses used for glazing building and decorative purposes and of all optical glass but those glasses which are discussed provide an impressive list, and the author is to be commended on producing a volume which is technically readable and notably informative.This has been achieved by considering glasses on the basis of their physical and chemical requirements in use and relating these to their chemical compositions. ‘The first chapter deals with atomic arrangements in glass and the general structural characteristics of various types of atoms and ions are discussed. This is accom-plished concisely but adequately with however, insufficient consideration of physical characteristics such as viscosity and the viscosity-temperature relationship, and the phenomenon of devitrification.The chemical and physical tests and measurements which are carried out in the control and assessment of glasses for particular purposes are described in the second and appropriate later chapters. The remaining chapters are concerned with detailed consideration of glasses according to the requirements of thermal expansion chemical durability electrical characteristics and thermal stability and the special applications of glass in the form of fibres. Glass for general laboratory ware consists mainly of ‘Pyrex‘-type compositions ; the possibility of phase separation occurring under thermal treatment is dis-cussed and the deliberate use of this phenomenon in the production of ‘Vycor’ glass is considered in some detail.Tubing glass is treated from the viewpoint of the demands of the glass-blower and also of the chemist who is becoming increasingly insistent on improved chemical resistance and thermal endurance. The functions and theory of the glass electrode are very clearly explained together with the development of compositions for use in solutions of high pH and at relatively high temperatures. The chapter on neutral glasses provides a fascinating story of the nature of the attack which can take place during sterilization processes the severe tests which Sir Isaac Pitinan €3 Sons Ltd 1961. 42s. glass must withstand to be acceptable for its many medical applications and the glass compositions developed to satisfy all such requirements. The chapters on sealing glasses emphasize the need for ‘matching’ the expansion curves of the glass and the metal and give a detailed consideration of the processes which can produce strain at the glass-metal seal.Examples are given of the types of glass suitable for sealing to platinum Dumet iron and iron alloys, copper molybdenum Kovar and tungsten. The manufacturer user and potential usel of glass will find this book invaluable. Search for desired information is assisted bjr the provision of an index of trade names and code designations and of a separate appendix giving tables which summarize the properties and compositions of commercial glasges produced in many countries. H. COLE P A I N T TECHNOLOGY MANUALS. P A R T 11. SOLVENTS O I L S RESINS AND DRIERS.Oil & Colour Chemists‘ Association. Pp. 239. London: Chapman G’ Hall 1961. 30s. This is the second manual of a series of six intended primarily to aid the student of paint technology in the City and Guilds Course. I t is becoming obvious that these manuals are being huilt around the specialized field of the many contributors; hence overlapping of subject matter is inevitable. The title does not well describe the present manual which begins with a chapter on bitumens and pitches. The nomenclature of these has been confused and the contributor wisely quotes an official terminology for such terms as bitumen, asphalt tar and pitch. Although black as a colour is not a present-day vogue for motor-cars and bicycles it is well to remember that certain of these materials have in the past provided immense quantities of stoving-blacks for these vehicles.When driers are dealt with it is pleasant to see a definite chemical formula being given for those somewhat indefinite products the naphthenic acids. The complications of drier mechanism are well illustrated in particular the use of calcium and zinc soaps which cannot apparently fit into a simple O/R system. Phenolic maleic and coumarone resins ale the synthetics dealt with in the present work. -%part from their present wide usage the first are of particular historical interest being the first synthetic resins to enter the field held by copal gum. One of the remarkable properties of the phenolics is their ability to be modified with large amounts of rosin without losing their hardness and high melting points the rosin also serving to make them oil-soluble.An excellent survey is made of the natural resins-copal rosin shellac dammar and others. The author of this chapter is however in error when he describes rosin as a mixture of ‘aromatic unsaturated acids’ since the basic structure of thes 146 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY [APRIL acids is formed by fusion of cyclohexane cyclohexene and c yclo hexadiene. Drying and semi-drying oils are very well covered in the present work. It is possible to treat in far more detail the chemistry of nature’s varnish oils than is the case with nature’s varnish resins. Extraction refining and testing are well covered and the position held by the important oils in the surface-coating industry is well shown.Although synthetic resins have largely replaced copal gum linseed oil remains supreme as the drying oil. A chapter on solvents concludes the manual. Most of the authors have terminated their contributions with excellent experimental sections the quality of which shows them to be men of experience in their su hjec ts. A. S. FREEBORN SEPARATION O F HEAVY METALS. A. K. De. Pp. Parts I and I1 deal briefly with the theory of solvent extraction and ion exchange and include separation procedures for about 60 ‘heavy’ metals. The author describes the methods available for the quantitative determination of these metals in the third part and in the fourth discusses radiochemical separation procedures. The theoretical introduction to parts I and I1 and the description of the apparatus used follow closely those given in Samuelson’s book on ion exchange and Morrison and Freiser’s book on solvent extraction so much so that in a number of cases the wording is almost identical.These two parts contain a large number of errors and misprints more than one would expect to find in a first edition. Two diagrams are wrongly labelled and one of them is printed upside down. In two other diagrams the explanatory lettering of parts of the apparatus is not explained either in the legend or in the text. A large number of the mistakes are trivial but they inevitably cause irritation to the reader. Part 111 usefully collects a variety of methods for determining the metals dis-cussed after their separation by solvent extraction or ion exchange.However only brief descriptions are given, and in a number of cases one would need to refer to standard analytical textbooks for a more detailed description of the procedure. The two most useful sections of the book are those describing the procedures available for solvent and ion extraction of the metals discussed. These have been collected from the recent literature and provide a convenient source of reference not available until now. Sometimes these sections to be really useful require a little more information. Thus in the description of the dithizone extraction of silver it is stated that large amounts of copper or mercury may interfere but the exact amount is not specified. It is unfortunate that despite the scarcity of books on solvent-extraction and ion-exchange methods in analytical chemistry the present volume should include so much 308.Oxford Pergamon Press 196 1. 60s. This book is divided into four parts. that has been dealt with in a similar manner and more fully in earlier books. Nevertheless the inclusion of detailed separation procedures for such a large number of metals will be useful to those who desire a convenient source of information on these topics. C. W. BADGER PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY. Second Edition. F. Daniels and R. A. Alberty. New York and London John W i l y & Sons 1961. 70s. Considerable revision of this well-established textbook has increased its appeal in Britain. I t provides an introduction to all aspects of physical chemistry and gives comprehensive treatment of the more elementary material.There are two approaches in teaching physical chemistry. The more relaxing method is to map out the subject in an elementary course and follow this by rigid treatment of the more important fields. This book provides a very good basis for a student following that type of course. It is very readable arguments are well presented but dry rigour is avoided. The student is shown the significance of more advanced material such as quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics and is introduced to the basic methods involved. Brief attention is given to some of the growing points of physical chemistry. The second more characteristically British approach involves a rigorous treatment from the start of the university course.Any who find this over-bearing may be refreshed by reading Daniels and Alberty. The notable attention given to worked examples problems and bibliography is of general value both to student and teacher. Important changes in the book include an increased use of mathematics and a greater emphasis on quantum theory. New chapters cover the application of quantum theory to molecular structure and spectroscopy. An elementary chapter on statistical mechanics shows how thermodynamic quantities are calculated from spectro-scopic data. There is a considerably increased treat-ment of one-component systems and of surface chemistry. To a large extent the presentation allows a smooth, too facile some will say assimilation by an intelligent reader.Some of the phase diagrams chosen are, however rather surprising in the context. Few lecturers would dare to present the pressure-volume-temperature solid-figure for a pure substance or t h e temperature-pressure-composition solid-figure for the copper sulphate -water system. Pp. x + 744. B. ATKINSOX A PROBLEM I N CHEMICAL E N G I N E E R I N G DESIGh-. THE MANUFACTURE O F A C E T I C A N H Y D R I D E . G. V. Jeffries. Pp. vii + 135. London The Institution of Chemical Engineers 1 96 1 . The design problem was introduced into the examina-tions of the Institution of Chemical Engineers largelk at 2 1 s BOOK REVIEWS 147 the instance of Mr Hugh Griffiths who saw in it a means of bringing the young students into contact with the problems of their profession.The student soon realizes that the information at his disposal is very limited that there are many equally satisfactory solutions and that the theoretical content of his course in chemical engineer-ing has a limited but ever more important part to plaj-in guiding him to a decision on doubtful points. At a symposium held in 1947 at the University of Manchester a number of members of the Institution showed how the problem of the design of plant for the manufacture of 20 tons per week of mixed nitrotoluenes and the separation from this mixture of commercial ortho and para MNT could be solved. The notes for this course were amplified by Mr F. E. Warner and Dr J. M. Coulson and printed by the Institution of Chemical Engineers as a booklet which could be purchased by students.During the years it was found that some students had easy access to libraries and other sources of information but that those in isolated places found it difficult to make the searches that were required for an adequate appraisal of the situation. It was therefore felt by the Board of Examiners under the guidance of Dr H. W. Ashton as chairman that candidates should be supplied with a set of defined process conditions essential physical and chemical data and selected references. This new aspect of the problem has been illustrated by Mr G. V. Jeffries on the production of 20,000 tons of acetic acid by the thermal cracking of acetone. It covers the design of the furnace condensers absorbers and stills together with materials of construction and instrumentation.The author is to be congratulated on the amount of work he has put into this clear exposition, as are the other members of the Institution for the way in which they are contributing to raising the standard of their profession. M. B. DONALD A PRACTICAL COURSE I N POLYMER CHEMISTRY. S. H. Pinner. Pp. xv + 156. Oxford Pergumon Press 1961. 25s. The growth and importance of polymer chemistry has been reflected in its inclusion in courses for degrees and for Diplomas in Technology in applied chemistry and by its importance in those courses leading to such qualifications as A.P.I. A.I.R.I. and A.S.D.C. I t is essential in order that theory may be reinforced and techniques taught that practical work of the type given in this book should form part of such courses.The 41 experiments given are grouped in three sections the first of which deals with preparation of monomers modification of polymers and degradation. The second concerned with polymerization gives examples of bulk suspension emulsion and ionic polymerizations redox initiation copolymerization and polycondensation. The third deals with polymer evaluation and includes determination of viscosity numbers and osmotic pressures fractionation and some analytical procedures. Two or three experiments on each topic generally allow some selection to be made. All the experiments seem to be chosen with care to illustrate principles and provide experience in tech-niques. They are clearly described and illustrated and such aspects as yield and purity are not forgotten.Two useful appendixes for the more advanced worker dealing with the techniques of osmometry and viscometry, include considerations of errors and their sources. The author of a book such as this must necessarily be selective but a future edition might contain experiments on other topics for example interfacial polycondensa-tion and determination of glass temperatures. Absorp-tiometers and recording infra-red spectrometers are perhaps not uncommon in some institutions concerned with the teaching of polymer chemistry and examples of turbidimetric titration and determination of infra-red spectra might also be included. Errors or omissions are few. Equation (3) in Appendix 1 is not strictly true since the interaction parameter generally includes an entropy contribution.The symbol x is probably to be preferred to p for this parameter. Minus signs appear to have been omitted from the two equations which follow. These however, are minor criticisms of a book which although primarily intended as a teaching text can be recommended to anyone concerned with the practice of polymer chemistry. The very reasonable price puts it well within the reach of students. W. R. MOORE PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS 0 F T H E NATIONAL BUREAU O F STANDARDS. ANNUAL REPORT, 1 9 6 1. Miscellaneous Publication 242. Pp. 204. Washington U.S. Goverment Printing Ofice 1961. 75 cents. X MANUAL OF RADIOACTIVITY PROCEDURES. National Bureau of Standards Handbook 80.Pp. 159. Washington U.S. Gouernment Printing Ofice 1961. 