REVIEWS EDICIRN First published in 1958, and now appearing in an excellent English translation, this is a review of the radioactive tracer techniques available for the study of fundamental biochemical mechanisms. Although the author claims only to describe and illustrate the methods involved, his survey of results is extensive, involving references to about 3,000 authors and nearly 4,000 papers. The concentration on radioactive tracers might seem artificial when the uses of stable isotopes

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... ap so much in scope, but the results with stable labelling are commonly referred to, and the intention to describe techniques and their application makes this limitation to radioactive methods both reasonable and desirable in a subject of this extent. Dr. Broda makes the introductory statement that he is dealing primarily with biochemistry and molecular events, rather than physiology and visible functioning of organs; and that " in this book some consideration of physiology is inevitable, but specifically medical questions will be avoided as far as possible." This is fair enough for sucb an extensive survey of fundamental biochemical studies as he has produced, though it may be felt that the metabolism of, for example, thymidine or thyroxine merited more than the passing mention that they receive here. The fullest detail is given on the major problems of intermediary metabolism and on methods of radiochemical synthesis and determination, with brief sections on chromatographic, column, and electrophoretic separation methods, on radiation prdtection problems, and on the metabolism of elements. Recent manuals of radioisotope applications show a welcome tendency to deal exhaustively with special fields of application of these materials, and Dr. Broda's work is of the greatest value in this way.