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Oceanic observations in the Pacific 1949
BOOK
REVIEWS
Second International Seaweed Symposium. Edited by T. BRAARUD and N. A. SORENSEN, Pergamon Press, London and New York, 1956. 220 pages. 60s. $9.00. THE Second International Seaweed Symposium, held in Trondheim in July 1955, was organized by the Norwegian Institute of Seaweed Research and the forty papers there presented by scientists and industrialists from fifteen maritime countries reflect the world-wide interest in this new branch of applied science. An indication of.their scope may be obtained from the index which shows that ten papers dealt with the chemical composition of seaweeds and the structure of certain algal chemicals, fourteen were concerned with botanical studies and eleven covered investigations directed towards seaweed utilization. The remainder were concerned with microbiology and analytical methods. Two-thirds of the papers read are recorded in full, the others are in abstract form the main data being published elsewhere. With the discussions, which take about one-tenth of the space, the variety of subjects covered is too wide for individual mention. A few, however, for one reason or another, linger particularly in this reviewer's mind: the elegance of GEERT ANDERSEN'S work at the Institutt for Meereskunde, Kiel, on the birefringence properties of alginic acid; the clear exposition by J. HOlE of his painstaking study with O. SAt,rOVIK at the Agricultural College of Norway of the value of seaweed meals for chicks and laying hens, and the delightful descriptions of seaweeds of economic importance in Southern China by Miss BEK-To CHIU. It is encouraging to find that, of the ninety " active" members of the Symposium (all of whom are listed with their addresses) nearly one third were technologists or industrialists. One oP the latter, R. G. GARDNER,who reported the results of fundamental work on his seaweed drying equipment at the Royal College, of Science and Technology, Glasgow, was rewarded with the largest and liveliest discussion of any. Other papers which attracted extended discussion dealt with X-ray and infra-red studies on carragheenin, the carotene content of Norwegian seaweeds, the production of antibiotics by marine algae, the production of mannitol and laminarin from seaweed aqueous extracts and the growth rings of Alaria stipes. The diagrams and photographs are excellently reproduced and the format of the book leaves nothing to be desired. Professors BRAARUD and SORENSEN, besides taking a leading part in the organization of the Symposium, have proved themselves to be excellent editors of its proceedings. The Third International Seaweed Symposium is planned to be held in Galway, Ireland, on the 13th-I 9th August, 1958, and if the papers read there prove to be of the same high quality as those at the first two symposia, it will be an event of considerable importance to those interested in this new field of scientific endeavour. F. N. WOODWARD
Oceanic observations in the Pacific 1949. University of California Press 1957. 363 pp., 6 charts. EVERY physical oceanographer must be well aware that the literature dealing with oceanic observations leaves much to be desired. It is often a work of some magnitude even to disco'cer whether any observations have been made in an area. Ideally, one would like to be able to feed a geographical location into some machine and get back a complete set of the available data. In the absence of such a system this book (intended to be the first of a series) fills a useful, if small, place. The information is clearly presented and seems commendably free from typographical errors, and the charts, though on rather a small scale, are easy to read and make location of the desired data 291
292
Book review and Erratum
simple and rapid. The methods used in computing the figures, and the chemical techniques, are however indicated only by references to other papers. It might be supposed that one of the principal functions of this type of book would be to save the labour of referring to original papers, which may not be readily available. A page or two in the introduction summarising these techniques would have meant little extra work for the editors, and saved much for others. It is also unfortunate that no reference is made under the station details to the biological work carried out, or to any special measurements which were made. In the preface the editors express a hope that other workers in the Pacific will use future volumes for publication of their data. This would be a great advance, and I suggest that even if it is not possible for financial reasons to include full details of work in other countries it would still be very useful to include a station chart of such work, with indications to where the details may be found. R. A. Cox
ERRATUM Deep-Sea Research, 4 202-210 The beryllium-10 concentration in deep-sea sediments by P. S. GOEL, D. P. KHARKAR, D. LAL, N. NARSAPPAYA, B. PETERS and V. YATIRAJAM. Line 8 of the Abstract: for 2.55 x t01° read 2.55 × 106.