50 cents. SAFETY RULES FOR T H E INSTALLATION A N D MAINTENANCE OF ELECTRIC SUPPLY A N D COMMUNICATION L I N E S . National Bureau of Standards Handbook 81. Pp. 197. Washington: U. S. Government Printing Ofice 1 96 1. R E A C T I O N S . (SUPPLEMENTARY T A B L E S . ) National Bureau of Standards Monograph 34. Washington U. S. Government Printing Ofice 1 96 1. $2.75. $1.75. TABLES OF CHEMICAL KINETICS. HOMOGENEOU Institute Affairs under the supervision of Dr H. Suschitzky B.SC., F.R.I.C. The examiners were Professor D. H. Hey, D.SC. PH.D. F.R.I.c. F.R.s. and Professor W. G. Overend, EXAMINATIONS FEBRUARY-MARCH D.SC. PH.D. F.R.I.C. Diplomas in Applied Chemistry Examination in Branch A General Analytical Chemistt-y Examiners Dr D.C. Garratt Dr J. Haslam The examination was held in the Laboratories, Messrs Boots Pure Drug Co. Ltd in Nottingham in the week beginning 12 February 1962. There were 2 candidates of whom 1 passed. Examination in Branch D Clinical Chemistry Examiners Professor E. J. King Dr I. D. P. Wootton The examination was held at the University of London Postgraduate Medical School London W. 12, and at 30 Russell Square in the week beginning 12 February 1962. There were 2 candidates and they both passed. Examination in Branch E The Chemistry (including Examiners Dr H. E. Archer Mr T. McLachlan The examination was held at the University of London Examinations Laboratory Brunswick Square London, and at 30 Russell Square in the week beginning 12 February 1962.There were 5 candidates of whom 1 passed. Branch A Branch D Microscopy) o f Food Drugs and Water PASS LIST SAVIDGE Richard Alan A.R.I.C. RICHARDSON Richard William B.SC. (LOND.~, SCOTT Peter B.SC. (LOND.) A.R.I.C. HOWARD Frederick John B.SC. (LOND.) A.R.I.C. A.R.I.C. Branch E R,I.C. Research Awards The Research Diploma of the Royal Institute of Chemistry was awarded in March 1962 to the following candidates : Geoffrey Vincent Dallow BLUNT A.R.I.C. Otto METH-COHN A.R.I.C. Mr G. V. D. BLUNT presented a thesis entitled ‘A Study of certain products from the Low-Temperature Carbonization of Coal by internal heating of the charge with hot gas.’ The work was carried out at the North-ampton College of Advanced Technology London, under the supervision of Dr M.Vahrman F.R.I.C. The examiners were Dr D. McNeil B.SC. M.I.CHEM.E., F.R.I.c. and Dr H. L. Riley A.R.c.s. D.I.c. F.INST.F., Mr 0. METH-COHN presented a thesis entitled ‘Heterocyclic Syntheses.’ The work was carried out a t the Royal College of Advanced Technology Salford, F.R.I.C. SUMMER SCHOOL IN ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY Members are reminded that the Summer School will be held at the Manchester College of Science and Tech-nology from 9 to 15 September 1962. Places are still available on Course I Physical Methods of Organic Chemistry and Course 111, Determination of Toxic Substances in Air and Effluents and those wishing to attend are requested to complete and return the application form sent out with the January Journal.Requests to attend the lectures of any one course can still be considered. Further details and application forms may be obtained from the Education Officer 30 Russell Square London \v.c. 1. TWO MELDOLA MEDALS FOR 1961 The Meldola Medal which is the gift of the Society of Maccabaeans is normally awarded annually the award for a particular year being made to the chemist \\Tho being a British subject and under 30 years of age at 31 December in that year shows the most promise as indicated by his or her published work. Awards are made by the Council of the Royal Institute of Chemistry, Ivith the concurrence of the Society of Maccabaeans on the recommendation of a specially appointed advisory committee. As there were on this occasion two candidates adjudged to be of equal merit in different fields of work, it has been decided to make two awards of the Meldola Medal for 1961 and the recipients will be : JOHN NORMAN MURRELL for his ivork in the field of theoretical chemistry with special reference to the inter-pretation of the electronic spectra of organic molecules; RICHARD OSWALD CHANDLER NORMAN for his work in the field of organic chemistry with special reference to the application of modern methods of analysis to the elucidation of mechanisms of reaction of aromatic compounds.J. N. MURRELL was educated at Reigate Grammar School and at King’s College London. He obtained a first class honours degree in chemistry in 1953 and was awarded the Jelf Medal of the Faculty of Natural Sciences and a Layton Studentship.He began research in theoretical chemistry under the direction of Professor €3. C. Longuet-Higgins at King’s College and after a year moved with him to Cambridge. During the two years he spent at Cambridge he worked on the interpretation of the electronic spectra of weakly-coupled molecular fragments and on the spectra 14 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY 149 of substituted aromatic hydrocarbons. Together with Dr J. A. Pople he examined the mechanism of the vi bronic intensification of symme tr y-forbidden absorp-tion bands. He was awarded the Ph.D. of Cambridge in 1956. The year 1956-57 was spent as a Commonwealth Fund Fellow at the University of Chicago where he Lvorked Lvith Professors R. S.Mulliken and J. R. Platt. During that year he became interested in the charge-transfer spectra of molecular complexes and in the quan tum-mec hanical interpretation of the empirical relationships which exist between the force constant and the internuclear distance of diatomic molecules. Stimu-lated by the experimental work of Dr W. G. Schneider, he examined the origins and the properties of the photo-conductivity of molecular crystals. Dr Murrell returned to Cambridge in 1957 as an Assistant in Research in Theoretical Chemistry and as a Research Fellow at Corpus Christi College where he remained until 1960. During that time he showed that there are ttvo different mechanisms whereby a para-magnetic molecule can stimulate a spin-forbidden transition in another molecule and he obtained a formula for constructing the best hybrid orbitals of a molecule.In collaboration with Dr L. E. Orgel he studied the nuclear-magnetic-resonance spectra of some paramagnetic metal complexes. I n 1960 Dr Murrell was appointed to a Lectureship in Chemistry at the University of Sheffield. He has been collaborating with Professor E. Heilbronner of the Eidgenlijssische Technische Hochschule Zurich on problems in the interpretation of the electronic spectra of organic molecules and is the author of a book on that topic which will be published by Methuen and Wiley in 1963. He is currently engaged on research in the fields of nuclear and electron magnetic resonance and on the study of the delayed fluorescence of organic molecules.R. 0. C. NORMAN Lvas educated at St Paul’s School and at Balliol College Oxford of which he was a Brackenbury- Scholar. After being awarded the Gibbs Scholarship and a first class honours degree in chemistry, he began research in 1954 under the supervision of Dr W. A. Waters on the reactions of free organic radicals, with particular reference to their reactions with poly-cyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. In 1956 he became a Junior Research Fellow of Merton College Oxford and completed his Tvork for the D.Phi1. in 1957. He then spent a year in the United States partly at Harvard and partly at the University of Illinois returning in 1958 to take up an appointment as Fellow and Tutor in Chemistry at Merton College and Demonstrator in the Dyson Perrins Laboratory.In his research since 1958 Dr Norman has been con-cerned with the mechanism of ionic reaction of aromatic compounds. He has worked on the mode of transmission of polar effects through aromatic systems, the factors which govern the ortho :para ratio in aromatic substitution and quantitative relationships between structure and reactivity. He has also published papers on the role of hyperconjugation and on the structure of the transition state in aromatic substitution. In these studies he has employed and in some measure developed, gas-liquid chromatography for the accurate analysis of isomeric benzenoid compounds. Dr Norman’s research interests have recently been extended to the application of reaction mechanisms to biological processes. Work is being undertaken on the mechanism of hydroxylation of aromatic compounds in the body and of other biological oxidation processes.He is also completing a monograph on ‘Aromatic Substitution’ which will be published by Elsevier. Proposed Ordinary National Certificate in Science.-At their meeting on 16 March the Council received an invitation from the Ministry of Education to express their views on the idea of introducing an Ordinary National Certificate in Science. The main features of the proposal were set forth in a letter from the Ministry copies of which were available at the meeting. After a lengthy discussion it was agreed to inform the Ministry that the Council were not prepared on the basis of the information before them to support the proposal to introduce an Ordinary National Certificate in Science if this involved the abandonment of the existing Ordinary National Certificate in Chemistry.In reporting this outcome of the discussion to the Min-istry it was stated on the authority of the President that he would be glad to place before the next meeting of the Council a fuller statement of the proposals in order that they may consider the matter further. Training Guide.-A second edition of the R.I.C. Training Guide is now available for students and others who desire information on various aspects of training in chemistry. The Guide gives details of qualifications and courses grants and scholarships and works-based sandwich course schemes in chemistry. There are also lists of universities and colleges offering full-time degree courses as well as particulars of technical colleges that offer full-time sandwich and part-time courses leading to Grad.R.I.C.Dip.Tech. B.Sc. (external) degree and H.N.D. qualifications in chemistry or applied chemistry. Copies of the Training Guide may be obtained from the Institute price 2s. 6d. each post free. Members who are directly concerned with education may be able to obtain one copy free of charge on application to the Education Officer a t 30 Russell Square London W.C. 1. Institute Representative.-Mr N. Wyn Roberts, Fellow has been nominated by the Council to serve as Institute representative on the reconstituted Advisory Council for Science Ewe11 County Technical College 150 INSTITUTE AFFAIRS [APRIL Recognition of College.-Ipswich Civic College has been granted recognition for the training of students to the level of Part I1 of the Graduate Membership examination.The College was previously recognized for Part I. PERSONAL NOTES News of Hon. Fellows Sir John Cockcroft o.M. Nobel Laureate was installed as Chancellor of the Australian National University in Canberra on 11 April. Lord Cohen of Birkenhead Chairman of the General Medical Council is to receive the degree of LL.D. Aonoris causa of Trinity College Dublin. Professor Arne Tiselius Nobel Laureate will receive the Messel Medal and deliver an address on ‘The Nobel Foundation and its Activities’ during the Annual Meet-ing of the Society of Chemical Industry at Newcastle upon Tyne on 11 July. Honours and Awards Mr H.A. Collinson Fellow has been awarded the British Institute of Management’s Wilson Medal for 1961 for his paper on ‘Management for Research and Development.’ Mr Collinson managing director of Leicester Love11 & Co. Ltd Southampton has recently been elected Vice-chairman of the Federation. Dr S. W. Saunders Fellow Chairman of Imperial Chemical Industries (Heavy Organic Chemicals) Ltd, has had the title of Fellow of University College London, conferred upon him by the Senate of the University. Professor Sir Alexander Todd Nobel Laureate Fellow, Chairman of the Advisory Council on Scientific Policy since 1952 has been elevated to a life peerage. Royal Society.-The following Fellows have been ,elected Fellows of the Royal Society Professor C.E. Dent University College Hospital Medical School, London; Professor R. A. Raphael Regius Professor of ,Chemistry Glasgow. Royal Society of Edinburgh.-The following Fellows have been elected Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Dr C. L. Hewett Dr F. R. Smith and Dr R. H. Thomson. Educational Dr Francis X. Aylward Fellow has resigned his post .as head of the department of chemistry and food tech-nology Borough Polytechnic on being appointed Professor and head of the new department of bio-chemistry nutrition and food science at the University of Ghana. He is also serving (on behalf of F.A.O.) as scientific adviser on foods and nutrition to the Ministry .of Agriculture (and Food) in Ghana. Dr S. R. Caplan Associate has left the National Institutes of Health Bethesda and is now at the Weiz-mann Institute of Science Rehovoth Israel.Mr A. G. Galloway Associate has left Westinghouse Brake and Signal Go. Ltd Chippenham to take up a post as chemistry master at Chippenham Grammar School. Dr A. E. Kellie Associate has been given the title of reader in biochemistry in respect of his post at the Courtauld Institute of Biochemistry Middlesex Hospital Medical School. Dr G. D. Loveluck Associate has been appointed head of the department of chemistry Atlantic College St Donat’s Glam. He was formerly on the staff of the department of chemistry Welsh College of Advanced Technology Cardiff. Dr A. Shulman Associate has left the Chester Beatty Research Institute and is returning to the department of physiology University of Melbourne.Dr C. B. Taylor Fellow lately of I.C.I. (Malaya) Ltd and recently senior lecturer in chemistry at the City Training Centre Sheffield has been regraded to principal lecturer. Dr D. Vir Associate has been appointed reader in chemical engineering Panjab University. Dr J. G. Westmore Graduate Member has taken up a N.R.C. Postdoctorate Fellowship in the division of applied chemistry (metallurgical chemistry) with Dr A. W. Tickner. Dr R. K. Williams Associate formerly N.R.C. Post-doctorate Research Fellow is now at the Memorial University of Newfoundland St Johns Newfoundland. Academic Visitors to the U.K.