of approach rarely found among present-day popularisers of astronomy. What he has to say is often thought-provoking, giving the reader new insight.

It is unfortunate that the price is perhaps rather high for the popular market, especially since the illustrations are all in monochrome. Nevertheless, this is a book which I can recommend. It would make an ideal gilt for the budding amateur astronomer and be useful reading for the interested layman who wants a change from the many run-of-the-mill books currently on the market.

F. R. Stephenson

The Rrlm of the Twrodrlal Planota by Zdenek Kopsl. Pp. xii + 224. The Institute of Physics. Jan. 1979. f7.50.

This excellent work of the great astronomical communicator, Professor 2. Kopal, deserves a better title. It deals with the Moon (60 pages), Mercury (11) Pluto (2 paragraphs) Mars (40 pages) the Asteroids (22) Venus (22) and the Earth (24) concluding with a good index. The collaboration of man and machine in the scientific exploration of the planets and the resulting new knowledge is a constant theme, illustrated in colour plates and over 50 monochrome illustrations. This work is even more interesting to read for the vast realms of no-knowledge still existing on the terrestrial planets.

I should have welcomed a few paragraphs at least about the electronic miracles of amplifying the pictures which had travelled through hundreds of millions of kilometers to JPL’s Goldstone receiver and a few more diagrams might have helped. The book is admirably up-to-dateVenus Pioneers- and is not encumbered with lengthy footnotes or references. The author’s philosophy, completely shared by the reviewer, shines occasionally through the scientific text: The 1976 Viking findings of absence of life on Mars should give us ‘an increased degree of cosmic importance and enhance our sense of responsibility to our terrestrial environment. . . We should therefore respect each other’s right for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness more than we have been doing of late.’ Altogether this book is highly recommended.

A. R. Michaelis

Antibioticx Edited by M. J. Weinstein and G. H. Wagman. Pp. 7 7 1. Elsevier, Amsterdam. f 978. $84.75 (Dfl. 195.00).

The editors of this book are members of the Schering-Plough Corporation. They have produced a volume which contains seventeen chapters shared among twenty-six authors involved in relevant research and a subject index which lists several hundred substances. The antibiotics are arranged in chemical families which are reviewed in alphabetical order, giving the book a curious discontinuity. Cephalosporins are separated from penicillins and new g-lactam antibiotics by the entirely different deoxystreptamine-containing aminoglycosids, griseofulvins, lincomycins, and macrolides, while a second group of aminoglycoside antibiotics, containing

streptamine, is preceded by peptides with dehydroamino acid residues, polyether antibiotics and siderochromes, and followed only by the tetracyclines.

Except for the bacitracin peptides, most medically or biologically interesting antibiotic families are included and there are chapters on heterogeneous marine-derived and plant- derived substances, some of which have only marginal antimicrobial activity. Although the emphasis is on methods of isolation, assay, and analysis of naturally occurring antibiotics, many chapters give brief accounts of the chemistry and biological properties of these substances and several describe the fruitful results of chemical modifications of the molecules concerned. The book is a rude mecum which brings together a great deal of information in a still expanding field.

E. P. Abraham

Introductory Dynamic Oceanography by Stephen Pond and George L. Pickard. Pp. xvi+24 1. Pergamon Press, Oxford. 1978. Hard cover f 15.00, Flexi cover f5.00.

This book succeeds in its aim of presenting a sound treatment of the essential aspects of dynamic oceanography starting from first principles. Only a limited mathematical background is assumed and all physical ideas are explained fully as they arise. The text is

-based on the authors’ experience at the University of British Columbia in teaching mixed groups of students and this is reflected in the clear verbal explanations which accompany many of the mathematical steps. The book starts with several short chapters describing the properties of sea water, basic physical laws, and the equations of continuity and motion. A chapter on currents without friction then deals with the theory of geostrophic flow and its practical application to the calculation of currents from temperature and salinity data. Another substantial chapter gives a good treatment of the wind-driven circulation, from the Ekman spiral to developments following Stommel’s demonstration of westward intensification and an outline of the boundary layer approach to circulation problems. A welcome feature is the inclusion of a chapter on numerical models. After reading this book the newcomer should have a sound basic understanding of dynamic oceanography and also be in a position to appreciate work being done at the frontiers of the subject.

K. F. Bowden

Ancient Sedimentary Environmentx by R. C. Selley. Pp. xii+287. Chapman 8 Hail, Andover. 19 78. Paper f4.95.

