BOOK Rt•VIt•W$ molecular properties, solvent extraction, gel filtration and gel-permeation chrom- atography, ion exchange, and adsorption processes. The examples are concerned principally with methods for determin- ing the chemical and physical properties of unknown or identified substances by the use of micro-techniques and chro- matographic procedures. Obviously the methods can also be applied to the isolation (as distinct from the analysis) of natural products, primarily in the laboratory but possibly also on a larger scale. The latter could be of special significance to readers of this Journal. Even workers who are familiar with some of these techniques used in certain capacities may well find this book of value. Thus, although the subject is highly specialized (or perhaps because it is), the book is able to be exhaustive and to record unusual applications of the techniques which may find special applications. A case in point is bio- autography, used for substances which have activity in a biological system. Thus a paper strip of a thin layer chromatogram is placed on a properly prepared solid medium. For growth inhibition the medium is seeded with a sensitive organism for growth stimu- lation an organism requiring the sub- stance for growth is used. The medium is then incubated, leaving the plate paper strip in place or removing it after allowing diffusion into the medium. This technique is admirably adapted to the detection of antibiotics. This ex- ample must serve to illustrate the wide scope of the book and its value in draw- ing attention to little known methods. The author comes from the Merck, Sharp and Dohme Research Labor- atories in New Jersey and he has had the benefit of helpful suggestions from his co-workers. Many facilities of these laboratories were made available to him and this in itself is a guarantee of the standard and status of the book. The book concludes with appendixes giving dielectric constants of common solvents, ion exchange resins, thin layer and paper chromatogram techniques including data on the quenching of fluorescence, and conversion tables for rf and rm. No analyst or organic chemist interested in separation methods can afford to be without it. J. CRANT TECHNOLOGICAL FORECASTING AND CORPORATE STRATEGY. Editors: G. Wills, D. Ashton and B. Taylor. Pp. xviii + 273 + Ill. {1969). Bradford University _Press with Crosby Lockwood • Son, London. •4.50. Many of the contributors in this volume, which is the first volume to be published from the Bradford University Press, were first presented at the National Conference on Technological Forecasting held at the University of Bradford in July 1968. The book is aimed at a large audience of readers from 'boards of directors to controllers and managers in every in- dustry' and as such tends to meet none of their needs. It is neither an author- itative textbook on Technological Fore- casting methods nor is it an in depth study of the possible futures of the technologies studied. The book is in two parts the first 'Managing the Future', which is a brief review of methods of forecasting and their possible assistance in arriving at a corporate strategy, tends to rehash much that has been written better elsewhere, in many cases by the same contributors the second part 'The Forecast Future'

BOOK REVIEWS 79 is a review of various technologies (polymers, metals, energy, transport and distribution, communications, computer systems, food) by academic and in- dustrial contributors. Though the con- tributors do not go into great depth this section is interesting and stimulating. Also included in this part of the book is a chapter on 'Technological fore- casting techniques in Britain'. This, in the reviewer's opinion, is out of place in this volume, does not do justice to the subject, and presents rather a poor finale to the book. Technological forecasting is not an easy subject to write about either on the techniques involved or the results of forecasts. The discipline is unformed, as yet and there is considerable reservation in many managers as to its accuracy and relevance to their jobs. Using tech- nological forecasting to arrive at corpor- ate strategies is an even more difficult subject and this book does not rise to it. However, taking into account what has been said, above, this volume, though fairly superficial, could provide a stimulus for a manager to become interested in the topic. It is a book worth browsing through to pick out chapters of interest. The volume is well printed though some of the plates, especially in the chapter on polymers, are poorly pro- duced and add nothing to the text. The index is good and an Appendix giving the participants at the original con- ference is a useful reference to interested practitioners in the U.K. J. M. HUBERT TRANSPORT PHENOMENA IN MEMBRANES. N. Lakshminarayan- aiah. Pp.xi+517+Ill. {1969). Academic Press, New York. $22. The greater part (eight chapters) of this well written book has a subject matter of artificial membranes and one chapter describes some of the properties of nerve cell membranes. Whether the book 'bridges the gap between physical and biological sciences' as hoped for in the preface is open to some doubt. The book develops well from basic principles, such as defining and classifying membranes through the preparation of artificial membranes to quite complex mathematical treatments of some of the phenomena which play a role in the transport of substances across membranes. Basic principles associated with ionic mobility and electrochemical cells are expounded in a mathematical and descriptive manner enabling one to move gently towards electrokinetic and thermodynamic principles. Membrane properties applied to diffusion of sub- stances are dealt with in a simplified manner using Fick's Law. The flux through the systems are subjected to the Nernst-Plank mathematical treatments. The effects of applied electric fields, pressure and temperature gradients are discussed in detail upon artificial systems before an attempt to apply some of the theoretical considerations and practical experiments to the nerve cell membrane. The author attempts to consider the animal cell as a 3-phase system cell interior/cell boundary/cell environment. He briefly describes the structure of the nerve cell and then experiments on the electrochemical state and the transport of ions. The chapter does not appear to be in the same style as the previous seven chapters and there is an obvious limitation to the application of the earlier described mathematical deriva- tions for artificial membranes. Pharma- cological agents are only briefly dis- cussed in this chapter. Each chapter has a comprehensive