-The following are at present in the U.K. and are due to depart on the dates stated Dr N. G. Baptist Fellow Ceylon Jan. 1963; Dr A.K. Bhattacharya Fellow Saugar Sept. 1964; Mr B. D. England Associate Victoria Wellington May, 1962; Mrs W. P. D. Pereira Associate Ceylon Sept., 1962; Dr H. J. Rodda Associate Adelaide April 1962; Mr K. Salah-Ud-Din Associate Panjab Sept. 1963 ; Professor F. Sebba Fellow Witwatersrand June 1962 ; Dr A. H. Spong Fellow Cape Town Jan. 1963. The following are expected to be in this country for the periods stated Professor A. Albert Fellow Australian National University April-Sept. 1962; Mrs D. A. Collins Fellow Hong Kong May-July 1962; Dr A. Gottschalk Fellow Australian National University, May-July 1962; Dr S. W. Kennedy Associate Adelaide, Sept. 1962-Sept. 1963; Mr W. J. Peal Associate, Makerere April-July 1962. Public and Industrial Mr P.Alexander Fellow has been appointed new developments manager Beecham Toiletry Division Ltd. Col R. L. Allen o.B.E. Associate has been appointe Z 9621 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY 151 principal ammunition technical officer H.Q. Ammuni-tion Organization Feltham. Dr R. L. J. Allen Fellow has been elected chairman of the Dietitians Board established under the provisions of the Professions Supplementary to Medicine Act 1960. Dr I. H. Bath Associate has left the National Institute for Research in Dairying Shinfield and is now at Unilever Research Laboratory Sharnbrook Bedfor d. Mr A. J. Capper Associate is visiting Noyelles-Godault, Pas de Calais to assist in the commissioning of the fui nace constructed for the SociCte Minikres et MCtal-lurgiques de Pefiarroya.He will remain there for six to nine months. Mr Martin J. Cranley Fellow Principal of Kevin Street College of Technology has been appointed director general of the Institute for Industrial Research and Standards Glasnevin Dublin. Dr E. R H. Davies Fellow is now overseas technical manager Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd Fibres Division Harrogate. Dr B. K. Davison Fellow has resigned his position ~ i t h Hardman & Holden Ltd on appointment as chemical development officer development and research department International Nickel Co. (Mond) Ltd. Mr E. Druce Fellow has relinquished his post as chief laboratory manager at the Godley laboratory of T. W. \Val1 & Sons (Meat & Handy Foods) Ltd to become manager of research and development Nabisco Foods Ltd Welwyn Garden City.Dr K. S. Ennor Associate has joined Esso Research Ltd Abingdon. Mr J. Fischbein Associate has moved to Swansea following his appointment as technical manager, Dunlopillo Division Dunlop Rubber Go. Hirwaun S. JVales. Nfr H. W. Gurney Associate has returned to the U.K. from India and is now at Glaxo Laboratories Ltd, Greenford. The Earl of Halsbury Fellow joined the board of the Distillers Co. Ltd on 1 April; he has also been appointed a part-time member of the North Thames Gas Board. Mr E. A. Hartley Fellow of Durban has recently been appointed director of research to the G. C. Shave Organization. Mr V. F. F. Henley Fellow has joined Acorn Anodising Co. Ltd as general works manager. He was previously technical director Mitro Anodising Ltd.Mr P. G. Houchell Associate has been appointed chief chemist of Pinchin Johnson & Associates Ltd, group research division. Dr A. C. Hutchison Fellow has taken up a new position as manager chemical sales and technical service department Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd Nobel Division Glasgow. Mr A. E. Kerr Fellow left the U.K. Iast month for Lagos Nigeria to assume his new duties as Federal Government Chemist. Mr R. W. Lerrigo Associate formerly operations manager and refinery manager Pulau Bukom has taken up his appointment as administrator of Pulau Bukom and executive director of Shell Refining Co. (Singapore) Ltd. Mr G. H. E. Pairaudeau Assoczate formerly of the research department Metal Box Co. Ltd has been appointed technical service manager of the company’s plastics group.Dr R. H. Purcell c.B. Fellow formerly chief scientific adviser Home Office has been appointed chief of the Royal Naval Scientific Service. Mr A. E. Ross Fellow has left Thurso for Sale, Cheshire being now employed as manager technical secretariat reactor group U.K.A.E.A. Risley. Mr D. S. Smith Associate formerly works manager, has been appointed works director Ayrton Saunders & Co. Ltd Liverpool. Dr S. N. Tewari Associate first assistant chemical examiner to the Government of Uttar Pradesh Agra, has been offered the directorship of the forensic science laboratories by the States of Punjab and Bihar. Mr A. K. Unsworth Fellow of the research division, Pinchin Johnson & Associates Ltd has accepted a senior technical post with a subsidiary company S.p.A.Vernici Italiane Standard Milan. Mr J. G. Whittington Associate is now at The Hague, in the employment of the Bataafse International Petroleum Maatschappij N.V. Mr Godfrey Winters Associate manager of the heat exchange division of Wellington Tube Works Ltd has been appointed to the board of Wellington Engineering Works Ltd which was recently formed to carry on the heat exchange fabrication and pipework activities of the group. Consultants Mr H. C. Macfarlane Fellow principal of Harrison & Self Analysts and Consulting Chemists has moved his practice to Moss Lane Godalming Surrey (Tele: Godalming 3 122). Mr H. R. Touchin Fellow has resigned his position as chief chemist of England Hughes Bell & Co.Ltd and is now acting as an independent consultant in the field of surface coatings and protection resins epoxy com-positions for floors and roads. He is also providing a statistical service for chemists comprising design of laboratory experiments and analysis of the results. His address is 180 Framingham Road Brooklands Sale, Cheshire (Tele Sale 7354). Retirements Dr L. J. Dunn Fellow has resigned after 25 years as chief chemist of Reeves & Sons Ltd but will continue as consultant to the company. Dr J. R. Furlong o.B.E. Associate has left the Pyrethrum Bureau and has moved to Ringwood Hants Section Activities Research Organization and the Forest Products Re-search Laboratory was mentioned in some detail.-Many other aspects of the Department’s work were discussed during question time. Professor Kemball proposed the vote of thanks. ABERDEEN AND NORTH OF SCOTLAND On 14 February Dr A. H. Cook, F.R.s. of the Brewing Industry Research Foundation, gave a talk on ‘Recent Developments in Brewing BIRMINGHAM AND MIDLANDS Brerefiq Research. Techniques.’ Dr Cook showed photographs of a pilot-plant con-tinuous-flow brewery and described brewing processes with reference to this plant. He said that partly because of the comparative cheapness of the plant but more particularly because of the close control over quality which it offered continuous-flow brewing had good commercial prospects. He then described some of the research being conducted at the Foundation into the best method of germinating barley the production of amylases in barley and changes in the mashing pro-cess.Some examples of instrumentation for use in the continuous-flow brewery were described and mention was made of research on the growth and division of yeast. After a period of discussion the vote of thanks was proposed by Professor W. 0. Kermack F.R.s. F.R.S.E. BELFAST AND DISTRICT On 1 February the Section tried out a new venture in the form of a film show at which Dr R. J. Magee presided. A very much increased attendance showed the popularity of this experiment. The films shown were ‘The Spectrograph,’ ‘The Nature of Plastics,’ ‘The Technique of Sampling’ and ‘X-Ray Crystallography.’ Film Show. Chemistgl and D.S.I.R. The meeting held on 27 February was presided over by Professor C.Kemball. Dr B. K. Blount c.B. Deputy Secretary of the Depart-ment of Scientific and Industrial Research gave a lecture entitled ‘Chemistry and D.S.I.R.’ The lecturer opened by explaining what D.S.I.R. is and how it came into existence. He then listed its four main functions to conduct both basic and applied research to meet the civil needs of this country; to encourage industry to do research and to apply scien-tific knowledge; to support universities colleges and other institutions in research projects and through studentships to encourage the postgraduate training of scientists and technologists; and to communicate the results of research to industry and to answer technical inquiries. Dr Blount described the Department’s work in certain of its research stations with special reference to chemical aspects.He explained how the Torry Research Station carried out research on the transport and storage of fish seeking to determine the properties that contribute to the quality of fish and to improve methods of preser-vation. The work of the National Chemical Labor-atory the Warren Spring Laboratory the Joint Fire Polymers from Olejn Oxides. A joint meeting of the Section with Keele University Chemical Society- lvas held at Keele on 9 January. The Chairman of the University Chemical Society welcomed members of the Institute and invited Mr G. King Section Chairman to take the Chair. The lecturer was Professor G. Gee F.R.s. University of Manchester who described the properties of the well-known and industrially important polymers of ethylene oxide.The wide range of application of these materials is based largely on their solubility in water. Propylene oxide polymers of low molecular weight are widely used as intermediates for polyurethane production ; high polymers show some possibility as elastomers. ;\lethods for the polymerization of olefin oxides were reviewed. Interesting problems arise with the asymmetric mono-mers which under suitable conditions give crystalline polymers. The reaction mechanisms involved are under investigation and appear to be related to those of Ziegler catalysts. The physical properties of the poly-ethers can be related to the content and position of the ether groups. A lively discussion followed the lecture and the vote of thanks proposed by Mr C.Irving was carried \\.ith acclamation. Non-benzenoid Aromatic Hydrocarbons. An ordinary meeting of the Section was held at the College of Advanced Technology Birmingham on 1 6 January, when Dr J. F. W. McOmie University of Bristol gave a lecture on the above subject. I t is hoped to publish a separate report of this lecture. Principles and Chemistry o f Colour Photografihy. An ordinary meeting of the Section was held at the North Staffordshire College of Technology Stoke-on-Trent on 1 February when Dr R. A. Jeffreys of Kodak Limited gave a talk on colour photography. Mr King Tvas in the Chair. Dr Jeffreys explained the principles of additive and subtractive colour processes and described with the aid of demonstrations current reversal and negative-positive colour materials.The chemical characteristics and properties of spectral sensitizers developers and colour formers and the reaction mechanism of coupling development were also discussed. The lecture was well illustrated with a display of transparencies and colour prints. The meeting was concluded by a vote of thanks to the lecturer proposed by the Principal Dr E. R. Patrick. 15 SECTION ACTIVITIES 153 BRISTOL AND DISTRICT Dr D. G. Neilson Section Chairman proposed the Rocket Fuels. For the convenience of members in the vote Of thanks. northern part of the Section a meeting was arranged at the Gloucester Technical College on 22 February to hear Dr W. G. S. Parker speak on the subject of ‘Rocket Fuels.’ Dr R.B. Williams in the Chair introduced the speaker and pointed out that coming only two days after the first American manned .orbital flight the timing seemed most appropriate. For an outline of the lecture see J., 1961 29. Dr Arthur Marsden proposed the vote of thanks, which was wholeheartedly endorsed. CUMBERLAND AND DISTRICT On 24 January Dr V. E. Gripp lectured on ‘Ion Exchange An Industrial Process’ at the Wind-scale Club Seascale. He briefly reviewed the develop-ment of ion exchange from the phenolic resins to the liquid processes in which long-chain amines are dispersed in inert solvents. He next dealt with the type of exchangers used in modern industrial applications paying particular atten-tion to the importance of the physical form of the resin, the availability of active sites and rates of diffusion.The economy of regeneration and useful resin capacity in industrial operation were discussed as also were methods of fully exploiting the process. Dr Gripp gave a number of examples demonstrating the applications of ion exchange. These included water demineralization uranium extraction from ores, purification of sugar syrups treatment of water used in the metal finishing trade separation of the rare earths, and treatment of radioactive wastes and recovery of plutonium from some of these solutions. Finally the lecturer gave some typical figures for the expected life of different ion-exchange materials in daily use. He emphasized that laboratory experiments on industrial processes should include tests to show up any long-term effects on the resin’s capacity.Dr Grjpp answered many questions put to him by the audience and the vote of thanks was given by Mr B. F. Warner. Ion Exchange. DUNDEE AND DISTRICT A joint meeting with the University of St Andrews Chemical Society and the Section was held on 9 February at St Salvator’s College St Andrews. The speaker was Professor T. L. Cottrell F.R.S.E. Mr R. Sutherland took the Chair. Professor Cottrell gave a most amusing and stimu-lating lecture in which he pointed out that chemistry could not be taught as a separate entity but is increasingly dependent upon physical properties. He proposed that a new school of thought should be developed-chemical physics. Relationshzp Between Physical Chemzstry and Physics.EAST ANGLIA A meeting was held at Ipswich on 22 February. Dr I. G. C. Dryden deputy director of the British Coal Utilization Research Association gave a lecture entitled ‘The Structure of Gal.’ This lecture was also given in Leeds a few days previously and an account is given on p. 156. The lecture was followed by a stimulating discussion. The vote of thanks was given by Mr E. S. J. Clark. Structure o f Coal. HUDDERSFIELD A joint meeting of the Section with the Chemical Society of the Huddersfield College of Technology was held at the College on 15 February. The Chair was taken by Dr R. R. Pritchard, Section Chairman. Professor C. E. H. Bawn c.B.E., F.R.s. gave a lecture on ‘Some Recent Developments in the Synthesis of High Polymers.’ He said that the most spectacular progress in polymer chemistry during the past five years had been concerned with the synthesis of previously unknown polymer molecules in which the backbone chain of carbon atoms shows considerable regularity and stereo order.These developments were stimulated by Ziegler’s discovery of a catalyst for the polymerization of ethylene at ordinary temperature and pressure and Natta and his co-workers in Milan using ‘Ziegler Catalysts,’ showed that cc-olefins could be polymerized to produce three kinds of polymer oc-olefins which had different stereochemical arrangement of the carbon chain. Professor Bawn then described the extension of these studies to other monomers and in particular to the dienes.Among the latter compounds the most striking development is perhaps the synthesis of a cis-1 4-polyisoprene from isoprene which is identical in all respects with natural hevea rubber. After discussing the nature of the ‘Ziegler Catalysts’ which as a broad generalization are formed by mixing metal alkyls aryls or hydrides of Groups I to 111 in the Periodic Table (e.g. RMX where R = alkyl M = metal and X = halogen) with compounds of the transition metals of Groups IV-VI. The most important of these catalysts is the combination of aluminium alkyls and titanium trichloride or tetrachlorides and this is the system used technically for the polymerization of the olefins. Since Natta’s discovery many other types of stereo-specific polymerization have been developed and elucidated and Professor Bawn described the use of free radical cationic and anionic initiators for the polymerization of polar monomers such as the acrylates or vinyl ether to stereospecific structures.In concluding his lecture Professor Bawn touched briefly on the relationship between polymer architecture and properties. Synthesis o f High Polymers 154 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY [APRIL The vote of thanks to the lecturer was proposed by Mr R. Brodie chairman of the College Chemical Society. HULL AND DISTRICT Symposium on Recent Advances in some Instrumental Methods of Analysis The symposium was held on 6 January in the Physics Lecture Theatre University of Hull. The session was formally opened by Professor G.F. J. Garlick and five separate papers were read. A summary was made by Dr G. F. Reynolds and the symposium was concluded by a general discussion. Mr Hames (Hilger & Watts Ltd) spoke on Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy. Theoretical considerations showed that at easily attained temperatures nearly all the atoms in a popula-tion in thermal equilibrium will be in the ground state and therefore capable of absorbing radiation at a ‘resonance’ wavelength. For quantitative application, we require a suitable radiation source a population of atoms of the element sought derived from the sample, and a device for measuring the absorption of the radia-tion by the population of atoms. The Hollow Cathode discharge tube is a convenient source of resonance spectra burner/atomizer arrange-ments similar to those used in flame emission work provide the population of atoms and the absorption measurement follows conventional spectrophotometric procedure.Atomic absorption determinations are less temper-ature-dependant. Elements that cannot be excited in the flame can be determined and purely spectroscopic interferences are rare; but interference can arise from factors that affect the formation of