BOOK REVIEWS PERSPECTIVES IN ORGANIC CHEM- ISTRY, edited by Sir Alexander Todd. Interscience Publishers, Inc., New York and London. 1956. 527 pages, 91/2 X 6 inches, indexed. Price $7.50. "This volume is dedicated to Sir Robert Robinson, O. M., F. R. S., on the occasion of his seventieth birthday, September 13, 1956, as a tribute to one of the great masters of organic chemistry." According to the foreword it has its origin "in the desire of a group of friends, colleagues and pupils of Sir Robert Robinson to honor on his seventieth birthday one who has by personal force and through his outstanding contributions, profoundly affected the development of organic chemis- try:',' The book is to be regarded as a collection of essays covering subjects with which each author is intimately associated the essays do not seek to present subjects in full detail, but they contain something of the writers' own reflections and speculations." The list of contributors is a veritable "Who's Who" of scientists active in some branch of organic chemistry, or in areas benefitting by the techniques and theories of or- ganic chemistry, in a significant measure. The names of the au- thors and the titles of their articles will furnish an idea as to the scope of the book: (1) Linus Pauling, The Nature of the Theory of Resonance (2) Paul D. Bartlett, Reaction Mechanisms (3) Wilson Baker, The Development of the Concept of Aromaticity (4) D. H. R. Barton, Stereochemistry (5) V. Prelog, Bedeutung der viel- gliedrigen Ringverbindungen fiir die theoretische organische Chemie (The Role of Many-Membered Ring Compounds in Theoretical Organic Chemistry) (6) A. J. Birch, Bio- synthetic Theories in Organic Chem- istry (7) R. B. Woodward, Syn- thesis (8) Karl Ziegler, Neue Entwicklungen der metallorganis- chen Synthese (Newer Develop- ments in Metal-Organic Synthesis) (9) E. L. Hirst, Carbohydrates (10) Sir Alexander Todd, Nucleic Acids (ll) L. Ruzicka, Bedeutung der theoretischen organischen Chemie fur die Chemie der Terpen- verbindungen (The Importance of Theoretical Organic Chemistry to the Chemistry of Terpene Com- pounds) (12) C. W. Shoppee, Steroids (13) E. Schlittler, Alka- loids (14) J. W. Cornforth, Iso- topes in Organic Chemistry (15) Karl Folkers, Microorganisms in Organic Chemistry (16) James Walker, Chemotherapy (17) Holger Erdtman, Organic Chemistry and Conifer Taxonomy (18) A. Bute- nandt, Organische Chemie und Genetik (Organic Chemistry and Genetics). Four of the contributions (those by Prelog, Ziegler, Ruzicka and Butenandt) are m the German language, all the others are in English. 111

112 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS It would be virtually impossible, within the narrow limits of a review, to extract a sufficiency of typical material from all contri- butions so as to delineate their respective scopes. It should be said, how.ever, that in spite of the wide variety of subjects, every chapter warrants careful perusal as a means of familiarizing any particular chemist-specialist with the developments and the trends in other specialized fields. To select but a few salient fea- tures in an arbitrary manner, Birch's chapter emphasizes the "compara- tive an. atom. y" of organic structures occurring m compounds isolated from biological sources. Exampl.es are the "isoprene" skeleton m terpenes, the pyrrolidine-tropane group in some alkaloids, the quino- !ine, isoquinoline and indole groups m others. Incidentally, this chap- ter has a direct bearing upon Fol- kers' chapter on "Microorganisms in Organic Chemistry." Woodward's contribution refers to the laborat9ry .synthesis of sub- stances occurring in nature which, in the author's opinion, provides a measure of the powers and maturity of organic chemistry. Following a historical introduction, this chap- ter considers several recent brilliant achievements (in some of which the author played a major role) among other things, the story is told of the synthesis of cortisone, of mor- phine, of strychnine and of other substances of "natural" origin. The author points to a number of unrealized specific objectives of organic synthesis such as that of colchicine, of tyrocidine, of chloro- phyll and several others which he considers to be "clearly vulnerable" and whose "defenses will crumble" before long. On the other hand, penicillin and terramycin are re- ferred to as "diabolic concatena- tions of reactive groupings which will require the sharpest and most powerful tools for conquest" al- though some progress has already been made. Beta-corticotropin, a polypeptide consisting of some 39 amino acids, is justly described as "a repetitious monstrosity" whose synthesis may be well beyond the grasp of the organic chemist. Woodward draws considerable satisfaction, however, from the ac- complished synthesis of such ma- terials as thiamine, ribofiavin, as- corbic acid, pantothenic acid, bio- tin and folic acid which match the great technical accomplishments of the last century, viz., the industrial synthesis of indigo and of alizarin. While discussing the synthesis of morphine, he modestly u. nderplays his own role in this important development. He deplores the slow progress in the synthesis of mole- cules or systems possessing the capacities of enzymes for the direc- tion and control of organic reactions he feels that in spite of our present lack of understanding of the en- zyme action, such systems "must obey the same basic laws to which all material systems are subject." He points to the recent success in the preparation of polypeptide chains by polymerization methods, also to the established fact that many natural proteins and synthetic polypeptides have one structural feature in common, viz., "the beau- . tiful alpha-helix." He emphasizes that some proteins at least, repre- sent spontaneous aggregates of rel- atively small units, and that the same may be true of "that Brob- dingn. agi.an molecule," the tobacco mosaic virus. Woodward concludes the chapter by pointing to the fact that "organic chemistry has liter- ally placed a new Nature beside the old," altering the whole face and manner of society by its prod-