J. F. I. most elementary sense, and not specifically the problems of man alone. The task of the biochemist should be centered on the study of animals in general and not one in particular. If the above approach is not followed, biochemistry becomes a mere catchall for scattered data with no means of correlating facts with life functions. Comparative biochemistry provides the means of attaining this end.
Dr. Baldwin has written this little book for students about to begin biochemistry and for persons with some scientific background who are interested in the subject.
Naturally such an extensive field must be approached from the very widest viewpoint, and in this brief volume only some specific topics can be covered while others are given cursory treatment or omitted entirely. However, the excellent bibliography fnrnishes the reader with a source of more detailed information. The standard topics of biochemical importance are covered; that is, the vitamins, enzymes, animal pigments, amino acids, purines, guanidines, and ureides. A very interesting approach to the theory of evolution from the standpoint of chemistry is presented. The author shows how osmotic pressure variations in animals depend on the media in which they exist and how their regulating mechanisms must be modified with changes in media, thus furnishing a means of tracing evolution by comparison of osmoregulatory mechanisms with animal levels.
The author accomplishes his purpose, which is to apprise the reader of some of the physical and chemical relationships between the internal and external environments of animals. The book gives the scientist and the nonscientist a little insight into some of the advances and problems of biochemistry and acquaints him with the vast possibilities of this rapidly growing field.
DONALD H. RUSSEH.. DESIGN OF STEEL BUILDIN6S, by Harold D. Hauf and Henry A. Pfisterer. Third edition, 280 pages, 14 ~( 22 cm., illustrations. New York, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.