the population of atoms. These methods are being used regularly for the determination of Cu Zn Mg Ca Fe Pb Ni Co Ag and Au in a variety of applications. Dr G. C. Bond (Chemistry Department University of Hull) followed with an account of the Application of Mass Spectrometry to some Analytical Problems. A mass spectrometer is an instrument for determining the mass of a molecule and for determining its concen-tration in a mixture.I t can handle solids liquids and gases. Molecules are converted into positive ions by fast-moving electrons and the ions are resolved accord-ing to their elm ratio by a magnetic field. The ions are collected at an electrometer and the resulting current is then greatly magnified. Mass spectrometry is applied principally to the analysis of gaseous mixtures of unknown composition, to isotopic analysis to the analysis of high-molecular-weight compounds (e.g. paraffin waxes) to the analysis of small amounts of gas in vacuum tubes and to the analysis of solids (e.g. semi-conductors such as Ge and Si and alloys). The method is rapid and accurate and requires only Dr C.A. Parker (Admiralty Materials Laboratory, Holton Heath Poole) then read a paper on Spectro-fluorimetry . The visible fluorescence of solutions of certain com-pounds when exposed to ultra-violet light has been used for many years for the determination of such organic materials as vitamins and condensed-ring aromatic hydrocarbons. I t has also been used to detect traces of metals which can be made to react with a reagent to give a fluorescent compound. The tech-nique can be made much more specific and sensitive by using a photomultiplier tube and a spectrometer to analyse the spectrum of the fluorescence light or a second spectrometer to isolate specific frequencies of light for excitation of fluorescence. If an ultra-violet detector is used the method is applicable to a wide range of substances because many aromatic compounds fluoresce in the ultra-violet region of the spectrum.The range of frequencies at which the band of fluorescence light appears is directly related to the energy differences between the ground state and the first excited state of the molecule and provides one criterion for identification. The shape of the fluor-escence band is generally independent of the frequency of the exciting light but a second criterion for identifica-tion can be obtained by plotting its intensity as a func-tion of the frequency of the exciting light (the excitation spectrum). Spectrofluorimetry thus has two advantages over absorption spectrophotometry. First it provides two characteristic spectra instead of one and second, it can be used to measure much lower concentrations.I t is somewhat less widely applicable than absorption spectrophotometry because not every absorbing sub-stance fluoresces-at least at room temperature. The ideal general-purpose spectrofluorimeter requires the use of two wide-aperture spectrometers and is expensive. However very useful work can be done with a simpler arrangement including only one spectro-meter (e.g. the monochromator from a commercial absorption spectrophotometer) . The technique has been much employed in recent years particularly in the U.S.A. Methods for the determination of a variety of organic substances have been published e.g. the determination of traces of drugs in body fluids and tissues. The technique has also been used for the determination of minute inorganic traces.Dr B. J. Hathaway (Chemistry Department Uni-versity of Hull) described Recent Advances in the Infra-red Analysis of Inorganic Compounds. In simple molecules and polyanions the symmetry properties of the group are important in determining the number of infra-red bands that are observed. This effect is illustrated by the perchlorate group. When it is present as the free ion it has T symmetry; when one small amounts of material 19621 SECTION ACTIVITIES 155 of its oxygen atoms is involved in co-ordination it has C3v and when two are involved Czw symmetry. These changes can be illustrated by the infra-red spectra of copper perchlorate hexahydrate the dihydrate and the anhydrous salt.The number of bands observed can be related to the symmetry of the perchlorate group present. A similar analysis can be made of the infra-red spectra of the sulphate group which is also tetrahedral. For ions of lower symmetry it is not possible to make such a complete analysis. Thus although it is possible to distinguish between the nitrate ion (D3J and a covalently bound nitrate group (CZV) it is not possible to distinguish between covalent nitrates involving one and two co-valently bound oxygen atoms as both have Czw sym-metry. In the acetate group although it is possible to distinguish the free ion (CZW) from a covalent acetate, it is not possible to distinguish the bridging acetate, e.g. Be,O ( CH3C02)6 from the free ion. Information on the structure of some trimethyl-tin compounds can be obtained by applying this type of analysis.Thus while trimethyl-tin acetate was shown to involve either ionic or bridging groups the nitrate indicated covalent groups and the perchlorate indicated not only covalent but bridging groups to be present. This suggests that all these compounds contain five co-ordinate tin and not the trimethyl-tin cation. In the final paper Dr G. F. Reynolds (Reader in Analytical Chemistry Loughborough College of Tech-nology) discussed Recent Advances in Polarography. After a brief statement of the basic principles of polarography it was pointed out that recent develop-ments were directed at either or both the objectives of increased sensitivity and elimination of interference (with the step due to the species to be determined) by othei constituents of the sample.Among the methods discussed were derivative and subtractive polarography, and alternating-current methods including square-wave and pulse polarography. Linear-sweep cathode-ray polarography was dealt with special mention being made of the recently developed twin-electrode tech-niques of subtractive and comparative cathode-ray polarography and the application to these of first- and second-derivative working. The possibilities of these combinations of facilities in terms of very high sensi-tivity and resolution and also the very much increased accuracy obtainable by comparative polarography, were described. Among other techniques mentioned were the oscillo-polarographic method of Heyrovskv chromato-polaro-graphy and inverse polarography with the hanging drop electrode.The attendance at the symposium exceeded 100. Lunch and afternoon tea were taken in the University Staff Refectory and during the day a Scientific Exhibi-tion was held in the Physical Chemical Laboratory. The Exhibition attracted considerable attention. Our thanks are due in no small measure to Professor N. B. Chapman and Professor G. F. J. Garlick for allowing the use of the University of Hull facilities for the symposium. Management in the Chemical Industry. On 15 January a joint meeting with the Hull branch of the Institution of Works Managers was held in the chemistry department of the University of Hull. Mr J. E. V. Tyzack c.B.E., spoke on ‘Selection and Training for Management in the Chemical Industry.’ The lecturer commenced by drawing attention to the rapid rate of change in industry during the past 30 years.Only one generation has grown up in these rapidly changing conditions and it was felt that to a large extent we are still learning to be managers in this new industrial world. Mr Tyzack then dealt with the factors and problems to be considered in identifying managers. Only in the late twenties and the early thirties is it possible in general to discern whether a person is going to make a manager. One of the important factors in management is the exercise of judgment and deliberate effort to give subordinates an opportunity to develop; in fact one of the major responsibilities of any manager is to choose potential managers.This choice cannot be made by applying a series of standard tests and there must be a clear distinction between teaching and learning manage-ment. One can teach management techniques but a person who has been taught and assimilated all the management techniques can learn to be a manager only through the application of his teaching through practical experience. The lecturer went on to discuss the factual knowledge required by a manager and pointed out that this included management techniques e.g. work study and costing but more basically the manager should be able to read listen write speak and think in a logical manner. One should also add the social skills together with a wide general knowledge and in higher management the ability to deal with political issues.Mr Tyzack then dealt with the qualities of a manager. Foremost is a basic competence in the job. To this one should add the tolerance and humanity of a good general practitioner the ability to comprehend a com-plex situation quickly and the ability to sense whether a job is running correctly or not. This latter point can only be acquired by continued practice. Other factors required include toughness and resilience of personality social confidence and intelligence. The manager must have an ability to develop factual objec-tivity. He must have an inquiring mind together with a receptiveness to other people’s views and the ability to see problems from everybody’s point of view. The vote of thanks was proposed by Mr W.D. Gannon. Mr R. C. Grimwood was in the Chair 156 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY [APRIL LEEDS AREA A meeting of the Section was held at the University of Leeds on 19 February. Dr D. McNeil was in the Chair and introduced Dr I. G. C. Dryden who spoke on ‘The Chemical Constitu-tion of Coal.’ In his lecture Dr Dryden gave a balanced but selective appraisal of the subject. He divided the topic into four sections; firstly he described the natural history of coal and selected vitirinite for chemical discussion. This is not carbon; a low-rank British coal has a typical formula (C,,H,,O) n extensive ultrafine porosity and molecular sieve properties. The rank in a coal seam is the percentage of carbon in the vitrinite. Secondly techniques used for studying coals were discussed.X-ray diffraction gives only limited informa-tion owing to the amorphous structure of vitrinites. Infra-red spectroscopy gives information on the aro-matic/non-aromatic hydrogen ratio aromatic substitu-tion hydroxyl and methyl groups and indicates absence of olefinic double bonds and unconjugated carbonyl in British vitrinites. Nuclear magnetic resonance supple-ments and extends this information with for example, estimates of non-aromatic hydrogen distribution. De-hydrogenation (e.g. with benzoquinone) gives informa-tion about hydroaromatic carbon ; controlled potential electrolysis about types of aromatic nuclei and a measure of conjugated carbonyl groups ; and acetylation in swelling solvents a measure of phenolic hydroxyl groups.Thirdly a self-consistent set of results derived from these techniques as a function of rank was discussed in relation to a likely type of molecule. This contains 2-4 ring aromatic nuclei linked by hydroaro-matic groupings and to a small proportion of short aliphatic chains and hydroxyl and carbonyl groups on the aromatic nuclei. Such a molecule is of irregular shape and its bad packing characteristics could explain many observed properties e.g. porosity. Fourthly, some chemical reactions of coals were discussed e.g. fluorination can yield 200 per cent by weight of a white oil without tar but this is a mixture of doubtful com-mercial value at present. In conclusion Dr Dryden said that the evidence on structure is still more physical than chemical but that although details are likely to be modified the general pattern of molecular structure is reasonably well established.Unfortunately the results of these researches on coal cannot be commercially exploited while oil remains plentiful as was recognized by the (Wilson) Committee on Coal Derivatives in 1960 although they should prove useful in guiding carbonization research. Chemical Constitution of Coal. Dr L. Wood proposed the vote of thanks. LIVERPOOL AND NORTH-WESTERN Ubiquinones and Related Substances. At a meeting of the Section held on 1 February in the Donnan Laboratories, University of Liverpool Mr G. H. Turner took the Chair. Professor R. A. Morton F.R.s. lectured on ‘Ubiquinones and Related Substances.’ Ubiquinones (or Co-enzymes Q) are 2,3-dimethoxy-benzoquinones with a methyl substituent at position 5 and a poly-isoprenoid chain at position 6.The Liver-pool work which led to their discovery was concerned with the study of vitamin A deficiency in rats. Inde-pendent work at the University of Wisconsin led to the discovery in heart muscle mitochondria of a quinone with C50H81 side-chain consisting of 10 isoprene units. The ubiquinones are very widely distributed and the side-chain may contain 30 35 40 or 50 carbon atoms. Ubichromenol (50) isolated and characterized at Liverpool is a naturally occurring substance isomeric with the corresponding ubiquinone and is a chromene with one (phenolic) hydroxyl group. Squalene C30H50 is a symmetrical polyisoprenoid hydrocarbon ‘on’ the biosynthetic pathway leading to cholesterol.Vitamins K exist with polyisoprenoid side-chains with 20 30 35 and 45 carbon atoms and new forms of vitamin E are known with a similar un-saturated side-chain. An unsaturated alcohol solanesol (C,,H,,OH) has been isolated from tobacco by Row-land and a plant quinone isolated first by Kofler and called plastoquinone by Crane is a 2,3-dimethyl- 1,4-benzoquinone with a solanesyl side-chain C,,H,3. Tobacco also contains solanachromene which bears the same relationship to plastoquinone as ubichromenol does to ubiquinone. Animal tissues contain an alcohol, dolichol with the probable formula ClooHl,lOH. This substance or possibly a close relative also occurs in yeast . Ubiquinone is known to be an essential member in the electron transport system whereby electrons are passed from enzyme substrates via flavoproteins and cytochromes to cytochrome oxidase.Plastoquinone is very probably an essential component of the reaction sequence which in chloroplasts permits oxidative phos-phorylation to form adenosine triphosphate and tri-phosphopyridine nucleotide used in the synthetic processes occurring in the leaf. The lecturer described how the new work in many centres was unifying knowledge about vitamins E and K with the new compounds. New patterns of various biochemical inter-relations and of biosynthetic path-ways as well as of biological functions were emerging but many interesting questions awaited an answer. After a short session of questions to which Mr D. G.Cooper and Dr H. Bradbury contributed the vote of thanks was proposed by Professor T. P. Hilditch F.R.S. LONDON Dr A. J. Robinson, Head of the Mineral Processing Division at Warren Spring Laboratory (D.S.I.R.) Stevenage Herts gave a lecture entitled ‘The Role of Chemistry in Mineral Processing’ at Enfield Technical College on 22 January. Chemistry in Mineral Processing 19621 SECTION ACTIVITIES 157 Mineral processing was defined as the processing of of a typical ore at Warren Spring Laboratory. The ores wastes and industrial intermediates to concentrate froth-flotation process captured the interest of the and recover specific minerals to permit further processing audience and their questions gave the lecturer the by metallurgical chemical or physical means.opportunity to elaborate on the details and difficulties Dr Robinson said that in recent times the demand for of this process. metals has grown and problems of extraction have become increasingly complex as the easier raw materials The vote of thanks was proposed by Mr Clark. are worked out. In most cases today minerals