Book reviews ADVANCED CHEMISTRY OF RARE ELEMENTS. $. Prakash. Pp. viii q- 808 + Ill. (10137). Chemical Publishing Co., New York. $113.50. The simpler undergraduate courses, particularly of the British "General" B.Sc. type, tend to concentrate on the systematic structural and analytical chemistry of the commoner and economically more important elements. This author suggests that there is a lack of a text for "Honours" undergraduates and inorganic post- graduate students who need to study the less familiar elements. He has culled out 35 commonly treated elements and for the remainder presented a conventional dis- sertation. The first part plunges unhesitatingly straight into Bohr, Sommerfeld, de Broglie and Schr6dinger: brief consideration is given to angular probability distributions and simple solutions of the wave equation for hydrogen atom orbitals and then he explains the principles of consecutive electron occupation of higher atomic orbitals. The second chapter considers ionic and covalent radii, and the third provides a fairly elementary introduction to molecular orbitals. This is followed by a wave-mechanical discussion of the valence bond, leading naturally into short chapters on hybridisation, a LCAO treatment of the chemical bond, and magnetic moments. Part I concludes with a detailed appraisal of electron shell filling in the transitional elements and brief MO and ligand field treatments of inorganic complexes. This necessary but not excessively long theoretical introduction (125 pages) sets the modern tone of the book. The remaining two parts comprise 33 chapters (t375 pages) divided between the non-transitional and transitional rarer elements. The organisation of the chapters is on a conventional contemporary pattern: general physical and structural characteristics, similarities with other elements, history, occurrence, extraction of the element, analytical reactions, valency coordination and ligands, preparation and properties of compounds. There is a final chapter dealing with the transuranics: this has clearly been extensively revised and updated, and is reasonably comprehensive. However, the text does bear evidence of hurried in- sertions, e.g. the varying type size of the section on the nuclear pile production of plutonium, and occasional repetition such as the few paragraphs on the fundamentals of nuclear fission which oddly and abruptly conclude the chapter. The book is couched in a terse monographic style suitable to the student notebook. The printing, although mostly on the small side, is generally good formulae, tables and equations are well set, although one block was found to be upside down. The index, though not very long, appears to casual inspection to cover adequately the more important matters discussed. Whilst space considerations have prevented the provision of references to original papers--and indeed it is arguable that they would be out of place in this type of text, essentially systematic with little speculation and only incidental topicality--there is nevertheless an adequate bibliography in the preface to the first (1054, Indian) edition and this has been updated in the third (Indian and first U.S.) version. It may reasonably be concluded that as a source book 53

54 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS this would certainly assist those senior students whose tutors do not expect them to collate for themselves data on the rarer elements. G.F. PHILLIPS. HANDBOOK OF COMPRESSED GASES. Compressed Gas Association. Pp. xvi q- 398 q- Ill. (1966). Reichold Publishing Cor- poration, New York. $20. 160s. The handling of compressed and liquefied gases has developed into a vast and still rapidly growing domain of industrial technology, with its own specialised tech- niques, hazards and official regulations for safety. This book covers American and Canadian practice in both general terms, and in specific detail for 49 materials, in- cluding gases derived from the atmosphere, fuels, medical gases, fluorocarbons, ammonia, halogens, vinyl chloride, hydrogen chloride, hydrogen sulphide, carbon dioxide, etc. The basic physical data enumerated, and the standards and regulations governing the containers from small cylinders to large tankers, make the book of great value whether to specialists or to safety officers and public officials who have to administer the regulations. An unsatisfactory feature in the field of cryogenics and handling of gases is the contradictory nature of the various national requirements in different countries, and a similar book detailing British and/or European regulations would be a welcome addition to technical literature. S.A. MILLER PROCEEDINGS OF THE SYMPOSIUM ON THE CHEMIS- TRY AND BIOCHEMISTRY OF FUNGI AND YEASTS. I.U.P.A.C. Pp. v q- 525-705 q- Ill. (1963). Butterworths, London. 50s. This book contains the subject matter of fourteen lectures which were presented originally at the Symposium on the Chemistry and Biochemistry of Fungi and Yeasts, held in Dublin, Ireland, July 1963. Important work on this subject has been carried out in several different countries, by contributors all expert in their particular field. This work has been published in a special volume by the International Union and ranks as a valuable contribution to knowledge on the subject of fungi and yeasts. The main topics have been conveniently divided into three major sections: Section I is concerned with Fungal Metabolites Section II describes the Biochemistry of Fungi, and Section III deals with the Chemistry and Biochemistry of Yeasts. In the first paper, The biosynthesis of antibiotics, A. J. Birch (U.K.) speculates on the manipulation of fungal metabolites. 'The synthetic chemist who is developing a useful drug usually has two objectives: to make it more efficiently, and to synthesize by minor structural alterations, analogues which may have more useful properties'. In this paper, the author examines the question whether the chemist can, in principle, manipulate the processes of production of antibiotics with the same objective in view. Other valuable contributions on the subject of fungal metabolites are described in papers on: The vitamin B•, coenzyme--D. Dolphin, A. W. Johnson, R. Rodrigo and N. Shaw (U.K.). Constitution of rifamycins--V. Prelog (Switzerland), and the sclero- tiorin group of fungal metabolites: their structure and biosynthesis--W. B. Whalley (u.•.).