This book is a concise introduction to sedimentary environments, emphasising ancient examples, and dealing with each environment in turn. When it first appeared in 1970 it was a very welcome addition to the literature of sedimentology. It so happens that the second edition has been published almost simultaneously with two much longer sedimentological treatises, one of which

exclusively, and the other substantially, adopts the environmental approach to the study of sediments. By comparison this single-author volume clearly lacks the breadth of experience and the depth of treatment of the larger books. Nevertheless, it retains the conciseness and therefore the relative ihexpensiveness of the first edition.

Reference lists have been brought up to date, although this is not always fully reflected in the text, and a very useful innovation is consideration, wherever possible, of sub- surface methods of facies interpretation. This second edition should therefore continue to appeal to a wide audience at undergraduate and early professional level. It draws its many examples mainly from Europe, N. America and N. Africa, and is well illustrated with numerous line and some half-tone figures. In short, it remains a good brief handbook of the subject area defined by its tide.

B. M. Funnel1

Storage in Excavated Rock Caverns: Rockstore 77: Proceedings of the First International Symposium, Stockholm. Vol. 1.2, and 3. Edited by M. Bergman. Pp. 832. Pergamon Press, Oxford. 1978.

f125.0~.

The first international symposium on the use of underground space took place in Sweden in September 1977. These three volumes record the proceedings of that symposium.

Man has made use of underground space since prehistoric times, but in recent years there has been a great upsurge in interest. It started perhaps with the Suez crisis, which led the Governments of the industrialised nations of the West to hold strategic reserves of petroleum fuels. Impetus has come also from the continuing preoccupation with defence and national security, and from concern for the environment.

The symposium was organised under the auspices of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the international Association of Engineering Geology, the International Society for Rock Mechanics, and the International Tunnelling Association. The papers are by acknowledged experts in their field and cover, perhaps not very systematically or evenly, the subject from planning and design through to construction and operation.

Volume 1 covers Sessions 1 and 2. The papers from Session 1 on the demand for subsurface storage put the subject in its historical context and then turn to more recent feasibility studies on the use of underground space. The papers from Session 2, on experience in the use of underground storage, provide real examples of how successfully the technique has been applied.

Volume 2 covers Sessions 3 and 4, and the papers become more technical. The third sessions deals with the geo-planning and design of storage caverns in rock and the fourth with the problems of interaction between the rock and the stored material. Volume 3 covers Sessions 5 and 6 and a special session. The papers from Session 5 deal with the techniques of construction in rock, and those from Session 6 are a collection of case histories. The special

session deals with the use of underground storage of nucly waste.

In ah, over 100 papers were presented and the three volumes present a wealth of world- wide experience. These books are obviously not for the general readers. They will be of interest mainly to the specialists in the design and construction of underground caverns. But they will also be of interest to anyone concerned with the bulk storage of materials, with planning of industrial activity or with waste disposal, especially where security and conservation of the environment are important.

G. Lambert

United Nations Water Conference. Summary and Main Documents Edited byAsit K. B&was. Pp. 2 17. Pergamon Press, Oxford. 19 78. f 14.00 ($28.00/.

The United Nations Water Conference, held in Mar de1 Plats, Argentina, in March 1977, was one of a series of more special&d conferences which followed the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment in 1972. The full proceedings have been published in four volumes at the forbidding price of f200, so.it is as well that this single volume summary is also available.

The main sections of the book comprise two of the basic Conference papers on ‘Resources and Needs: An Assessment of the World Water Situation’ and on ‘Policy Options’, a general summary of the 215 papers on specific themes submitted by the participating countries, and a full statement of the recommendations made by the Conference under the title ‘Mar del Plata Action Plan’.

The recommendations cover drinking water, sanitation, irrigation, shared water resources and many other subjects. Although they are necessarily expressed in genera) terms, each main statement is supported by detailed recommendations indicating how it should be implemented.

An enormous amount of information about water resources and needs has been made available by the Conference, and no government should now be in doubt as’ to the nature and urgency of the practical efforts required in the coming years.

F. E. Bruce

Soil Sampling and Soil Deocription by J. M. Hodgson. Pp. vii+24 1. Clarendon Press: Oxford University Press. 19 78. f 10.00.

This, the fourth in an extending series of volumes on Soil Survey, is a well documented practical text. The author is a senior English Soil Surveyor: an ‘old hand’ to whom many novices will be grateful for the fruits of his expertise in written form. The first six brief chapters cover well-tried techniques for selecting and describing sites, excavating holes, describing and recording soil features, and collecting samples for detailed study and reference. Enthusiasm for digging one’s own pits pervades, strikingly illustrated by Stephen Sheppard; yet the advantages of mechanical aids are not eschewed. The chapter on data recording is perhaps the most stimulating, with

examples of the author’s own involvement in computer processing.