are won from low-grade finely-disseminated complex ores and modern technology demands the concentration of minerals unknown or only museum curiosities 50 years ago such as those of titanium niobium uranium and beryllium. Important among present-day mineral-processing techniques is the concentration of minerals by chemical processes. The methods of recovery of three different ore-types were then described. The first containing large-grain minerals could be recovered by gravity concentration techniques; the second a finer-grained mineral association must be ground to liberate the different species which are then separated by flotation; the third example a very finely dis-seminated mineral complex required grinding to a few microns in size to permit separate recovery of the metals by a leaching technique.A recent development in the leaching technique was described in which bacilli ferro-oxidans and thio-oxidans are used to catalyse the oxidation of ferrous sulphate and sulphide to produce sulphuric acid. Leaching to recover copper from a low-grade ore con-taining less than 0.3 per cent metal is possible on a gigantic scale and the lecturer suggested that in time this method of copper recovery will supplant many existing processes because of its simplicity and low capital cost.A further example of modern recovery technique is the concentration of uranium ores containing 0-1-0-2 per cent of U,O,. With such an ore it is possible to up-grade by physical methods or flotation giving rejec-tion of 50-75 per cent of the barren waste followed by leaching of the uranium and finally precipitation, purification and concentration by ion-exchange or solvent-extraction techniques. Research on the anion-exchange resins of the quaternary ammonium type permits the separation of uranium from complex vanadium and molybdenum anions. Current research in the mining industry is concerned with the application of ion-exchange and solvent-extraction processes although in both methods the cost of materials is high.At the present time over 80 per cent of the world’s non-ferrous mineral concentrates are produced by flotation a technique first used on an industrial scale in 1913. Although so widely used the basic theory of the processes involved is still not clear and physico-chemical studies are continuing at many research centres. Dr Robinson concluded his lecture by showing a short coloured film of the preparation and froth flotation Kent Sub-Section Lecture. A meeting of the Kent Sub-Section was held at the North-West Kent College of Technology on 13 February. Dr T. Dewing was in the Chair and introduced the lecturer Mr R. E. Wagg, head of the chemistry division of the British Launderers’ Research Association who spoke on ‘Detergency.’ Mr Wagg firstly defined the term detergent and gave examples of the anionic cationic and non-ionic types of synthetic detergent.In considering the anionic type, the difficulties arising in sewage disposal as a result of the long branched paraffinic chain were discussed and the results of the introduction of ‘soft’ detergents were described. He next described the work that has been carried out on the dirt encountered in laundering. I t has been shown that this dirt is mainly the excretion of the sebaceous glands namely sebum. Adsorption, partition and gas chromatography techniques have established the presence of thirty fatty acids either in the free or combined form in sebum. Only small amounts of inorganic material are present in the dirt.Mr Wagg then went on to discuss the mechanism of detergent action which is considered to consist of wetting dirt removal and the prevention of the re-deposition of the dirt. I t was pointed out that all surface-active agents are not necessarily detergents. The difficulty of wetting of fabrics was discussed. The process of dirt removal was illustrated by the use of a cinematograph film. Finally the compositions of soap and detergent powders were given and the function of the various compounds such as bleaches foam stabilizers and fluorescent materials was described. Before a discussion period Mr Leicester Director of the British Launderers’ Research Association gave a brief outline of the work of the Association. The proceedings closed with the vote of thanks to the speaker proposed by Mr J.R. Barr. Aspects of Chromatography. At a meeting held at Norwood Technical College on 20 February the Chair-man Mr P. F. Corbett welcomed the lecturer Dr T. S. G. Jones who spoke on ‘Aspects of Chromato-graphy.’ Dr Jones first discussed the basic principle of chrom-atographic separation techniques and then went on to illustrate this principle by discussion of the different separation techniques which could be applied dis-placement analysis paper chromatography and elution chromatography I58 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY [APRIL In displacement analysis a fixed quantity of a mixture is adsorbed on to a column of the stationary phase, which is then washed with a developing agent which is more strongly held than any component in the mixture.The components are thereby displaced from the column. This technique has been used to separate mixtures of hydrocarbons such as ethylene propane and butane, which can be displaced from active carbon by a mixture of ethyl acetate in nitrogen. I t also proved of value in Dr Jones’s own laboratory for separating an anti-histamine compound into active and inactive isomers, which were identified by their distinctive absorption spectra. Separation of a mixture by paper chromatography depends on the differential affinity of the various com-ponents for the water held in the paper which acts as the stationary phase. The sample is spotted on to the paper which is then irrigated with a solvent. The different components of the sample mixture separate out over the surface of the paper.For complex mixtures such as hydrolysed casein two-way paper chromato-graphy is used. By applying solvents of different properties to each direction of the paper a more efficient separation of components is achieved. Paper chromato-graphy has proved of much value in the separation and identification of colours and also in the field of anti-biotics by separating the constituent amino acids of various polymyxins. Amino acids may also be separated by the technique of elution chromatography. In this technique the components are dissolved from a column of stationary phase by elution with solvents. The eluate is collected in fractions each of which can be analysed. The apparatus can be automatically controlled and a complete separation and analysis of a mixture of 20 amino acids achieved within 24 hours.The stationary phase may be a liquid supported on an inert substance e.g. water held by silica gel. Com-ponents of a mixture are separated by partition between this liquid phase and an immiscible solvent. This is known as partition chromatography. The lecturer concluded his talk by a reference to gas chromatography in which a gas acts as eluting solvent. He regretted that time did not permit of discussion of this very important aspect of chromatography in detail. After a short discussion the vote of thanks was pro-posed by Mr s. G. E. Stevens Vice-chairman of the Governors. Dr Jones illustrated his lecture with slides and an exhibition of chromatographic apparatus and instru-ments was presented by a number of manufacturers in co-operation with the College.A demonstration was also held in one of the research laboratories. Kinetic Studies by Gas Chromatography. On 2 1 February, Dr J. H. Purnell lectured at the Technological Research Station Spillers Limited Cambridge on ‘Gas Chrom-atography applied to Kinetic Studies.’ Dr Purnell said it was now possible to analyse vir-tually any mixture by gas chromatography. This included metals which could be analysed either as such or via a suitable volatile compound-at temper-atures of up to 1500°C. Many kinetic studies carried out at Cambridge over the last few years have been performed in a kinetic unit containing a built-in gas chromatography appar-atus.The three main requirements were (1) a sampling valve capable of working with high vacuum on one side and pressure on the other; (2) high speed of analysis comparable with the speed of the reaction being studied and (3) high sensitivity. To satisfy these requirements it was necessary to design and build the apparatus at Cambridge since no commercially available apparatus was suitable. Sensitivity was ensured by adopting the hydrogen-flame ionization detector described by American workers. The sampling valves available commercially are generally based on some kind of rotary or sliding valve; many valves of this type were constructed and tried but nothing suitable was found. The normal vacuum stopcock would be suitable but for the grease required as lubricant.Grease cannot be tolerated as it would impede the separation on the column. A greaseless tap constructed fi-om O-ring seals was found to be both simple and satisfactory. To achieve high speeds of analysis many variables had to be investigated. In 1956 the analysis of a hydro-carbon mixture was successfully carried out in 4 minutes, the ‘normal’ period of analysis at that time being about 30 minutes. In this case there was little solvent in the column. I t was shown that the ratio of solvent to gas space in the column was critical if high speeds of analysis were to be obtained. The concept of the number of theoretical plates in a column is of importance only when the liquid volume is large. Analyses possible at present include the separation of a mixture of iso- and n-butane with iso- and n-pentane in four seconds and the separation of mixtures of C to C aliphatic hydrocarbon mixtures in two seconds.After describing some of the recent work at Cam-bridge Dr Purnell made some predictions regarding future developments in the field. He forecast that within the next five years (1) chart recorders would be redundant being replaced with electronic measurement circuits; (2) samples with vapour pressures as low as mm would be analysed by this technique; ( 3 ) the speed of analysis of easily separated mixtures would advance to something like 2.5 microsec. Dr J. Williams introduced the lecturer; the vote of thanks was proposed by Dr C. H. Lea. Synthesis o f High Polymers. On February 27 at ajoint meeting with the Chemical and Physical Society o 1962 J SECTION ACTIVITIES 159 University College Professor C.E. H. Bawn c.B.E., F.R.s. g-ave a lecture on ‘Recent Developments in the Synthesis of High Polymers.’ Mr P. A. Raine was in the Chair. Professor Bawn first described the development of stereospecific polymerization which followed Ziegler’s discovery (1953) of the polymerization of ethylene by an aluminium alkyl-titanium chloride catalyst. In 1955 Natta polymerized propylene by the same tech-nique and showed that varying configuration (+ or -) about the asymmetric carbon atoms (-CMeH-) in the polymer chain could give rise to isotactic (+ + + + etc. or - - - - etc.) syndiotactic (+ - + - etc.) or atactic (random configuration) polymers.The 1 4-polymerization of 1 3-dienes gives polymers differing by geometrical isomerism about the 2 3-double bond that is formed and isoprene can be cis-1 4-polymerized to form ‘synthetic natural’ rubber. By other processes, 0 / \ epoxides (RCH-CH,) aldehydes and ketenes (RR’C=C =0) can similarly be converted into stereo-regular polymers. Professor Bawn then interpreted the steric course of polymerization processes on the basis of the known or postulated reaction mechanisms. In the familiar homolytic polymerization of an olefin (CH = CHX) steric and polar repulsion between the groups X in the chain causes the syndiotactic polymer to be thermodynamically the more stable and by polymerization at low temperature (e.g. of vinyl chloride by ethylsilver at -60”) the syndiotactic polymer can be prepared.In conventional cationic polymerization the presence of the counter-ion at the growing end of the chain provides additional steric control which is most appar-ent in a non-polar solvent when the ion-pairing is close. Vinyl ethers N N-di-alkylacrylamides and t-butyl acrylate can be converted into isotactic polymers under these conditions. In anionic polymerization with reagents such as butyl-lithium Grignard reagents or potassium alkoxides, the degree of association of the metal with the growing end of the chain can vary from that of a largely covalent link with lithium in pentane to that of a dissociated pair of ions with potassium in ether. Dramatic varia-tions in the steric control of polymerization can thus be brought about by varying metal and solvent.Finally Professor Bawn discussed the present theory of Ziegler catalysis. It is suggested that the actual catalyst is an alkyl- and chloride-bridged titanium trichloride - trialkyl-aluminium complex and that poly-merization proceeds by repetitive insertion of the alkene between the growing alkyl chain and the titanium atom. The configuration of the first asymmetric centre to be developed then dictates the configuration of all sub-sequent centres in that particular chain. After a stimulating discussion the vote of thanks was proposed by Professor D. P. Craig President of the College Chemical and Physical Society. MANCHESTER AND DISTRICT A joint meeting with the Chemical Society was held at the Manchester College of Science and Technology on 25 January.Professor F. Morton was in the Chair and Professor R. Belcher delivered his lecture on ‘Recent Advances in Analytical Chemistry.’ In his opening remarks he described the profound effect that the discovery of EDTA had on analytical chemistry. This stimulus resulted in attempts to produce even better indicators. For example EDTA was unsuitable in the titration of copper as the coloured complex which was formed masked the colour of the indicator. Fluorescent indicators of the following type have proved very useful : Recent Advances in Analytical Chemistry. R R An extremely sensitive indicator for copper titration was obtained with R = CH,.CO-; it gave an intense fluorescence in the ultraviolet which was quenched by the presence of micrograms of copper.Mercury also quenched the fluorescence but was not quite so effective. A similar effect was obtained with calcium when R = -COOH. These indicators could be used in intensely coloured solutions but owing to the decay of the fluorescence were not suitable for the Auorimetric determinations of copper. A mixture of alizarin formaldehyde and immino-diacetic acid was a suitable indicator for the titration of heavy metals with EDTA particularly for lead tin and cobalt. The first direct colour reaction for fluoride was obtained with alizarin complexan in the presence of cerium which gave a blue colour not interfered with by common anions. Professor Belcher continued with some examples of recent developments in precipitation reactions.The use of nitron for the precipitation of nitrates had the disadvantage that in certain circumstances other anions were precipitated. However in these conditions benzyl (a-naphthyl) methylamine was used. Precipitates obtained with cupferron were somewhat unstable but stable weighable complexes were obtained for copper, iron and aluminium by the use of N-benzoyl N-phenyl hydroxylamine. At the same time this reaction is sensitive to pH and excellent separations were obtained by alterations of the pH. In the field of organic analysis the determination of sub-micro quantities with samples of 30 to 50 pg was described. The balance and other equipment took two years to develop and satisfactory analyses of carbon 160 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY [APRIL nitrogen halogens phosphorus sulphur and arsenic have been obtained.An interesting discussion followed the lecture and Professor Morton expressed the appreciation of all present in his vote of thanks to the lecturer. Inorganic Heterocycles. Mr N. L. Paddock delivered his lecture on 14 February to a meeting held at the Stockport College of Further Education. He described how recent ideas on double bonding and electronic delocalization developed in connection with phospho-nitrilic derivatives had been applied to other hetero-cyclic molecules such as metaphosphates siloxanes and thiazyl derivatives. Two types of PT and CCT bonds were recognized in the phospho-nitrilics one in the local plane of the molecule and the other perpendicular to it.The configuration of the rings was decided by the relative importance of the two systems which differed with different molecules and with the interactions between non-bonded atoms. Where there were strong 7~ bonds a saddle-like configuration was favoured but where steric interactions were large a chair-shaped molecule was most common. The difficult configura-tions were characterized by the different types of inequality in the bond lengths and angles. The experi-mental determination of these quantities differentiated between the different electronic effects. After a discussion on substitution the lecturer was thanked by Mr A. H. Armstrong. MID-SOUTHERN COUNTIES On 15 February a meeting was held at the University of Southampton jointly with the Southampton University Chemical Society.The speaker was Professor C . A. Coulson F.R.S. Professor Coulson prepared his ground by defining resonance in many ways as a magic word covering a multitude of chemical ignorance as a well-defined property of electrical circuits a property of matter associated with coupled pendulums and in chemistry as an idea with its origin partly in chemistry and partly in mathema tics. The concept of resonance is often misued and the speaker gave two apt examples of its misuse based upon ignorance rather than on knowledge. The rest of the lecture was divided into two parts the first dealing with the concept of resonance in polar molecules-Pauling’s classical covalent-ionic resonance. He regretted that ‘resonance structure’ was common chemical usage since structure was something that existed whereas such a phrase as ‘a number of resonance structures denoted a set of conceptual mathematical functions rather than an actual existing state.The theoretical calculation of resonance energy was shown to be full of pitfalls and was seen to be rather the calcula-tion of something known by the use of many unknown and incalculable factors. Resonance-Alive or Dead. In the second part Professor Coulson considered resonance in non-polar molecules. The familiar benzene ring was shown as cyclohexatriene and we were asked if two such structures could be resonant. But in benzene the C-C length shows 47 per cent of double bond character and all bonds are equal in length.Thus the concept of resonance with such molecules and in condensed polynuclear compounds suggests that it gives a more truthful picture of aromatic character. With rings of a high number of carbon atoms this is not always so and a ring of 18 carbon atoms with alternating double and single bonds shows different bond lengths and so no effective resonance. Professor R. C. Cookson thanked the speaker. Adsorption o j ’ Vapours on Solids. A meeting was held jointly with the Southampton University Chemical Society at the University Southampton on 9 March. The speaker was Professor A. W. Adamson University of Southern California and his subject was ‘The Adsorption of Vapours on Solids.’ Professor Adamson introduced his lecture informally by showing colour slides of his own University of Southern California.After an historical introduction to vapour adsorption, he derived several gas adsorption isotherms firstly by kinetic methods of derivation then by statistical mechan-ical methods and finally by treating the adsorbate as a two-dimensional gas. He then considered the case of adsorption on heterogeneous surfaces and presented a new procedure which makes possible the determination of site energy distributions from experimental adsorption isotherms. Professor Adamson then applied this procedure to data on the effects of high-energy radiation on the adsorptive behaviour of solids to complete his erudite and instructive lecture. After many questions the vote of thanks was proposed by Professor N.K. Adam F.R.S. NORTH LANCASHIRE At a meeting held on 8 February in The Technical College Lancaster Dr A. R. Anderson, of A.E.R.E. Harwell gave a lecture on this topic. The lecture began with a summary of the nature and history of radiation chemistry and of the basic physics relevant to an understanding of the interaction of radiation with matter. Techniques and principles of radiation dosimetry were discussed and examples were given of radiolytic processes in aqueous solutions in organic materials and in polymerization studies. Basic principles in the radiation chemistry of water were outlined by reference to linear energy transfer effects in the radiolysis of pure water of ferrous sulphate solutions and the formic acid/oxygen system. Radiation Chemistry 161 19621 SECTION ACTIVITIES The lecturer indicated several general conclusions which can be drawn from the available data e.g.in connection with the relative stability of ring structures, and the small number of systems in which linear energy transfer effects have been observed. The application of high-energy radiation in polymerization studies was illustrated by reference to its effect on the physical properties of polymers and its use in initiating polymer-izations and in producing copolymers. In conclusion Dr Anderson outlined the application of radiation chemistry in nuclear reactor technology. After a lively discussion Mr A. N. Edmondson gave the vote of thanks on behalf of the Section. SOUTH-WESTERN COUNTIES A meeting of the Section was held in the Technical College Plymouth on 16 February.The Chairman of the Section Mr E. Winterbottom, presided and Professor G. K. T. Conn Professor of Physics in the University of Exeter delivered a lecture on ‘Experimental Techniques in Solid-state Physics.’ Successful studies since the war of the physics of solids have been built on a twin foundation-a valid and adequate theoretical framework of interpretation and means of preparing single crystals from material of appropriate purity. This is particularly illustrated by the electrical and optical properties of semi-conductors for which indeed the appropriate theoretical ground-work was laid before the War. The success of such investigations is indicated not only by the wealth of practical devices which have become available but by the direct and profitable commercial interest in the field.The maturity of any field of scientific study is indicated by the stage at which we can ask relevant simple questions which bear directly on a few experimental parameters and preferably only one. That the study of semi-conductors has reached this stage was illustrated by examining the concept of anisotropic ‘effective mass’ and discussing the means direct and indirect of measuring it. The nature and significance of present and future experiments at low temperatures and in high magnetic fields and the means of achieving these will continue to dominate experiments in the next few years. The lecture was followed by a discussion and the vote of thanks was proposed by Dr E.R. Braithwaite. Members then retired to the Duke of Cornwall Hotel for an informal dinner at which Professor Conn was guest. Solid-state Physics. CAPE OF GOOD HOPE Second Paul Daniel Hahn Memorial Lecture. The Second P. D. Hahn Memorial Lecture was delivered by Professor F. G. Holliman Professor of Organic Chemistry and head of the department of chemistry University of Cape Town to a Joint Meeting of the Section the Cape Chemical and Technological Society the Royal Society of South Africa and the South African Chemical Institute at the Athenaeum Camp Ground Road Rondebosch on 18 October 196 1. Professor Holliman spoke on ‘Then and Now; Some Develop-ments in our Knowledge and Understanding of Organic Chemistry from Hahn to Present Day.’ Paul Daniel Hahn became Professor of Experimental Physics and Practical Chemistry at the South African College in 1876.After becoming Professor of Physical Science and subsequently Professor of Chemistry he died in 1918 on the eve of the South African College becoming the University of Cape Town. The last half of the nineteenth century was the time of the flowering of organic chemistry under the classical giants amongst whom was Emil Fischer whose period of active work was almost contemporaneous with Hahn’s tenure in Cape Town. Fischer’s work on the carbo-hydrates the purines the nucleotides and the proteins laid the foundations for subsequent developments lead-ing to our now extensive knowledge in these fields. Much of this knowledge has been gleaned through the development of paper chromatography ion-exchange, electrophoresis and other techniques for the analysis of small amounts of material.The use of radioisotopes and instrumental methods has revolutionized the practice of organic chemistry whilst X-ray analysis has been of tremendous help in elucidating the physical structures of large molecules and the stereochrmical features of natural products including the allotment of absolute configurations. Theoretical ideas in organic chemistry began to be put forward in Hahn’s day and have developed so tremendously over the past 30 years that approaches to organic chemistry have been transformed. CEYLON On 6 January Dr L. M. Simmons former President of the Australian Science Teachers’ Association delivered a talk with the title ‘Making Room for Modern Science or Putting a Gallon of Science into a Quart Brain.’ The meeting was held under the joint auspices of the Ceylon Association for the Advancement of Science, Section E the Chemical Society of Ceylon and the Section.The Chairman was Dr G. C. N. Jayasuriya, President of the C.A.A.S. Section E. Dr Simmons began on a light-hearted note by playing recordings of the typically Australian ‘Waltzing Matilda’ and some aboriginal music and then discussed the modern school science curriculum. He said that it was not necessary to lengthen or increase the number of days of study or to reduce the time devoted to extra-curricular activities or to specialize in order to cope with the increasing volume of knowledge.Many items of school and university science have out-lived their usefulness and should give way to more topical Making Room f o r Modern Science 162 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY [APRIL matters. These include internationally rejected units, discredited relationships and historical residue. A clarification of the distinctions between history epis-temology and scientific method disclosed more direct approaches to science; such included the proton-electron-neutron basis for chemistry the electrical approach to magnetism and a reorganization of the study of light. Time and effect could be saved by improving scientific symbolism and secondary schools should be represented at international conferences on symbolism and nomenclature. Examination methods could be devised to improve university selection and to throw emphasis on understanding reason and scientific procedures rather on rote and short-term memory.More time and effect could be saved by relaxing the present insistence on arbitrary English spelling and by the early use of slide rules. Criteria derived from Havighurst’s developmental tasks and the principles of curriculum construction can guide the selection of modern scientific topics from the many that are at present crowded out by the obsolete and obstructive. A most interesting discussion followed the lecture. Mr B. J. P. Alles Assistant Director of Education (Technical) in proposing the vote of thanks described Dr Simmons’s talk as stimulating and extremely thought-provoking. He said that the Education Department was now working on a curriculum for science in Ceylon schools and he welcomed many of Dr Simmons’s ideas.On 23 February members of the Local Section together with members of the Chemical Society of Ceylon saw a film show screened by the Shell Co. of Ceylon Ltd in the Chemistry Lecture Theatre, University of Ceylon. The three films were ‘Friends of the Farmer,’ ‘Pambaya’ (Scarecrow) and ‘Unseen Enemies.’ The first two films shot in Ceylon by the Shell Co. of Ceylon while displaying some of the island’s supreme natural beauty illustrated the use of modern insecticides in the protection of rice and vegetable crops from pests. The second film in particular illustrated how in the remote villages of central Ceylon village folk were now adopting modern cultivation methods particularly soil enrichment and pest control by the use of chemicals in place of the traditional scarecrow (Sinhalese Pambaya, from which the film takes its title).The third film was prepared by the World Health Organization and dealt with the conquest of diseases that resulted from insanitary living conditions in Africa and Asia. On behalf of the members Dr W. R. N. Nathanael thanked the Shell Co. of Ceylon and in particular Mr Sathi Coomarasamy for the enjoyable evening. ‘Shell’ Film Show. News and Notes SPECIAL COURSES Applications of Solvent Extraction.-A special course on recent advances in the industrial application of solvent extraction will be held on 21 and 22 May in the department of chemical engineering Bradford Institute of Technology.I t will include lectures on both process and equipment developments. Further details may be obtained from the Registrar Bradford Institute of Technology Bradford 7. Instrumentation i n the Chemical 1ndustry.-The Department of Chemistry and Biology of the Welsh College of Advanced Technology Cardiff has arranged a one-day course on this topic to be held on 24 May. Lectures will be given on electrometric gas chromato-graphic and spectrophotometric methods of process control. The closing lecture will be on automatic recorders. The fee for the course is ~ O S . and enrolment forms may be obtained from the Head of the Depart-ment. Programming Computers.-A Summer School on Programming Computers for the Chemical Industry will be held at Northampton College of Advanced Tech-nology from 28 May to 1 June.The standard of mathematics required is that normally necessary for a first degree in chemistry; no previous knowledge of com-puting is required. The fee for the course is 15 guineas including meals, preprints and time spent on College computers. Further information may be obtained from Dr D. J. Alner, Department of Chemistry Northampton College of Advanced Technology St John Street London E.C. 1. MEETINGS AND CONFERENCES Atomic Energy Conferences.-List No. 17 of conferences meetings and training courses in atomic energy was published by the International Atomic Energy Agency Vienna in March. In the U.K. it is obtainable free of charge from H.M.S.O. P.O.Box 569, London S.E. 1. The Colour Group (Great Britain).-The first Annual General Meeting of the Colour Group will be held at Imperial College London at 2.30 p.m. on 2 May. Afterwards there will be a Science Meeting at which Mr S. S. Gindy will lecture on ‘Colour Contrast Effects and their Measurement’ and Mr I. Nimeroff on ‘Variability in Colorimetry.’ Gasification Processes.-The Institution of Gas Engineers jointly with the Institute of Fuel will hold a conference on ‘Gasification Processes’ at Hastings on 10-1 4 September. All interested will be welcome 19621 NEWS AND NOTES 163 There is a registration fee of 105s. Inquiries should be addressed to the Institute of Fuel 18 Devonshire Street, Portland Place London W. 1. Metal Finishing Conference.