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Progress in medicinal chemistry. Vol. 2
296
BOOK
REVIEWS
II
I
(CHs)zNHR
b III J. Gut’s chapter, “Aza Analogs of Pyrimidine and Purine Bases of Nucleic Acids,” is a comprehensive review. It is competently written, but is slow going for the reader not specifically interested in the systems treated. W. L. F. Armarego’s “Quinazolines” is a balanced survey of the whole chemistry of this class. Especially welcome is its attention to hydration (covalent addition of water) of quinazolinium cations, knowledge of which is due to Armarego and his close associates. The last two chapters, by Professor Katritzky and J. M. Lagowski, concern “Prototropic Tautomerism of Heteroaromatic Compounds,” and are very valuable. The first of these, “I. General Discussion and Methods of Study,” lays the foundation for three further chapters which deal with specific systems. “II. Six Membered Rings” appears in the present volume, while III. and IV., concerning five membered rings, will appear in Vol. 2. The volume is a useful one. It augurs well for the series. JOSEPH F. BUNNETT, Providence, Progress
in
Medicinal
Rhode
Chemistry.
Island Vol.
2.
Edited by G. P. ELLIS, Benger Laboratories, Ltd., Holmes Chapel, Cheshire; and G. B. WEST, School of Pharmacy, University of London. Butterworths, London. 1962. x, 201 pp. Price $11.25. In the second volume of “Progress in Medicinal Chemistry,” the editors have selected a diversity of topics for critical evaluation by several authors. A most unusual topic for a treatise of this sort is “The Patenting of Drugs” by F. Murphy. However, the reviewer found this a most informative treatment of a rather nebulous and sometimes confusing subject. The section on inventorship is particularly revealing, since it seeks to distinguish what constitutes sole right of inventorship versus co-inventorship. In this era of “team” effort, such distinctions are quite pertinent. Beckett and Casy have attempted to review in
forty pages the testing and development of analgesic drugs. This is no mean task, but the authors have succeeded in focusing attention on the overwhelming problems involved in the testing and subsequent evaluation of compounds showing analgesic effects. Indeed, no area in medicinal chemistry is as difficult and beset with so many pitfalls. W. C. Bowman has written a scholarly and erudite chapter entitled “Mechanisms of Neuromuscular Blockage.” Much fundamental research still remains to be done in this area. J. D. P. Graham’s chapter on structure-activity relationships of 2-halogenoalkylamines seeks to point out that these compounds in their ethyleneiminium ion form can be associated with a receptor site and the subsequent biological effect can result by removal of the 2-halogenoalkylamine by hydrolysis and regeneration of receptors. In agreement with the author, it appears that considerably more clinical work in this direction should be forthcoming. Finally, the last chapter, “Anaphylactic Reactions,” by G. E. Davies, is treated too briefly. It is hoped that in a later edition t)his subject will be given the attention it deserves, especially with regard to future practical developments. In summary, Volume 2 of “Progress in Medicinal Chemistry” does not come up to the level of Volume 1 in this series, and unfortunately, it labors difficultly under the shadow of the highly successful and internationally oriented “Progress in Drug Research” by E. Jucker. GEORGE DESTEVENS, Summit, New Jersey Physiology of Man in Space. Edited by J. H. U. BROWN, Division of General Medical Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland. Academic Press, New York and London. 1963. xiv, 348 pp. Price $13.00. As its title implies the text of Physiology of Man in Space does relate to physiology and most of the problems which appear now to lie ahead of man as he becomes a participating component of the space vehicle. The book displays great strengths and the antitheses as well. Outstanding are the chapters on acceleration, appearing in its human experimental aspects, by Lindberg and Wood, and a most informative and comprehensive section by Chambers and Fried under the heading of Psychological Aspects of Space Flight. In comparing respective data from these, however, the novitiate will be obliged to determine common physiological or anatomical displacements to identify “headward” acceleration in one chapter in as being the same coordinate as “+gz” the other; in the latter, though, he will learn that +g. is a vector synonymous with those denoted
BOOK
REVIEWS
II
I
(CHs)zNHR
b III J. Gut’s chapter, “Aza Analogs of Pyrimidine and Purine Bases of Nucleic Acids,” is a comprehensive review. It is competently written, but is slow going for the reader not specifically interested in the systems treated. W. L. F. Armarego’s “Quinazolines” is a balanced survey of the whole chemistry of this class. Especially welcome is its attention to hydration (covalent addition of water) of quinazolinium cations, knowledge of which is due to Armarego and his close associates. The last two chapters, by Professor Katritzky and J. M. Lagowski, concern “Prototropic Tautomerism of Heteroaromatic Compounds,” and are very valuable. The first of these, “I. General Discussion and Methods of Study,” lays the foundation for three further chapters which deal with specific systems. “II. Six Membered Rings” appears in the present volume, while III. and IV., concerning five membered rings, will appear in Vol. 2. The volume is a useful one. It augurs well for the series. JOSEPH F. BUNNETT, Providence, Progress
in
Medicinal
Rhode
Chemistry.
