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The Enzymes—Chemistry and Mechanism of Action. Vol. I, Part 2. Edited by James B. Sumner and Karl Myrbäck. Academic Press, Inc., New York, 1951. x + 637 pp. 16 × 23.5 cm. Price $12.80
September, 1951
SCIENTIFIC EDITION
477
tive edition was designed by the meritorious editor of Chronica Botanica, Dr. Frans Verdoorn. It might be of interest to those especially interested in pharmaco-botany that similar attempts at following up the history of medicinal plants by methodically examining the herbals and books on drugs from antiquity up to the late eighteenth century have been going on for quite a while. As a matter of fact, the herbals themselves refer again and again t o the concepts of earlier authors. A study by Hedwig Schwarz resembling that of Finan in the use of plant illustrations as a means of research (and dealing with Chelidonium majus and Paeonia peregrina Mill.-Paeonia ojicinalis L.) was published i n 1931 by the Gesellschaft fur Geschichte der Pharmazie. From 1930 to 1937 there were presented at the University of Base1 a number of Doctor’s theses as contributions t o the history of official drugs (“Beitrgage zur Geschichte der Ofizinellen Drogen”), prepared under the guidance of Professor Heinrich Zomig (and partly with the advice of Professor J. A. H a g e r ) , which had the examination of the herbals and books on herbs through the ages as their basis. I n most recent time pharmaceutico-botanical research, including the historical tracing of origins, has been paid much attention in the German pharMaize i n the Great Herbals. By JOHN J. FINAN. maceutical press. Permanent rubrics have been The Chronica Botanica Co., Waltham, Mass. ; devoted t o it in Die Pharmazie, founded in 1946, Stechert-Hafner, Inc., New York, 1951. xiv 43 and in the Arzneimittel- Forschung, founded in pp. Illustrated. 17.5 x 25.5 cm. Price $3. 1 9 5 1 . 4 ~ URDANG. 0 ~ ~ ~ This newest product of the Chronica Botanica The Enzymes-Chemistry and Mechanism of Action. Company follows the line that has become characVol. I, Part 2. Edited by JAMESB. SUMNER and teristic of its publication policy. This policy includes KARL MYRBACK.Academic Press, Inc., New the illumination of scientific problems and/or deYork, 1951. x 637 pp. 16 x 23.5 cm. Price velopment by tracing their progress in art and $12.80. philosophy, as well as in science proper. This book continues with the plan of Volume I , How this tendency has expressed itself in the bookPart 1, by taking up specific groups of enzymes, the let under consideration, and how the correlation of botanical knowledge and research with the helpful first part of Volume I having dealt largely with genendeavor of an a r t historian and experts on medieval eral properties of enzymes. This book covers 24 Latin and Spanish history has worked in this schol- different types, including such well-known groups arly master thesis of a Pioneer Hi-Bred Corn Com- as proteolytic enzymes, urease, phosphoryllises, pany Fellow in Washington University has been and some of the less familiar ones as thiaminase, delightfully told in the foreword by Edgar Ander- cellulases, penicillinase and histidase. There is son, the well-known botanist and geneticist a t also a more general chapter entitled “Enzymes as Essential Components of Bacterial and Animal Washington University and the Missouri Botanical Garden. It is understood that this making of Toxins,” by E. A. Zeller. The high quality found in Volume I, Part 1, is “unum ex pluribus.” leading not only t o a n effective and reliable story but even t o new conclusions, maintained in this book, with the chapters being called for tact, taste, and careful consideration by written by men well qualified by experience in their the author, J. J. Finan, and the teachers of the vari- subjects. All sections are thoroughly referenced. The pages are numbered consecutively with Volume ous faculties who helped and guided him. The new conclusions referred to have resulted in I. Part 1, and the index includes both parts of Volthe certainty “that two general types of maize are ume I. The practice of introducing each chapter by givdiscussed in the herbals,” one similar t o the typical flints of eastern North America and believed by most ing the reader some insight into the occurrence, of the herbalists to have been brought into Europe historical development, and significance of each group of enzymes is commendable. Many tables from Asia, and another much like the present-day corn of the Caribbean area and very likely intro- are used t o summarize pertinent data cited, and many graphs are included to depict fiH effects, reduced into Europe by the early Hispanic explorers. The use of herbal illustrations as a means of re- action kinetics, and inhibitor effects. Of special search rather than for decorative purposes being one value is the inclusion by the authors of methods of of the most remarkable features of this essay, it is assay and measurement of activities along with some but appropriate that a brief but pertinent explan- criticism, usually of the methods. This book is a significant contribution t o the ation of “the woodcuts of the great herbals” (Appendix I) is added. The essay appeared fist in the literature on enzymes, and i t is hoped that future Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, 35, 149 volumes will meet the high standards set by Volume (1948). This hand-bound, limited. and very attrac- I.
Essential information not readily available elsewhere on manufacturing processes; process machinery; the equipment used for the transportation of fresh and frozen fishery products; methods of rapid freezing ; and important technological developments in feed for animals extracted from seaweed, moss, and alginates are presented. Since publication of the original edition 27 years ago, progress in the technology of marine products has been so rapid that the new edition was entirely rewritten and expanded. It presents considerations of the world’s agar industry; the first attempted statistical survey of the world’s fisheries and shellfisheries and their many products; and serves as a source of information on the technology of fish glue manufacture. It presents what appears t o be an excellent outline of useful information on oceanography, chemical technology, marine botany and biology, conchology, ichthyology, the marine fisheries, fishery technology, statistics, nutrition, fishery by-products, shell-fisheries, whaling, sealing, sponge fishing, and gemology. The book is documented with references to many specialized treatises on the several subjects covered. Its usefulness is enhanced by a n excellent index.
