Book reviews PROGRESS IN ORGANIC CHEMIS- TRY-7. Editors: Sir James Cook and W. Carruthers. Pp. vii + 166 + Ill. (1968). Butterworths, London. •4. "Another 'Progress' or 'Advances' book?" - a casual reader might say - but he should recognise that this is a new volume in a well established and impres- sive series that began in 1952, although it has appeared less frequently in the sixties. The ambit lies somewhere between periodic monographs restricted to advances in specialist areas such as chromatography, spectrometry or specific natural products such as fats and lipids, and superficially compre- hensive reviews such as those annually compiled by the Chemical Society. Even in the later publication the rate of growth and complexity of contemporary endearour is forcing in the concept of what in today's idiom might be termed 'mini-monographs'. Previous volumes in the series presently under review have tended to emphasize the advance in our knowledge of natural products and this number is no exception. Thus, two of its five chapters are devoted to areas of natural product chemistry a third chapter is concerned with phosphoryl transfer processes of fundamental bio- chemical significance a fourth supplies a dissertation on the mechanisms of electrophilic molecular rearrangements and in the fifth two West German authors contribute an examination of theory and observation of (mainly aromatic) hydrocarbons having some acidic character. The tetracycline family of broad spectrum antibiotics constitutes a firmly consolidated area of natural product chemistry and biochemistry. Although in several ways less systematic than the recent review by Clive (1), Scott and Money's chapter is perhaps more read- able especially in its helpful structural 'flow charts'. In their largest section they survey the chemical reactivity of the numerous functional groups of the tetracyclines and their transformations. The section on biogenesis is both succinct and informative and, like Clive (1), they wisely do not attempt to condense the earlier exhaustive review of syn- thetic methods by G. C. Barrett (2) but instead confine comment to salient features. The other natural products chapter rehearses evidence, some of it recently provided by the author himself, for the structure of the salamander alkaloids. Despite one of these bases having been first isolated a century ago, the structure has only recently been definitively established for the series of steroid related alkaloidal toxins found in the skin gland secretion of a veno- mous Salamander species that may cause respiratory paralysis in any animal. Dr. I-tabermehl briefly refers to his own tracer studies in making some highly speculative comments on bio- synthesis: in view of the isolation of several esters of cholesterol in the skin gland secretion, this may be of some interest to cosmetic chemists. I-Ie con- jectures that oxidafire degradation comparable to that in toad secretion 705

706 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS could explain the C-17 substitution pat- tern, and C-10 epimerisation during opening of ring A might account for the abnormal configuration in the non- oxazolidine Salamander alkaloids. The biological phosphorylation chap- ter is probably the most interesting in the comparative novelty of its content and the fundamental importance of its subject. While to many organic chemists the information may not be obviously utilisable, the survey described advances in our knowledge of literally vital processes, some of which have been - or may soon be - capable of laboratory simulation. It might appear a point of criticism that, without any explanation, a review published in 1968 contains several con- tributions collected in mid-1965, whence most references do not postdate that year. In practice, this little affects the two theoretical chapters and is not too serious in the tetracycline field providing the necessity for subsequent reading is appreciated Dr. Habermehl's own studies adequately update the structural studies - but not the speculative bio- genesis - for the Salamander toxins and the phosphoryl transfer chapter is of later date and includes references through 1967. And in any event the volume does not purport to declare the state of knowledge as in 1968 - but rather happens to be published then and records progress in specific fields previously to the periods cited. G. F. PHILLIPS STRUCTURE AND BONDING, Vol. 6. Pp. 159 q- Ill. (1969). Springer, Berlin- Heidelberg-New York. DM 34. $8.50. Three years after introduction of this series the editors feel that they can further define the intended scope of the series as dealing with "metal-ligand" bonds. They particularly aim to deal with areas of research which overlap between the traditional divisions of scientific disciplines. This volume contains five main papers. "Valence-shell expansion studied by radio-frequency spectro- scopy" (E. A. C. Lucken) is concerned with the results of experiments aimed at confirming the conventional explana- tions, in terms of electron orbitals, of the striking qualitative differences between the first and subsequent members of groups in the Periodic Table. "Ligand- field spectroscopy and chemical bond- ing in Cr 3 +-containing oxidic solids" (D. Reinen) deals with certain properties of the Cr-O bands on the solid matrix of a number of oxidic lattices. "Spectra of 3d five-coordinate complexes" (M. Ciampolini) discussed properties of the five-coordinate complexes of the first row transition elements. "Valence-shell expansion studied by uv spectro- scopy" (C. K. Jorgensen) deals with another aspect of the field discussed in Lucken's paper. "Polymer complexes of iron and their biological implications" (Th. G. Spiro and P. Saltman) reviews the biochemistry of iron in the light of its tendency to hydrolyse and polymer- ise: the consequences for biological ion transport are profound, since polymers must be broken down before the iron can move across membranes. Finally D. F. C. Morris includes a brief appendix to his paper on "Ionic radii and enthalpies of hydration of ions" which appeared in Volume 4. B. G. OVERELL.