Annual review of biochemistry. Vol. 22

Book Reviews Annual Review of Biochemistry. Vol. 22. Edited by J. MURRAY LUCK, Stanford University; HERBERT S. LORING, Stanford University; and GORDON MACKINNEY, University of California. Annual Reviews, Inc., Stanford, Calif., 1953, x + 729 pp. Price $6.00. The twenty-second volume of Annual Review of Biochemistry introduces a new chapter which is to be devoted to individuals rather than to subjects. This welcome innovation refreshingly flies in the face of the Editors’ stringent policy of space conservation and will allow the reader “the benefit of long years of fruitful experience in Biochemistry” through a more personal and historical point’ of view than experimental literature customarily permits. The first of this series of biographical and reflective writings by one of “our elders in Biochemistry” is contributed by E. V. McCollum who began his scientific life in 1907. It is to be regretted that, he chose to consider only the first decade of his investigations. His recollections dwell chiefly in some of the very earliest developments of modern concepts of nutrition and of the deep impressions gained from contact wit,h the eminent and sympathetic hiochemists of that period. Among the many other chapters are a number that have not been treated for some time. In the chapters on “Photosynthesis and the Biochemistry of Vision,” the reviewers have had the task of covering fields where major contributions as well as voluminous ones have been made in the past decade. These were written expressly for the general biochemist and make very rewarding reading for their illuminating integration and critical evaluation. Large gaps are also very competently filled by chapters devoted to “The Chemistry of Cortisone,” “Immunopolysaccharides,” “Chemistry of the Fungi,” “Ruminant Nutrition,” and “The Biochemistry of Teeth.” The latitude exercised in handling these subjects has permitted more unity and over-all evaluation than can he accomplished in the annually recurrent chapters which cover a greater range of subject matter. Also this year, the “Glycosidases” are given the detailed and comprehensive discussion which the advances in this field merit. The reviewer has accomplished this by cxcluding a considerable body of material from the otherwise troublesome chapter rntitled “Nonoxidative and Nonproteolytic Enzymes.” The Annual is fortunate in having a distinguished list of contributors to cope with the difficult and overcrowded, but essential, general chapters without which a volume seldom appears. These deal, respectively, with the “Chemistry and Metabolism of the Fats, Carbohydrates, Amino Acids, Peptides and Proteins,” with and with “Proteolytic Enzymes, Bio“Nucleic Acids, Purines and Pyrimidines,” logical Oxidations and Neoplastic Tissue. ” For the most part, the reviewers have made great efforts to prevent these compact chapters from becoming catalogs. While some are far too condensed to be generally useful in orienting persons outside the field, authorit,ative selection and organization have succeeded in imparting an evaluation of the year’s significant advances, althought it has seldom been possible, 455

456

BOOK

REVIEWS

except by an occasional, carefully chosen phrase, to fit the numerous sections of each chapter into the main stream of thought and development. Through the exacting and generous efforts of editors and contributors, each volume continues to add to an invaluable series of reference works upon which the biochemist has come to depend. S. RATNER, New York, New York The Physics of Viruses. By ERNEST C. POLLARD, Professor of Biophysics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. Academic Press Inc., New York, N. Y., 1953. viii + 230 pp. Price $5.50. In the words of the author, “this book is an attempt to present what is known about viruses from the viewpoint of a physicist. In doing so, a major aim has proved to be the description of viruses, their shape and structure.” After an introductory chapter on the nature of viruses and their relation to physics, the following chapter subjects are discussed: The Size, Shape and Hydration of Viruses; Ionizing Radiation and Viruses; The Surface of Viruses; Action of Ultraviolet Light on Viruses; Sonic and Osmotic Effects on Viruses and Virus Genetics; Multiplication and Physics. The author of this most interesting book is a full-fledged physicist, with a distinguished record of accomplishment in nuclear physics, who has turned his great talents to a study of the physics of living things. His new interest clearly is leading him into most important and challenging problems. Viruses were picked for the subject of this book, partly because of their adaptability for study by physical methods. While the book deals mostly with physical methods and interpretation, it is made clear throughout that the problems in general are of such a nature that all of the sciences must be focused upon them if maximum progress is to be made. The text is clearly written and is highly recommended not only for physicists and biophysicists, but for chemists, biologists, and medical scientists as well. J. W. BEAMS, Charlottesville, Virginia Insect Physiology. Edited by KENNETH D. ROEDER, Tufts College, Medfordp Massachusetts. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1953. xiv + 1100 pp. Price $15.00. The present new text on Insect Physiology, edited by K. D. Roeder, with chapters by 15 investigators, is by far the most extensive and up-to-date treatment of this field on the market today. It differs from the other existing text by V. B. Wigglesworth (2nd ed., 1952) in that it emphasizes the physiological, physicochemical, and biochemical aspects of this subject rather than dealing with functional morphology. Furthermore, it particularly excels in the comprehensive treatment of certain subjects which have recently acquired great prominence and have never been adequately summarized. Special mention should be made here of the first comprehensive review of insect flight by L. E. Chadwick (3 chapters, 80 pages), of 4 chapters (124 pages) by T. C. Schneirla on insect behavior, and of 4 chapters (150 pages) by D. Bodenstein on experimental morphology and the role of hromones. There are, in all, 32 chapters, the book being subdivided in a manner which is conventional for physiological texts. To the uninitiated it may seem surprising that sufficient should be known about the physiology of a single zoological order, the insects, to warrant a text of such