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Hans Jijrg Hediger, Quantitative Spektroskopie. Hiithig Verlag, Heidelberg, 1985 (ISBN 3-7785-0874-l). pp. 160. Price DM 48.

This book is a collection of altogether 126 alphabetically ordered key- words which, with the scope of the associated contents, hardly meet the title of the book. The majority of the listed terms characterize i.r. and u.v./ visible spectroscopy; for the wide field of atomic spectroscopic methods, for instance, only 12 key-words can be found. Further, many definitions and references are missing which, in such a comprehensively titled book, should be treated.

The reviewer was very surprised not to find a single key-word in the book dealing with Raman-, mass-, magnetic resonance-, or x-ray spectroscopy, and other methods of varied importance in the determination of concentrations axe not d&..~&. On tke otker hand, tke Tat&X exotic pkotoacW&& spec troscopy is treated in detail. Also, the apparently arbitrary inclusion of 12 determination procedures for different substances as key-words is of small significance, the less so because in the preface of the book the author expli- citly refuses any responsibility for their reliability.

Inconsistencies can be found in the assignment of key-words to the con- tents. In some cases, practically identical terms are allocated to different texts and listed separately. In other cases important terms, which are illustrated by the whole subject matter of the book, are missing. Important information is sometimes hidden under unlikely key-words; the optical function of prisms and gratings can only be found under “Dispersionsglied”.

In their detail and information content, the texts assigned to the key-words are to be viewed very differently. In some cases, inadmissible generalized statements, e.g. on sensitivity or on possible interferences, can be found which may lead to erroneous conclusions. Finally, the explanations of the book dealing with data gathering and processing, and with the estimation of analy- tical procedures and results, are only of limited use.

Altogether, the reviewer hesitates to name larger groups of possible users to whom he could recommend this, not even cheap book as profitable reading.

E. Jackwerth

Joanna Sadlej, Semi-empirical Methods of Quantum Chemistry. Horwood, Chichester, 1985. pp. xiv + 386. Price $42.50.

This is the English edition of a book first published in Polish in 1976. The author has revised and updated the Polish edition to include work published up to the end of 1978. Her subject is the use of semi-empirical methods in the application of SCF LCAO MO theory to chemical problems. A variety of such methods have been developed over the past twenty years, and have been made available for general use through the Quantum Chemistry Program