Book Reviews 425

Marine Natural Products, Plenary Lectures of the International Symposium, edited by R. H. THOMSON, Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1976, 44 pp. U.S. $8.00.

THIS booklet consists of the five plenary lectures presented at the International Symposium on Marine Natural Products held under the auspices of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry in Aberdeen, Scotland during September 1975. These papers have also appeared in Pure and Applied Chemistry, Volume 48, pp. 1-44 (1976).

Tursch reviewed the sesquiterpenes, diterpenes, and sterols of the alcyonaceans or soft corals. Minale reviewed the bromo-compounds, terpenes, sterols, and miscellaneous compounds found in marine sponges. Faulkner described various biomimetic syntheses of halogenated marine natural products based on bromonium ion initiated cyclizations. Kato and Scheuer presented data on the behavior of the aplysiatoxins, isolated from sea hares (mollusks of the family Aplisiidae), toward acid and oxidants. Baker reviewed the development of marine natural product chemistry in Australia and summarized the structural elucidations of metabolites from Australian marine organisms.

These papers and the references cited therein represent a convenient overview to the general scientific com- munity ofthe field of marine natural product chemistry. This booklet should be especially useful to environmental and geo-chemists in the examination of marine biogenic residues.

Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90024, U.S.A.

BERND R. T. SIMONEIT

Methods of seawater analysis, edited by K. GRASSHOFF, Verlag Chemie, 1976, pp. 317. $43.60.

EUROPEAN marine chemists have always laid more stress on the analytical method than their North American counterparts. The need for a common and acceptable data base in the seas surrounding them has virtually dictated it. This book by a group of leading German, Swedish, and Finnish marine chemists is thus born of a respectable tradition. The stated intention is to provide not only precise recipes but also to give a general account of the occurrence of the analytical species in the marine environment.

There are 13 chapters, including contributions by Grasshoff on sampling, filtration, and storage and the determination of salinity, oxygen, thiosulfate, pH, and (with Ehrhardt) automated chemical analysis. Other contributions discuss the determination of hydrogen sulfide (Fonselius), alkalinity and total carbonate (Almgren and Fonselius), the nutrients PO4, NH3, NO2, NO3, NH2CONH2, SiO2, As, and organic N (Koroleff and Grasshofl), and trace metals and major constituents (Kremling). Organic carbon and nitrogen, polyphenols, aromatic and chlorinated hydrocarbons, and carbohydrates are discussed by Ehrhardt, Josefsson, Koroleff, and Dawson. How well does this mix succeed? This reviewer is uncertain because the treatment is distinctly uneven. The discussion of sampling is obligatory in books of this kind but it, and the trivial statistical notes, is not particularly useful. Hints on filtration are given, but there are no estimates of the chemical composition of marine particulate matter nor of the various filter papers. The development of the concept of salinity is stated succinctly, and chlorinity and gravimetric salinity determinations are described in detail. Inductive salinometers are shown, but neither conductivity sensors nor in situ devices such as the Brown conductivity-temperature- depth (C-T-D) system is. The use and correction of reversing thermometers is not mentioned, nor is the calculation of density. The determinations of 02 and H2S are covered adequately. Thiosulfate occurs near the O2-H2S transition zone in anoxic basins; the method given here would be applicable under those circumstances, but no detection limit is given and the determination of ultra-trace amounts probably present in normal seawater is not mentioned, pH and the CO2 system are covered in detail, but in spite of the promise in the preface, no information on the natural range of values nor illustrative oceanic profiles are given. The nutrient discussion is good, practical and clear; its bulk (pp. 117-181) provides a major central section to the text. The discussions of trace metals and organic constituents cover an area of rapidly changing methods and techniques not so susceptible to the "cookbook" approach. Trace metal determinations are restricted to the anodic stripping determination of zinc and cadmium ; major ion determinations are well covered. The organic determinations and the discussion of automated analyses are very well done.

The book is not designed to replace Strickland and Parsons as a source of recipes for technicians and non- chemists, yet it is not an advanced text for professionals; it seems to sit uneasily between the two. The presentation is marred by many errors; Tom Almgren appears as Almgreen on the title page and other places; numerous references are incorrect. Nonetheless, the respected scientists writing here have much to say and the book will find a home on many laboratory shelves.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, PETER BREWER Woods Hole, MA 02543, U.S.A.