-The Institute of Metal Finishing is holding its 1962 Conference at Brighton on 8-12 May under the presidency of Dr G.L. J. Bailey. A one-day Colloquium on Paints and Painting has been arranged for 11 May. All technical sessions will be held in the Hotel Metropole. Inquiries should be addressed to The Conference Secretary, 32 Great Ormond Street London W.C.1. Society for Analytical Chemistry.-A Sym-posium on The Determination of Sterols is to be held on 2 May at the Wellcome Building Euston Road London, N.W.1. The Chairmen are Professor R. A. Morton (afternoon) and Dr R. P. Cook (evening). Visitors will be welcome and further particulars may be obtained from the Assistant Secretary The Society for Analytical Chemistry 14 Belgrave Square S.W. 1. South African Chemical Institute.-Any member who expects to be in the areas of Johannesburg Pretoria and Vereeniging during the period 2-1 1 July is cordially invited to register as a delegate and attend the technical sessions and social functions planned for the Golden Jubilee Convention of the S.A.C.I.(see J. 68). Inquiries should be addressed to the South African Chemical Institute P.O. Box 336 1 Kelvin House, Johannesburg Transvaal. Society for Visiting Scientists.-The address of the Society is now 19 Albemarle Street London W.l. Sleeping accommodation and restaurant facilities will no longer be available but members will be assisted in finding reasonably priced hotels for their visits to London. It is hoped that the Society will eventually be able to enlarge its facilities and activities.The growth of the information service will not be impeded and it will remain available for all institutions and individuals wishing to use it. Waverley Gold Medal Competition.-The journal Research organizes the Waverley Gold Medal Essay Com-petition ‘in order to encourage the clear presentation of new scientific work in a form which may be readily understood by scientists working in other fields and by the layman.’ The Waverley Gold Medal together with LlOO will be awarded for the best essay of about 3,000 words describing a recent project or practical development in pure or applied science. There will be a second prize ofL50 and a special prize ofL50 for the best entry from a competitor under the age of 30 on 31 July.Entry forms can be obtained from the Editor of Research 88 Kingsway London W.C.2. ADMISSION OF STUDENTS TO UNIVERSITIES The 4th report of the committee on procedure for admission of students to universities has recently been issued by the Association of Universities of the British Commonwealth (36 Gordon Square London W.C. 1). This ad hoc committee under the chairmanship of Sir Philip Morris was appointed by the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals in January 1958. As in previous reports the Committee has brought up to date information on the number of applications received by the universities and the number of ad-missions. In 1960 there were about 151,000 applica-tions for some 22,650 university places. The number of applications for the current session reached about 190,000 for some 25,000 places (these figures exclude Oxford and Cambridge).Of the 25,000 admitted in 1961 1,270 came from overseas almost exactly the same as in 1960. Applications for admission to study pure science numbered 56,500 in 1961 an increase of 23 per cent on the previous year. In technology there were 24,400 applications an increase of 10 per cent on the previous year. The numbers actually admitted in 1961 were 7,060 in pure science (9 per cent increase over 1960) and 4,130 in technology (14 per cent increase). The total number of ‘vacant places’ reported at the beginning of the session 196 1-62 was substantially less than in October 1960 (308 in 1961 497 in 1960). With the exception of the technological courses the numbers of vacant places were negligible compared with the total admissions and were no more than could be expected where admissions are necessarily regulated on a quota system.Some of this improvement may be attributed to the work of clearing-up houses which were set up in 1960 to bring together university depart-ments with vacancies and adequately qualified candi-dates not yet admitted. Visit of Professor E. 0. Fischer.-Professor E. 0. Fischer will shortly be visiting Britain under the Foreign University Interchange Scheme and will lecture on ‘Recent results on metal-n-complexes of unsaturated hydrocarbons’ at the following centres-in the university department of chemistry unless otherwise stated The Royal College of Science and Technology Glasgow 26 April; Durham 2 May; Manchester 4 May; Oxford, 7 May; Esso Research Ltd Abingdon 8 May; Univer-sity College London 9 May; Cambridge 11 May.Chemical Society Library.-The Library will close for Easter at 9 p.m. on Thursday 19 April and will re-open at 9.30 a.m. on Wednesday 25 April. The Library will close for Whitsun at 6 p.m. on Thursday 8 June and will re-open at 9.30 a.m. on Wednesday 13 June 164 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY [APRIL CORRESPONDENCE ROBBINS COMMITTEE EVIDENCE SIR,-Having taken some part in drafting the chemistry syllabuses put forward recently by the S.M.A. and A.W.S.T. I may perhaps be permitted to comment on the letter from Dr G. D. Parkes which was published in your February issue (J. 70). As the present chairman of the Panel which drew up the syllabuses published in ‘Chemistry for Grammar Schools,’ I have no official knowledge of the meeting of representatives of Examining Boards held in Man-Chester in May of last year but such information as I have been able to glean from other sources gives me the impression that the S.M.A.and A.W.S.T. were not represented at this meeting. I n fact it would appear that the number of chemistry teachers from schools present at the meeting was not large. Doubtless Dr Parkes will correct me if I am wrong in this matter, with which my Panel cannot fail to be concerned. I am on surer ground however when I state that the S.M.A. is represented officially on the science com-mittees of two only of the nine Examining Bodies. I t is true that science teachers are often invited to serve on these committees in a private capacity and render useful service but it seems to me that men able to call on the collective experience of the Association might well have some special contributions to offer.As far as the S.M.A. and A.W.S.T. are concerned therefore, I would not agree that the evidence submitted by the Council of the Institute to the Robbins Committee is en tirely without substance. Surely too the proposal that ‘A’ level examinations might be held earlier in the year is not so impracticable as Dr Parkes suggests. Not all examiners and awarders are university teachers and this issue should not be pre-judged solely on their commitments or capabilities. School teachers play a not unimportant part in this work and have perforce to carry out their tasks whilst their schools are in session during a term not noted for its tranquillity.As a chief examiner in another place, I manage (I hope not unsuccessfully) to co-ordinate the activities of a team of examiners mark scripts and take a share in the award under conditions whereby the last day of the summer term and the final award meeting are not infrequently coincident. I should say that before the ‘agreed conditions’ mentioned in the evidence of the Council are reached a reappraisal of the present system of external examinations will be necessary with especial reference to the possibility of reducing the number of candidates taking a given paper, and to giving individual teachers a more prominent part in the assessment of their pupils.Discussions with teachers and other interested individuals over the past year or two have not given me the impression that there is any widespread opinion that the present arrangements are incapable of improvement. The publication of the new syllabuses marks the first step only in the process of bringing chemistry teaching in schools up to date. Before the new ideas and methods can be put into effect teachers’ guides will have to be prepared experiments devised and tested courses run, and new textbooks written. I n all these activities the advice and encouragement of our friends in the uni-versities and technical colleges will be invaluable but they must precede and not follow the introduction of new examination syllabuses.Any attempt to reverse this order can lead only to confusion in the schools. E. H. COULSON Chairman Chemistry Panel, S.M.A. and A . W.S. T. Science and Education Committee 37 Clare Road, Braintree Essex THE MOLE AND FORMULAE SIR,-Mr Copley’s latest letter (J. 70) contains a serious error of fact which illustrates the fundamental fallacy in his argument. I t is not possible to find by titration (or indeed any other means) that a solution is -123 M in NaC1. What is possible is to find -123 ionic in C1- which is very different. The molecular concen-tration in a solution can only be found by means of a colligative property in a pure solution of an un-dissociated solute. In 11 years as a practical chemist, and four years as a teacher I have never done this for analytical purposes.It is indeed rather surprising t o find an educationalist advocating one word-molar-f’or three separate con-cepts and even more surprising t o find one word stand-ing for three unpronounceable symhols W s and 3C There are three different reasons each sufficient ~ ‘ h y normality and equivalents should lie retained. Firstly determination of equivalents has played a veq-important part in the history of chemistry. Secondly; it is very convenient in the laborator)- to have solutions which will neutralize or react with each other in known proportion. The student doing yuali-tative analysis should know how much ammonia solution to add at Group 111 say. Similarly the analytical laboratory in a large factory needs to know the volume ratios of its standard solutions.True this could be expressed in terms of g/z but if’ the concept is to he retained why not the name ? Thirdly M and M are always unknoum whenever a new compound is prepared. Even in these days 01‘ high-powered physical chemistry much chemical re-search still consists in preparing and identif)ing unknoxtn new substances. I n my experience as a teacher those students who have difficulty with normality have difficulty with everything else as well and would probably fail even more miserably if a change were made 19621 CORRESPONDENCE 165 A few small changes bring the traditional definitions in line with modern thought. In my teaching I define the equivalent of an acid (even for ‘0’ level and S.1) as that weight which in solution will produce 1 gm of hydrogen ions.Similarly the equivalent of an oxidizing agent reacts with one faraday of electricity and so on. I think it is most important to emphasize that the equivalent of an element is a fixed and definite quantity, varying only with valency whereas the equivalent of a compound is meaningZess unless the type of reaction is specified. Mander College, Cauldwell Street, Bed ford C. L. WALE PLAGUED WITH DEFINITIONS Myself when young did eagerly frequent Doctor and Saint and heard great argument About it and about but evermore Came out by that same Door wherein I went. SIR,-The descent of the Editorial guillotine on the recent ‘Hydrogen and the Periodic Table’ controversy has prompted me to write and point out how little such arguments achieve.Any classification even one with the theoretical basis of the Periodic Table exists as a convenient guide but all too often it transcends the subject matter in importance giving us the unedifying spectacle of chemical bureaucrats trying to pigeon-hole hydrogen while its chemistry remains unaffected. Taking this further we tend in chemistry to be plagued with definitions which serve to make the subject not only erudite but generally unnecessarily difficult; thus when an elementary student asks ‘How can an oxidation take place without oxygen being involved ?,’ no explanation about transfer of electrons can really disguise the fact that the academic eggheads have cooked the definition. Would it be heresy to place the G.N. Lewis conception of acid and base in the same category? 1 Blakesware Gardens, Edmonton, London N.9 J. R. THOMAS MEMORIAL TO DR J. KENYON SrR,-In order to commemorate the long association of the late Dr J. Kenyon F.R.s. with the Chemistry Department of Battersea College of Technology the Governors in consultation with Mrs Kenyon have decided to name the Organic Chemistry Research Laboratories of the College ‘The Joseph Kenyon Research Laboratories,’ and to signalize this by the erection of a memorial plaque. Anyone wishing to be associated with this memorial is invited to send a con-tribution towards its cost to the joint organizers Dr Henry Phillips o.B.E. and Dr J. E. Salmon c/o the Chemistry Department. Cheques etc. should be made payable to ‘Battersea College of Technology Dr Kenyon Memorial Fund.’ I t is proposed that any money received in excess of that required for the plaque shall be treated as a memorial fund to be used for purposes to be decided by the Principal and Governors in con-sultation with Mrs Kenyon and the Chemistry Depart-ment.c/o The Chemistry Department, Battersea College of Technology, London S.W. 11. J. E. SALMON H. PHILLIPS WORDS NOT DEEDS SIR,-Mr Bacharach appears to have made an un-fortunate mistake in his two alternative meanings of ‘The Government . . . intends to implement the Group’s recommendations to the full extent of the additional resources which can be made available.’ I quite agree that putting a comma before the which or replacing ‘which’ by ‘that’ gives the two meanings; but how Mr Bacharach can possibly take the latter case to mean that the resources almost certainly will not be made available I do not know.Surely the correct alternative meaning is that whatever resources can be made available will be made available. It is also unfortunate that after deploring the lack of distinction between ‘which’ and ‘that,’ in his next paragraph he used ‘who’ and ‘that’ indiscriminately, for example ‘. . . castigate those who use . . . and . . others that think. . . .’ Do we have thinking objects then? Which (or should it be that?) at any rate is my interpretation of the use of ‘that’ here. 290 North Dryburgh Road, Wishaw Lanarkshire G. NUNN Sm,-In Mr Bacharach’s interesting review that turned to a leader ( J .35) he says he has found a fly in the ointment of Menzel Jones and Boyd the fly being the absence of a condemnation of current practice in the use of the word ‘data.’ In further comment Mr Bacharach says that figures or values or results for which industrious search has been made can never be ‘data.’ I maintain that this view is wrong on the basis of any dictionary definition of datum or data. A typical definition of datum is a quantity condition fact or other premise given or admitted from which other things or results may be found (Cassell’s New English Dictionary, 1960). Let us consider the matter of searching for informa-tion. Some data required for presenting a case develop-ing an argument or formulating a theory are immed-iately available in reference books and known scientific papers but the information that can be found onl 166 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY [APRIL after a prolonged search in obscure journals is still data.The degree of trouble involved in finding it (or them) is irrelevant both to the use and the meaning of the word ‘data.’ When the information is not available or when further critical study appears necessary we may find ourselves carrying out a series of complicated experiments and trying endless modifications to achieve a result but this result when obtained is not the conclusion in a syllo-gism. It is a premise or datum to be used in developing a theory or what-you-will and it is not different in any essential from the fact that appeared in the reference book or in someone else’s paper.Experimentation is in fact a process in which the experimenter places himself in a position to receive certain information. He cannot make this information; he can only receive it. I t is correctly called ‘data.’ We acknowledge this when we say ‘the method gave such-and-such a result.’ Regarding the ‘number’ of the word ‘data’ it is of course plural as Mr Bacharach indicates but were it not for the change-resisting effect of the printed word I am sure that by now it would have become singular-and why not? Evolution of language has been sup-pressed very considerably. Should not one consider the growing use of an expression even as uninspiring as ‘data-processing’ in lieu of ‘datum-processing’ as some faint evidence of life rather than a malpractice? 78 Eltham Park Gardens, London S.E.9 G.S. SMITH SIR,-Being as you might expect in disagreement with the criticisms made above by Messrs G. S. Smith and G. Nunn-at any rate with one possible exception-I will answer them as concisely as I can for I fear that the matters so raised may not interest many of your readers. One of these criticisms has nowadays a dreadful grinning familiarity. I t belongs incidentally to the species Clupea rubra to say nothing of the fact that it almost certainly involves an undistributed middle. I t runs something like this what you are criticizing is a change; growth involves change; thus you are opposing growth; so you are not only a pedant but also a reactionary not to say a Mrs Partington (who must on no account be confused with King Canute; he knew exactly what he could and could not do).To this I reply simply I am opposed to the kind of living-which is the term used by these critics when they want to insist that the language is still growing-associated with decay; both development and decay are examples of growth (the latter may include the development of malign tumours) and living processes. I propose pace Messrs Smith and Nunn to decide for myself which forms of growth are degenerative and which progressive, and I shall continue to fight the former and support the latter. Thus the differential use of ‘which’ and ‘that,’ over which I apparently have Mr Nunn’s qualified support is as far as I know a nineteenth-century innovation; it was never observed by so careful and stylish a writer as Samuel Johnson and I shouldn’t be surprised if it was invented by Fowler.Good luck to his shade. While I’m on this subject may I say that I’m inclined to agree with Mr Nunn’s criticism of the phrase he quotes although on grounds of euphony rather than of grammar or even of consistency? I should probably more elegantly have written ‘castigate those using the . . . and the others thinking that . . .’ which would have avoided the slightly unpleasant use of ‘those that’ with its undertones of ‘that that.’ But I deny that I am wrong in using the pronoun ‘who’ as the personal form of both ‘that’ and ‘which.’ We meet this kind of problem because English is only a partly and apparently randomly, inflected language.That’s why to take a nearby example we must use ‘whose’ as the possessive form of both ‘who’ and ‘which,’ if we want to avoid the pedantic and ugly ‘of which.’ As to my comments on the passage I quoted from an official Press release certainly both Mr Nunn and I and many other readers do know what was intended by it, even though it was inadequately expressed but then we know not only the verbal context but the political and social context as well. Many readers may not and may consequently be left in doubt by the statement. I’m glad though to have Mr Nunn’s support for the proper use of the comma in sentences like this; it is even more important as an indicator of true meaning when we are dealing with the personal form of the demonstrative pronoun because as I’ve mentioned already there is only one such form.The sentence ‘He is now an adult who can be severely treated’ passes from the particular statement to the generalization if a comma is inserted between ‘adult’ and ‘who.’ I must refer him again as I did all readers of my essay-review to Professor A. V. Hill’s comments in 1949. I wish I had room to reproduce here in full a letter I had from Professor Hill on the subject some time later but I have only space (have I ?) to quote a portion of it which runs ‘. . . I fear it is a losing battle-the world is determined to use the word data not for the things they have been given at the start but for the things they end up with. . . . If (X) wants data to mean the presents people give him at Christmas then to him the words mean just that if a father gives the bride away she can be described as a data and we can correctly say “the data is” .. . if I ask my wife to give my love to my daughter-in-law; is my love a datum? If the Duchess of X gives birth to twin sons is the birth a datum or are the sons dati? If my boots begin to give. . . .! There are you see all kinds of interesting possibilities once one embarks on making words mean what one likes. Is an addendum a tip to a To return now to Mr Smith and ‘data. 19621 THE REGISTER 167 waiter? Can permanent wave be used when desired instead of standing wave ? Does a perfectly black body mean a pure negro? Can the Cambridge University Press be correctly described as bookmakers ? I commend all these ideas to you.’ So do I to Mr Smith.The notion that the word ‘data’ has like the word ‘opera,’ passed from a Latin neuter plural to an English common singular noun can only be entertained if Mr Smith and others are prepared to write for example ‘The three experiments gave three different datas’ (thereby taking in vain the name of an early-twentieth-century music-hall memory man). Alternatively Mr Smith and his supporters must be driven to argue that data is now like sheep both a singular and a plural noun. No offence is meant by the phrase ‘like sheep.’ This kind of argument is uncomfortably like those that Professor Hill pilloried. No change is to be either accepted or rejected auto-matically not even a change in meaning put forward by some enthusiastic reformer.The question always to be asked is a simple one. Will the change increase the cutting-edge of existing words or provide something new to fill a gap in the collection of verbal weapons with which we have to wage the battle of communication? The creation of superfluous synonyms never does this; it damages the word whose meaning it is proposed to change as well as any word whose meaning it is now proposed to usurp. Finally let not Mr Smith ‘throw the book at me,’ even though the book be Cassell’s New English Dictionary or even the O.E.D. For I have the authority of the latter’s editorial department according to a letter received by me a few years ago that it is the duty of the lexicographer to record not to prescribe usage-or lvords to that effect.26 Willow Road N.W.3 Remember the fate of Humpty-Dumpty. A. L. BACHARACH THE REGISTER NEW FELLOWS (OF) (P) (0) (P) (5) AGHORAMURTHY Krishnasastri B.SC. (MADR.) M.SC. PH.D. FIRMIN Lawrence William George B.SC. (LOND.) HARRISON Geoffrey Frederick B.SC. (LOND.) LITTLE George Edward M.A. PH.D. (CANTAB.) STEAD Ernest M.SC. (LEEDS) F.S.D.C. (DELHI) D.PHIL. ( OXON.) ASSOCIATES ELECTED TO THE FELLOWSHIP AMERY Gerald Gordon A.F.INST.PET. BIRRELL Peter B.SC. (EDIN.) COTTER Matthew James B.SC. (LOND.) DEWHIRST Leslie B.SC. ( LOND.) M.I.CHEM.E. DIP.CHEM.ENG. DONALD John Donald B.SC. (LOND.) DORAISWAMY M. E. M.A. B.SC.(MADR.) EDWARDS John B.SC.(BIRM.) M.I.CHEM.E. EGLIN Michael John FOSTER William Bailey B.SC.(LOND.) HALPIN Gavin Gerard M.sc.(N.u.I.) M.I.C.I. HANSON Robert Edward Thomas HENDERSON George Henry A.H.-W.C. HERSOM Albert Charles B.E.M. B.SC.(LOND.) HILL Prof.. Kenneth Robson B.SC.(LOND.) M.D. B.s., HINGERTY Daniel Joseph M.SC. PH.D. ( N.u.I.) HORNSBY Stanley B.SC.(DURH.) HOUGH Leslie M.SC. PH.D.(MANC.) HUGHES Anne HUNTER Frederick B.SC. (DURH.) ISAACS Michael David Jesse M.SC. (LOND.) JOY Arthur Stanley B.SC. (LOND.) LANDSMAN Douglas Anderson B.SC. PH.D. (ST AND.) LEWIS Jack PH.D.(NOTT.) D.SC.(LOND.) MCALEESE Desmond Mary B.SC. B.AGRIC. PH.D. (BELF.) , MARKHAM Harry B.SC. (LOND.) MARTIN John William M.SC. (LOND.) A.INST.P. MASSEY Leonard M.SC.TECH. (MANC.) F.INST.PET. NUNN Dennis Michael B.SC. ( LOND. ) F.S.D.C. PARR William Henry B.SC.PH.D. (WALES) PARSONS Roger B.SC. PH.D.(LOND.) D.I.C. PENNY Donald Roy B.SC.(LOND.) POWELL Harry B.SC.(LEEDS) SIMMENS Leslie M.SC. ( LOND.) SIMMONS Robert Henry STARKEY Ronald James A.T.I. WEST Thomas Summers B.SC. (ABERD.) PH.D. (BIRM.) ZATMAN Leonard Joseph B.SC. PH.D. (LOND.) M.R.C.S. MR.C.P. A.K.C. M.A. (CANTAB.) NEW ASSOCIATES ADISESHUVU Hari B.A. M.SC. (AND.) ANAND Vir Daman M.sc.(B.H.u.) BARVE Bhaskar Sitaram M.SC. (BOM.) BATHGATE Ronald James A.H.-W.C. BAXENDALE Lily B.SC.(LOND.) BHATTACHARYA Arun Kumar M.SC., BRIDGES John Mackay A.H.-W.C. BROWN Peter B.SC. PH.D. (BIRM.) PH.D. (SAUG.) CARSON Arnold William M.sc. (BELF.) CHEUNG Hee Tai M.SC. ( H.K.) CLARKE Clifford Brian B.SC. PH.D. (BELF.) CLARKSON Albert COTTON Terence Hewitt B.SC.(RAND) CRUNDWELL Edwin George Barton M.A.(CANTAB.), DEVEY James Dunbar B.SC.(GLAS.) DICKSON Walter Scott B.SC. (GLAS.) DONALDSON John Dallas B.SC. PH.D. (ABERD.) DUNCAN Peter Moncrieff B.SC. (EDIN.) EDWARDS Henry B.SC. (WALES) FEWSTER John Anthony B.SC. PH.D. (ST AND.) FROST John Brian B.SC. (RAND) GARRAWAY James Lynton B.SC. PH.D.(LOND.) A.K.C. GUPTA Harkrishn Lall M.SC. PH.D. (PUNJAB) HAWKINS Anthony Rafael B.SC. ( LOND.) HERBERT Richard Brian B.SC.(CAPE T.) HOLDEN Richard Thomas M.SC. (DURH.) HOLT Donald B.SC. ( DURH.) PH.D. ( LOND.) HOPE Christopher James B.SC. (RAND) HUSDAN Hyman B.SC. ( LOND.) PH.D. (TOR.) A.R.T.C. JACKSON William James B.SC. (BRIST.) JARVIS John Watkin B.SC. PH.D. (WALES) JEFFREYS Kerry David B.SC.TECH. ( MANC.) A.M.C.T.JOHNS John Hywel Thomas B.SC. (WALES) PH.D. (BIRM.) JOHNSON Warren B.SC. (SHEFF.) JONES Xorman B.SC.(MANC.) LAING Michael John M.SC.(NATAL) LAW Harry Davis B.A.(N.STAFFS.) PH.D.(MANC.) LAWRENCE Frederick Brian B.SC. (LOND.) MARLOW William M.SC. ( MANC.) MASTER Ravidatt William Paul M.SC. PH.D. (BOM.) MILES Peter B.SC.(LOND.) PARKER Janet Elizabeth B.SC. (BIRM.) PARRICK John B.SC. PH.D.(NOTT.) PATEL Amrutlal Nathubhai B.SC. (GUJAR.) PH.D. (LOND.), ROY Sushi1 Kumar M.SC.(PATNA) PH.D. (S’TON) DIP.CHEM.ENG JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF CHEMSITRY SANDERSON Ian Peter B.SC. (SHEFF.) M.SC. (BIRM.) SANDHU Sarjit Singh M.SC. PH.D. (PANJ. I.) SANTHANAGOPALAN Thiruvenkatachari M.A. BX. (MADR.) SMITH John Kaye B.SC.TECH. (MANC.) (C) (J) ( P) (N) SRINIVASAN Raghupathi B.SC.(MADR.) M.SC. (B.H.u.) SUNDARARAJAN Janakiram B.SC.(MADR.) M.SC. (B.H.u.), PH.D. (BANGALORE) THOMAS James Raymond B.SC. (WALES) THROSSELL John Julian B.SC. (NOTT.) PH.D. (SYR.) WEIR Neil Alexander B.SC. (GLAS.) WHITE Jack B.SC. (SHEFF.) GRADUATE MEMBERS ELECTED TO THE ASS 0 CIATE SHIP ALDERSON Derick BIGGS Timothy John BIRCH Jack Hedley B.SC. (LOND.) BOND Gerald David BRIDGES Trevor Frederick DIP.CHEM.ENG. BURDETT Keith B.SC. (BIRM.) COTTRELL Thomas John D.L.C. CROSS William Roy M.A. B.SC. (OXON.) DOWNS Colin Richard DUNNING Leonard Alfred FARTHING John Edwin William FREED Peter Gregory GRAVENOR Ronald Brynley M.SC.(WALES) GRIMSHAW Henry Robert HAIGH Ian Peter Arthur B.SC. (LOND.) DIP.CHEM.ENG. HARVEY Stuart Simpson Kirkland A.R.C.S.T. HYDE Colin Willson B.SC. (LOND.) JONES John Arnold KING Kenneth Bryan PARRY George William PITT Michael Charles SAXELBY Derek D.L.C. SMITH John Graham STREET Michael David THRELFALL Geoffrey B.SC. (WALES) WEBLEY Gordon Roy B.SC.(LOND.) WILLIAMS John Herbert DIP.TECH. NEW GRADUATE MEMBERS ADEYINKA Phillip Olusegun Stephen B.SC. (LOND.) BARTLE Keith Downs BLACK Edmund Warwick BROADLEY Derek Watson B.SC. (BIRM.) CAIRNS James Ian DIP.TECH. CARRAGHER Neil B.SC.(GLAS.) A.R.C.S.T. CLARK David Thomas B.SC. (SHEFF.) COLWELL Philip Brian CUTTING Philip Andrew DAY Russell William DEAN Arnold Morris DIP.TECH. DILLEY Eric Roy DIXON John Richard B.SC. (WALES) FIFIELD Frederick William DIP.TECH. FORD David Michael FOREMAN Frederick Arthur DIP.TECH. FOSKER Alan Philip B.SC. (BRIST.) FOZARD Alan B.SC. (WALES) GAVIN Andrew Gordon A.H.-W.C. GROOME Ivan James HANCOCK Richard Anthony B.SC.(LOND.) HAYES Gerald HIBBERT Anthony David HODSON Robert Sydney D.L.C. HOLDSWORTH Arthur Alan KEENAN Patrick Treadgold B.SC.(R’DG) KENNEDY Brenda Helen BX. (LOND.) LAWS Derek Roy James B.SC.(LOND.) LOWE Reginald Sale MARRIOTT Paul Hopps B.SC.(MANC.) MARSHALL Peter MARTIN Joan May MAY William Stewart BSC. (ABERD.) Carol MELLOR Ian Paul B.SC. (NOTT.) MILES Richard Walter B.A. (CANTAB.) MILLER Andrew Walter B.SC.(LOND.) OGDEN Brian Anthony PARRY Michael Davies PEET James Henry John B.SC.(NOTT.) PEPPER Edward Sandon B.SC. (LOND.) PULLAN Ian Hollingsworth RAYBOULD William Irvine B.SC. (GLAS.) SANDERS Barrie John B.SC. (BIRM.) SAUL John Henry SMITH Thomas Fletcher SPANNER James Andrew Robert TEECE Raymond Francis WARD John Junior B.SC. (DURH.) WELLS Peter WHISTON Thomas George DIP.TECH. WHITE Thomas Albert WOOD Brian Arthur B.SC. (LOND.) CHANGE OF NAME ON MARRIAGE Helena Frances Graduate Member to COLMAN. DEATHS Fellows Sections are glad to welcome members of other Sections to their meetings and social functions except when numbers are restricted as for works visits. Those wishing to attend meetings outside their own area are advised to write to the Hon. Secretary of the Section concerned as the Institute cannot accept responsi-bility for any alterations or cancellations. All times are p.m. except where otherwise stated. For key to Local Sections see J. 1961 386. DAVIES Richard Owen M.SC. (WALES). Died 25 February, 1962 aged 67. HINTON Cyril Langley. Died 15 March 1962 aged 70. A . 1912 F. 1916. MARSHALL George Reginald B.SC. ( LOND.) . Died 18 July 1961 aged 54. MARTIN James Wright M.B.E. B.SC.(GLAS.). Died 15 March 1962 aged 70. RAKSHIT Jitendra Nath. Died 28 January 1962 aged 74. F. 1926. A . 1917 F. 1938. A . 1932 F. 1947. A . 1919 F. 1943. RUSSELL Edward B.SC. (LOND.). Died 13 March 1962, aged 92. F. 1898. AZIM Shaukat M.SC.(PUNJAB) M.S. (ILLINOIS) PH.D. (S’TON). Died 14 January 1962 aged 30. DYER Frederick John B.SC. PH.D.(LOND.). Died 25 February 1962 aged 62. Associates A. 1961. A . 1925. LOCAL SECTIONS DIARY Birkenhead. 10 May. 6. Annual General Meeting followed at 7.15 by Address Catalysts for Progress. E. le Q. Herbert. Technical College Cardiff. 27 April. 7. Chemistry and Space Flight. R. A. Wilson. University College. Joint S.C.I. __ 25 May. 6. Annual General Meeting Royal Hotel Dundee. 27 April. 7.15. Principles of Radiation Chemistry. Prof. I_ 4 May. Annual General Meeting. Queen’s College Liverpool. 28 April. Chemical Education Meeting Symposium on Donnan Manchester. 4 May. Symposium on Teaching Chemistry to Part I Newcastle. 2 May. 6. Annual General Meeting followed at 6.30 by Prof. J. M. Robertson. Northampton. 1 May. 7. Recent Developments in the Analysis Portsmouth. 26 May. 2.30. Annual General Meeting. College of F. S. Dainton. Queen’s College. Joint College Chem. Dept the Teaching of Physical Chemistry at Pre-University Level. Laboratories The University Vine Street Grad.R.1.C. Address Science in the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. Chemistry Department King’s College of Semi-Conductors. Technical College. Joint S.A.C. Technology Royal College of Advanced Technology Salford Sheffield. 2 May. 7.30. Poisoning Accident Murder or Suicide? Chemistry Lecture Theatre The University Brook-__ 10 May. 7.30. Annual General Meeting. Chemistrv Lecture Dr F. E. Camps. hill. Joint C.S. Theatre. The Universitv. Brookhill Swansea. 25 &fa). 7. Annual General Meeting. College of Further Welwyn Garden City. 16 May 7 30. Colour. G. J. Chaniberlin. Education Gorseinon Mid-Herts College of Further Educatio

ISSN:0368-3958    

DOI:10.1039/JI9628600119

出版商:RSC    

年代:1962

数据来源: RSC