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• AN INTRODUCTION TO INDUSTRIAL MYCOLOGY The author’s carelessness in defining what system he is talking
George Smith, Lecturer in Biochemistry, London School ol
Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Fourth edition. Edward
Arnold Ltd., London, 1954. xiv -f- 378 pp. 161 figs. 15 X
22.5 cm. $6.
This is the fourth edition of Smith's deservedly popular
general manual on fungi of importance in industry which first
appeared more than a decade and a half ago.
As before, it is intended for those with little or no botanical
knowledge, much less mycological training. It first orients the
reader as to the place of the “moulds” in the plant kingdom, then
proceeds to give, in simple language, details of the structure and
reproduction of fungi essential to an understanding of them,
together with their classification. New chapters on nomen-
clature and microscopy have been added. The main body of the
book is concerned, as before, with an account of the groups of
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fungi of industrial importance. Several new genera have been
added as have some 20 new photographs.
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This new, expanded edition will prove of considerable value to
those for whom it is intended, i. e., the industrial man “faced
for the first time with an industrial problem of 'mould’ control,”
as Professor Harold Raistrick, who contributes a foreword,
states it.
F. K. SPARROW
University ok Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan
• INTRODUCTION TO THERMODYNAMICS OF IR-
REVERSIBLE PROCESSES
I. Prigogine, University of Brussels. Charles C. Thomas, Spring-
field, Illinois, 1955. ix + 115 pp. 14 X 22 cm. $4.75.
This book is the third on the same subject that has been re-
viewed for this Journal by this reviewer. The first was by
S. R. DeGroot (29, 51 (1952)); the second was by I. Prigogine
and R. Defay (32, 341 (1955)). Because those two books were
addressed to readers already expert in thermodynamics, the
reviews did not mention obscurities and inconsistent terminology.
This book is different; it is supposed to be an introduction to
the new ideas. In its preface the author states that the reader
need not be fully acquainted with classical thermodynamics.
Yet the author does not define fundamental terms like “heat”
and “system.” He is not clear in his treatment of spontaneous
changes' From the book one obtains the idea that its author
thinks that the expressions “spontaneous change” and “irreversi-
ble process” are identical in meaning.
The reaction of a mole of zinc with copper sulfate in water at
25° and one atmosphere is a spontaneous change. However,
in the limit, it may be carried out in a cell by one method to yield
maximum work. This method of carrying out the spontaneous
change is called the reversible process for that change. All
other methods of carrying out the same spontaneous change,
in which less than the maximum work is realized, are called ir-
reversible processes. The most irreversible process is the one
in which the least work is obtained.
So apparently unaware is the author of these distinctions that
even the title of his book is misleading. He is really discussing
spontaneous changes.
6DD
about also causes the reader unnecessary difficulty. This care-
lessness is most objectionable in the crux of his argument, the
discussion of entropy.
In this discussion the author makes a statement about entropy
so contrary to accepted usage that one would think he ought to
use some symbol other than S. On page 17, after dividing a
“global system” into parts I and II (part I being inside a larger
part II) he makes the postulate that the entropy change due to
changes inside this system can never be negative in either part.
(On the next page he says that eventually this central postulate
of the book will have to be justified from statistical mechanics!)
To realize how contrary to accepted usage the postulate is, one
need only think of part I of the system as being a cell in which a
spontaneous reaction is proceeding. The entropy change in
part I is given by the equation:
It is clear that AS may be either positive or negative, depending
on the sign of qr. (It is the sum of the entropy changes in the
two parts that is never negative.) Furthermore, if the entropy
of part lisa property of that part of the system, such a property
must be able to decrease as well as increase.
It is difficult to see how the results claimed by the proponents
of the “thermodynamics of irreversible processes” can be ob-
tained from equations resting on such shaky foundations. Pos-
sibly the answer is that the equations can be derived by other
methods.
Although this reviewer noticed few, one obvious misprint oc-
curs on page 6. The subscript on the second dn should be ()2,
not C2; the subscript on the third dn should be CO, not C02.
W, F. LUDER
Northeastern University
Boston, Massachusetts
• INTRODUCTION TO THEORETICAL ORGANIC
CHEMISTRY
P. H. Hermans, Director of the Institute for Cellulose Research,
Utrecht. Edited and revised by R. E. Reeves, Research Con-
sultant in Chemistry, Tulane University, and Chemist, U. S. De-
partment of Agriculture, Elsevier Publishing Co., Inc., Houston,
1954. xii -p 507 pp. 16 X 23.5 cm. $9.75.
This book is presented as an introduction to theoretical organic
chemistry to bridge the gap between general organic textbooks
and more advanced texts. It is apparently aimed at the college
senior or beginning graduate student. The author has not at-
tempted to present the subject in detail or to give a complete
literature survey, but rather to introduce the whole broad pano-
rama of physical organic chemistry. The uncommonly broad
coverage, in which, perhaps, lies the greatest merit of this rela-
tively small volume, is indicated by the following fields which
are treated: quantum mechanics and structure theory, spectros-
copy and other physical phenomena, equilibria and reaction
kinetics, mechanisms of organic reactions and carbonium ion,
carbanion, and free-radical intermediates. The product which
results, however, is in many places rather superficial and in
several places quite in error.