Island Vol.
2.
Edited by G. P. ELLIS, Benger Laboratories, Ltd., Holmes Chapel, Cheshire; and G. B. WEST, School of Pharmacy, University of London. Butterworths, London. 1962. x, 201 pp. Price $11.25. In the second volume of “Progress in Medicinal Chemistry,” the editors have selected a diversity of topics for critical evaluation by several authors. A most unusual topic for a treatise of this sort is “The Patenting of Drugs” by F. Murphy. However, the reviewer found this a most informative treatment of a rather nebulous and sometimes confusing subject. The section on inventorship is particularly revealing, since it seeks to distinguish what constitutes sole right of inventorship versus co-inventorship. In this era of “team” effort, such distinctions are quite pertinent. Beckett and Casy have attempted to review in
forty pages the testing and development of analgesic drugs. This is no mean task, but the authors have succeeded in focusing attention on the overwhelming problems involved in the testing and subsequent evaluation of compounds showing analgesic effects. Indeed, no area in medicinal chemistry is as difficult and beset with so many pitfalls. W. C. Bowman has written a scholarly and erudite chapter entitled “Mechanisms of Neuromuscular Blockage.” Much fundamental research still remains to be done in this area. J. D. P. Graham’s chapter on structure-activity relationships of 2-halogenoalkylamines seeks to point out that these compounds in their ethyleneiminium ion form can be associated with a receptor site and the subsequent biological effect can result by removal of the 2-halogenoalkylamine by hydrolysis and regeneration of receptors. In agreement with the author, it appears that considerably more clinical work in this direction should be forthcoming. Finally, the last chapter, “Anaphylactic Reactions,” by G. E. Davies, is treated too briefly. It is hoped that in a later edition t)his subject will be given the attention it deserves, especially with regard to future practical developments. In summary, Volume 2 of “Progress in Medicinal Chemistry” does not come up to the level of Volume 1 in this series, and unfortunately, it labors difficultly under the shadow of the highly successful and internationally oriented “Progress in Drug Research” by E. Jucker. GEORGE DESTEVENS, Summit, New Jersey Physiology of Man in Space. Edited by J. H. U. BROWN, Division of General Medical Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland. Academic Press, New York and London. 1963. xiv, 348 pp. Price $13.00. As its title implies the text of Physiology of Man in Space does relate to physiology and most of the problems which appear now to lie ahead of man as he becomes a participating component of the space vehicle. The book displays great strengths and the antitheses as well. Outstanding are the chapters on acceleration, appearing in its human experimental aspects, by Lindberg and Wood, and a most informative and comprehensive section by Chambers and Fried under the heading of Psychological Aspects of Space Flight. In comparing respective data from these, however, the novitiate will be obliged to determine common physiological or anatomical displacements to identify “headward” acceleration in one chapter in as being the same coordinate as “+gz” the other; in the latter, though, he will learn that +g. is a vector synonymous with those denoted