such that it is appropriate both to graduates who wish to become familiar with quantita- tive structure-activity analysis (QSAR) and also to QSAR practitioners. Chapter 1 gives a concise and readily understandable review of the basic elements which make up the molecular connectivity method, including the treatment of heteroatom-containing molecules. Pertinent statistical background for the application of molecular connectivity in QSAR is included and the information resident in molecular connectivity indexes is well-treated in Chapters 3 (Topological Information) and 4 (Electronic Informa- tion). Chapter 6 looks at strategies for the use of connectivity indexes in QSAR models while QSAR problems of biological interest are dealt with in a separate chapter. The inclusion of examples throughout and a listing of published studies using molecular connectivity are particularly useful.

The book is a delight to read and its purchase should be considered essential for anyone interested in the use of molecular connectivity in QSAR investigations.

I. W. Nowell

Major Topics in Primate and Human Evolution. Edited by Bernard Wood, Lawrence Martin and Peter Andrews. Pp. 364. Cambridge University Press. 1986. f 19.50 ($39.50).

The idea of critics of science - analogous with those in literary, theatrical, and other domains - is one that gets an airing every year or two. Unlike journal referees and peer-review committees, critics are seen as individuals fully cognisant of particular research fields but without any vested interest therein. If ever there were a cast-iron piece of evidence favouring that proposal, it is this book. Although covering some of the most hotly contentious of scientific specialities, the 18 chapters have an unusually unemotional quality. The reason, no doubt, stems from the tactics adopted by the editors and the two bodies (the Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the Primate Society of Great Britain). They persuaded several researchers to review fossil evi- dence, and data covering time periods, that were not necessarily their major interest. And in some cases, they arranged for the data supporting particular branching points to be assessed by leading protagonists for alternative explanations. Contrary to ex-

pectations, perhaps, the outcome has been to sweep evangelising fervour away in favour of relatively even-handed rationality. Although it comes as a surprise to find David Pilbeam, for example, telling us that he writes on the fossil evidence for Homo sapiens ‘very much as an outsider’, the formula undoubtedly works. A work for the specialist rather than layman or even student, this is a book whose novel approach could itself mark a turning point in the scientific literature.

Bernard Dixon

Metal Ions in Biological Systems, Vol. 20. Concepts on Metal Ion Toxicity. Edited by Helmut Sigel. Pp. 416. Dekker, New York, 1986. $85.00 (USA and Canada), $102 elsewhere.

The fact that this is the 20th volume of a generally excellent series testifies to the growth of interest in the field of ‘bio- inorganic chemistry’. It is the intention of this volume to increase understanding of the relation between the chemistry of metal ions and their toxicological properties. This is a high ambition, since the readers of such a book must still fall into two largely distinct groups - the chemists and the biologists - although this series has succeeded in blurring the boundaries.

A key chapter is the survey of metal chemistry contributed by R. Bruce Martin in which an excellent introduction (sections l-3) is followed by a necessarily abbreviated survey of metal ions (section 4) in which five times as much space is devoted to mercury as, for example, to cadmium or lead. However a complementary and more de- tailed survey of metal toxicity in humans and animals is found in a later chapter. Other chapters cover, inter alia, metal-ion speciation, toxicity in agricultural crops, genetic damage, and carcinogenesis. Many of these topics are dealt with individually in greater depth in separate volumes of the series, which has already established itself as an essential component of the literature of bio-inorganic chemistry. The presentation of this volume achieves the same high standard as its predecessors and is a model for all books produced from camera-ready type- script.

C. H. McBrien

Physics in Medicine and Biology Encyclopedia. Vol.1, A-M; Vol.2, N-Z, plus Indexes. Edited by T. F. McAinsh. Pp. 980. Pergamon Press, Oxford. 1986. $245.00.

These two volumes together provide nearly 1000 pages of short articles on a wide range of topics in physics relevant to medicine, plus some chemistry and biology. As Professor Lenihan remarks in his Introduc- tion, the diagnostic and therapeutic uses of ionizing radiations still provide a significant part of the physicist’s contribution to medicine, but these uses no longer dominate and physicists are now making contributions to a wide range of clinical activities. These volumes illustrate this range very clearly. The first volume contains a classified list of articles. Some topics are sensibly included in more than one list. Each article contains a bibliography, but these bibliographies are variable in extent and quality. For some topics there are no references later than about 1976, a few others are supported mainly by references to the work of the author, while other bibliographies are well- chosen and extend at least up to 1984. Some topics of recent interest, such as impedance measurement, magetic field imaging, and

bone densitometry, are missing. The sec- tions on biophysics and biomechanics are rather incomplete and that on computed tomography is very weak.

I suspect that readers will enjoy most the unfamiliar topics and be most critical of those relating to their own work. I am sure that each reader will find something useful.

D. F. Jackson

Edison’s Electric Light. Biography of an Invention. By Robert Friedel and Paul Israel, with Bernard S. Finn. Pp. 263. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ. 1986. $35.00.

Robert Friedel and Paul Israel have pro- duced a fascinating account of Edisons’s invention of the Electric Light. Edison was one of the most prolific inventors in American history and his ‘invention factory’ at Menlo Park, New Jersey, was unique. The authors of this work are fascinated by the act and process of invention and chose to scrutinise Edison’s invention of the electric lamp because to them it was the ‘epitome of invention in the cultural mythol- ogy of the twentieth century.’ Using only contemporary documents from the Edison Archives at West Orange, New Jersey, the authors have charted the sometimes erratic progress of invention almost day by day from August 1878, when work first began on the incandescent light, to installation of Edison’s complete lighting system at Pearl Street, New York City, in September 1882. There was a. tradition of wide-ranging, loosely directed experimentation at Menlo Park which is recorded in the search for each essential component in the system from an improved lamp filament to an efficient generator, safety fuses, and even electricity meters.

It is clear that Edison succeeded over his rivals (a useful table of other inventors of incandescent lamps is included) because from the beginning Edison saw that he had to produce a complete system - not just a light bulb - and that the system had to be commercially viable. Furthermore, he was able to attract the necessary financial backing and public interest by adroit use of the press.

The present volume is superbly illustrated with contemporary drawings and photo- graphs with a full bibliographic note on the extensive sources used.

E. D. P. Symons

Pacific Research Centres: a Directory of Organizations in Science, Technology, Agriculture and Medicine. Pp. 574. Longman, London, 1986. f 120.00.

The growing international importance of the Pacific area, and particularly the remarkable developments in China during the last few years, have created a hitherto unfulfilled demand for information about the organiza- tion of scientific research within this vast and populous region. This deficiency has

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