Abstract
THIS little book presents the material of lectures delivered by the author during 1945–46, and deals only with those aspects if its subject which have most interested him. This limitation is made clear in the preface, and the would-be reader should not be misled by the wide title of the book into expecting even an outline of the whole field. The book a very personal approach to the subject, and presents an individual outlook which will probably not commend itself to the majority of qualified readers ; thus, it will surprise many to find, in a chapter entitled "Mechanism of Substitution Reactions ; Racemization and Walden Inversion", only one reference, and that purely experimental, to the work of Ingold and his school. Some of the theoretical interpretations are also highly individual and will be regarded by many as very questionable ; for example, the surprising statement (p. 119) that, in the rearrangement of phenyl allyl ether, "a van der Waals' link is established between the unsaturated γ-carbon atom and the ortho position". Although, as the author hopes in his preface, the book may provide "food for thought" for the critical reader, it is certainly not suitable for students, and from this point of view its high price is to be welcomed.
Isomerism and Isomerization of Organic Compounds
By Ernst David Bergmann. (Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn: Lectures on Progress in Chemistry.) Pp. xi+138. (New York and London: Interscience Publishers, Inc., 1948.) 21s.
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RYDON, H. Isomerism and Isomerization of Organic Compounds. Nature 163, 270 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/163270c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/163270c0