REVIEWS
Second International Seaweed Symposium. Edited by T. BRAARUD and N. A. SORENSEN, Pergamon Press, London and New York, 1956. 220 pages. 60s. $9.00. THE Second International Seaweed Symposium, held in Trondheim in July 1955, was organized by the Norwegian Institute of Seaweed Research and the forty papers there presented by scientists and industrialists from fifteen maritime countries reflect the world-wide interest in this new branch of applied science. An indication of.their scope may be obtained from the index which shows that ten papers dealt with the chemical composition of seaweeds and the structure of certain algal chemicals, fourteen were concerned with botanical studies and eleven covered investigations directed towards seaweed utilization. The remainder were concerned with microbiology and analytical methods. Two-thirds of the papers read are recorded in full, the others are in abstract form the main data being published elsewhere. With the discussions, which take about one-tenth of the space, the variety of subjects covered is too wide for individual mention. A few, however, for one reason or another, linger particularly in this reviewer's mind: the elegance of GEERT ANDERSEN'S work at the Institutt for Meereskunde, Kiel, on the birefringence properties of alginic acid; the clear exposition by J. HOlE of his painstaking study with O. SAt,rOVIK at the Agricultural College of Norway of the value of seaweed meals for chicks and laying hens, and the delightful descriptions of seaweeds of economic importance in Southern China by Miss BEK-To CHIU. It is encouraging to find that, of the ninety " active" members of the Symposium (all of whom are listed with their addresses) nearly one third were technologists or industrialists. One oP the latter, R. G. GARDNER,who reported the results of fundamental work on his seaweed drying equipment at the Royal College, of Science and Technology, Glasgow, was rewarded with the largest and liveliest discussion of any. Other papers which attracted extended discussion dealt with X-ray and infra-red studies on carragheenin, the carotene content of Norwegian seaweeds, the production of antibiotics by marine algae, the production of mannitol and laminarin from seaweed aqueous extracts and the growth rings of Alaria stipes. The diagrams and photographs are excellently reproduced and the format of the book leaves nothing to be desired. Professors BRAARUD and SORENSEN, besides taking a leading part in the organization of the Symposium, have proved themselves to be excellent editors of its proceedings. The Third International Seaweed Symposium is planned to be held in Galway, Ireland, on the 13th-I 9th August, 1958, and if the papers read there prove to be of the same high quality as those at the first two symposia, it will be an event of considerable importance to those interested in this new field of scientific endeavour. F. N. WOODWARD
Oceanic observations in the Pacific 1949. University of California Press 1957. 363 pp., 6 charts. EVERY physical oceanographer must be well aware that the literature dealing with oceanic observations leaves much to be desired. It is often a work of some magnitude even to disco'cer whether any observations have been made in an area. Ideally, one would like to be able to feed a geographical location into some machine and get back a complete set of the available data. In the absence of such a system this book (intended to be the first of a series) fills a useful, if small, place. The information is clearly presented and seems commendably free from typographical errors, and the charts, though on rather a small scale, are easy to read and make location of the desired data 291
292
Book review and Erratum
simple and rapid. The methods used in computing the figures, and the chemical techniques, are however indicated only by references to other papers. It might be supposed that one of the principal functions of this type of book would be to save the labour of referring to original papers, which may not be readily available. A page or two in the introduction summarising these techniques would have meant little extra work for the editors, and saved much for others. It is also unfortunate that no reference is made under the station details to the biological work carried out, or to any special measurements which were made. In the preface the editors express a hope that other workers in the Pacific will use future volumes for publication of their data. This would be a great advance, and I suggest that even if it is not possible for financial reasons to include full details of work in other countries it would still be very useful to include a station chart of such work, with indications to where the details may be found. R. A. Cox
ERRATUM Deep-Sea Research, 4 202-210 The beryllium-10 concentration in deep-sea sediments by P. S. GOEL, D. P. KHARKAR, D. LAL, N. NARSAPPAYA, B. PETERS and V. YATIRAJAM. Line 8 of the Abstract: for 2.55 x t01° read 2.55 × 106.