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+
SCIENTIFIC EDITION
477
tive edition was designed by the meritorious editor of Chronica Botanica, Dr. Frans Verdoorn. It might be of interest to those especially interested in pharmaco-botany that similar attempts at following up the history of medicinal plants by methodically examining the herbals and books on drugs from antiquity up to the late eighteenth century have been going on for quite a while. As a matter of fact, the herbals themselves refer again and again t o the concepts of earlier authors. A study by Hedwig Schwarz resembling that of Finan in the use of plant illustrations as a means of research (and dealing with Chelidonium majus and Paeonia peregrina Mill.-Paeonia ojicinalis L.) was published i n 1931 by the Gesellschaft fur Geschichte der Pharmazie. From 1930 to 1937 there were presented at the University of Base1 a number of Doctor’s theses as contributions t o the history of official drugs (“Beitrgage zur Geschichte der Ofizinellen Drogen”), prepared under the guidance of Professor Heinrich Zomig (and partly with the advice of Professor J. A. H a g e r ) , which had the examination of the herbals and books on herbs through the ages as their basis. I n most recent time pharmaceutico-botanical research, including the historical tracing of origins, has been paid much attention in the German pharMaize i n the Great Herbals. By JOHN J. FINAN. maceutical press. Permanent rubrics have been The Chronica Botanica Co., Waltham, Mass. ; devoted t o it in Die Pharmazie, founded in 1946, Stechert-Hafner, Inc., New York, 1951. xiv 43 and in the Arzneimittel- Forschung, founded in pp. Illustrated. 17.5 x 25.5 cm. Price $3. 1 9 5 1 . 4 ~ URDANG. 0 ~ ~ ~ This newest product of the Chronica Botanica The Enzymes-Chemistry and Mechanism of Action. Company follows the line that has become characVol. I, Part 2. Edited by JAMESB. SUMNER and teristic of its publication policy. This policy includes KARL MYRBACK.Academic Press, Inc., New the illumination of scientific problems and/or deYork, 1951. x 637 pp. 16 x 23.5 cm. Price velopment by tracing their progress in art and $12.80. philosophy, as well as in science proper. This book continues with the plan of Volume I , How this tendency has expressed itself in the bookPart 1, by taking up specific groups of enzymes, the let under consideration, and how the correlation of botanical knowledge and research with the helpful first part of Volume I having dealt largely with genendeavor of an a r t historian and experts on medieval eral properties of enzymes. This book covers 24 Latin and Spanish history has worked in this schol- different types, including such well-known groups arly master thesis of a Pioneer Hi-Bred Corn Com- as proteolytic enzymes, urease, phosphoryllises, pany Fellow in Washington University has been and some of the less familiar ones as thiaminase, delightfully told in the foreword by Edgar Ander- cellulases, penicillinase and histidase. There is son, the well-known botanist and geneticist a t also a more general chapter entitled “Enzymes as Essential Components of Bacterial and Animal Washington University and the Missouri Botanical Garden. It is understood that this making of Toxins,” by E. A. Zeller. The high quality found in Volume I, Part 1, is “unum ex pluribus.” leading not only t o a n effective and reliable story but even t o new conclusions, maintained in this book, with the chapters being called for tact, taste, and careful consideration by written by men well qualified by experience in their the author, J. J. Finan, and the teachers of the vari- subjects. All sections are thoroughly referenced. The pages are numbered consecutively with Volume ous faculties who helped and guided him. The new conclusions referred to have resulted in I. Part 1, and the index includes both parts of Volthe certainty “that two general types of maize are ume I. The practice of introducing each chapter by givdiscussed in the herbals,” one similar t o the typical flints of eastern North America and believed by most ing the reader some insight into the occurrence, of the herbalists to have been brought into Europe historical development, and significance of each group of enzymes is commendable. Many tables from Asia, and another much like the present-day corn of the Caribbean area and very likely intro- are used t o summarize pertinent data cited, and many graphs are included to depict fiH effects, reduced into Europe by the early Hispanic explorers. The use of herbal illustrations as a means of re- action kinetics, and inhibitor effects. Of special search rather than for decorative purposes being one value is the inclusion by the authors of methods of of the most remarkable features of this essay, it is assay and measurement of activities along with some but appropriate that a brief but pertinent explan- criticism, usually of the methods. This book is a significant contribution t o the ation of “the woodcuts of the great herbals” (Appendix I) is added. The essay appeared fist in the literature on enzymes, and i t is hoped that future Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, 35, 149 volumes will meet the high standards set by Volume (1948). This hand-bound, limited. and very attrac- I.
Essential information not readily available elsewhere on manufacturing processes; process machinery; the equipment used for the transportation of fresh and frozen fishery products; methods of rapid freezing ; and important technological developments in feed for animals extracted from seaweed, moss, and alginates are presented. Since publication of the original edition 27 years ago, progress in the technology of marine products has been so rapid that the new edition was entirely rewritten and expanded. It presents considerations of the world’s agar industry; the first attempted statistical survey of the world’s fisheries and shellfisheries and their many products; and serves as a source of information on the technology of fish glue manufacture. It presents what appears t o be an excellent outline of useful information on oceanography, chemical technology, marine botany and biology, conchology, ichthyology, the marine fisheries, fishery technology, statistics, nutrition, fishery by-products, shell-fisheries, whaling, sealing, sponge fishing, and gemology. The book is documented with references to many specialized treatises on the several subjects covered. Its usefulness is enhanced by a n excellent index.
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