The seventh, last and longest chapter is a compendium, in alphabetical order, of systems of soil and site description currently employed by 11 European countries, including the UK; 13 others including the USA and USSR; and FAO. Busy practitioners and students will welcome this summary information. Academics will look in vain for some critique. Clearly American ideas dominate in many developing countries. Whether a FAO scheme will ultimately become globally pre-eminent remains to be seen.

Surely the book deserved better quality, full- page illustrations of the small items of equipment, coded soil description card and ‘mark sense’ form.

J. Tinsley

Crop Conrrvation and Storage in Cool Tamporate Climatw by Michael Nash. Pp. 393. Pergamon Press, Oxford. 19 78. Hard cover f25.00 Flexicover f8.00.

Crop conservation and storage is of such

read that ‘. . . there has been no comprehensive agricultural text covering all crops, drawing together and concentrating the essential features of conservation and storage in one volume.’ In undertaking to remedy this deficiency, Dr Nash set himself a difficult task, namely, ‘. . . to suit the needs of various groups of reader--student, lecturer, farmer, adviser, research worker-’ I think he has succeeded in an interesting and scholarly way.

I hope that this book will help to focus attention on such important, but academically neglected, subjects as the pest and mould problems of stored grain and to improve advice. On the research side, it will, no doubt, help to define work that will be needed to avoid wastage of the gains Dr Nash expects to result from advances in crop production.

The subject matter of this book is too wide for one person fully to assess its merits, but where I am reasonably familiar with the details, I think it is accurate and up to date.

F. H. Jacob

Engineering in the Ancient World by J. G. Landels. Pp. 550. Chatfo 8 Windus, London. 1978. f5.50.

This is a worthy addition to a valuable series of books published under the distinguished editorship of M. I. Finley, Professor of Ancient History at Cambridge. The author is himself a classicist by profession who has not only had some practical engineering experience (wartime service with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers) but has been an active collaborator with his colleagues in the Engineering Department of Reading University. He is, therefore, rather particularly well qualified to discuss the engineering achievements of the ancient world. But he is not merely well qualitied: he has a lucid style of writing, and a capacity for apt comparison with practical problems of modem life, which combine to make an eminently readable book. This is a work which can be read and enjoyed

far beyond the relatively smah circle of historians of technology.

With a few notable exceptions-Hero, Vitruvius, Pliny, and Frontinus--ancient writers did not devote much attention to technological subjects as such. Clues to the details of ancient mechanisms are often to be found in passing references in essentially literary works-poems or plays-which are foreign territory to most historians of technology. Even when such brief passages are pinpointed their evaluation is far from easy. Is the text corrupt? Is the writer describing something he has actually seen and understood, or is he relying on hearsay, incorrectly &corded? These are very difficult questions that can be answered only on the basis of practical engineering knowledge, using a quantitative and not merely qualitative approach. But Dr Landels relies on more than the combined technical knowledge of himself and his colleagues. They have actually buih- using, so far as possible the originally available materials-many of the machines commonly used in the ancient world.

Altogether a remarkable book, displaying a rare combination of scholarship, practical knowledge, and common sense.

Trevor I. Williams

Wind Forces in Engineering, 2nd edition by Peter Sachs. Pp. x+400. Pergamon Press, Oxford. 1978. f20.00.

During the past decade there has been a dramatic increase in the detailed information available on the effects of wind on buildings and other structures, and their interactive effects on man’s environment. It is much to the credit of Peter Sachs that very little of his original selection of fundamental data and analytical methods has been superceded. However additional sections on tropical storms, forces on structural cladding, and on environmental effects have been added to this edition.

Fundamental wind data is presented, force and pressure coefficient distributions for various basic shapes of bodies in uniform flow, and wind tunnel test techniques are described. The chapter on dynamic effects has been considerably revised, but is marred by the introduction of weight in place of mass, which leads to some minor inconsistencies in the use of ‘density’. Detailed consideration is given to various structures under the headings of bridges, buildings, masts and towers, and then special structures such as cables, cooling towers, and aerials. Finally four major Codes of Practice are compared and 183 references are listed.

This is still the best book yet published on the whole subject, but it is hoped that a metric edition will eventually appear.

D. M. Sykes

A History of Technology, Vol.. 0 and 7. The 2Oth century c. 1900 to c-l§W Edited by Trevor I. Williams. Pp. 1530. Clarendon Press: Oxford University Press. 1978. Vol. 6f25.00, Vol. 7f27.00.

In 1958 five volumes of A History of

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