Book Revmvs 190

M Stoeppler (Ed >, Hazardous Metab zn the En- uzronrnent (Technzques and Znstrzunentatwn zn An- alytzcal Chemzstry, Vol 12), Elsevler, Amsterdam, 1992 (ISBN O-444-89078-5) x + 541 pp Price US $225 50/Dfl 395 00

There IS no better way of summarlsmg the contents of this book than to quote from Its first paragraph “This book deals m its first part with the crucial steps of trace analytical procedures ranging from sample collection, sample pretreat- ment and instrumental techmques The sec- ond part describes the apphcatlon of analytical methods for ten selected metals and metalloids

” [Cd, Pb, Hg, As, Tl, Cr, Nl, Co, Al and Se] The chapters are wntten by mtematlonally re- spected experts (mcludmg several by the editor), and provide a tremendous concentration of mfor- matlon, much of it from each author’s personal experience

The first part, dealmg with the pre-measure- ment steps of analyses, 1s a timely reminder of the extreme nnportance of samplmg, sample stor- age and pre-treatment, contammatlon and ana- lyte loss m trace analysis The horror stories of analyses where these aspects were not recogmsed are legion, but the fact that such errors are still commonplace emphaslses the need for continued tultlon m this area

The chapters on the various elements are very detailed, and deal wth all aspects of the analytl- cal process, except that mdlvldual procedures are understandably not grven Speclatlon receives due prommence, and aspects such as environmental mob&y are discussed

There are two interesting chapters on envlron- mental specunen bankmg, one on the general subject, and one on the value of wine as a speci- men bank!

This 1s altogether a very worthwhile book, that can be thoroughly recommended to all sclentlsts involved m envn-onmental analysis

Alan Townshend

Alan Marshall and Francis R Verdun, Fourzer Transforms zn NMR, Optzcal and Mass Spectrome-

try, Elsevler, Amsterdam, 1990 (ISBN O-W- 87360-O) x1 + 433 pp Pnce US$107 25/Dfl 220 00 Hardback Student Pack (5 Paperbacks) US$183 OO/Dfl 375 00 (not available m Canada)

The preface to this book clauns that It 1s offered as a teachmg and reference text for Fourier transform WI’) methods and 1s aimed at practrsmg spectroscopists The mathematics 1s said to be self-contained and great use 1s made of pictorial material

As a teaching aid to both undergraduates and postgraduates as well as to practlsmg spectro- scopists it manifestly succeeds m Its arms The mathematics IS self-contained and understandable unlike many texts which make the same claun This feature of the book is helped greatly by comprehensive Appendices which deal with the basic mathematical functions reqmred and plcto- real representations of FT pairs and properties The first Chapter introduces the concept of fun- damental line shapes from the simple classical mass on a spring model The mterrelatlonshrp between various concepts such as absorption, dls- perslon and scattermg and their origins are exam- med Transient signals and the effects of damping are also considered This chapter forms a good background for other parts of the book and espe- cially Chapters 2 and 3 which deal with FTs of analog waveforms and dlgltal (or discrete) wave- forms, respectively It 1s m Chapter 2 that the basic nuts and bolts of FT spectrometry are con- sidered with the mtroductlon of concepts such as FT pairs, convolution, apodlsatlon, phase correc- tion, cross-correlation and auto-correlation Equally unportantly Chapter 3 deals with the Nyqulst sampling criterion, digital spectral resolu- tion and dynamic range for digital waveforms

Chapters 5 and 6 are dedicated to noise and non-FT methods for tune domain to frequency domain transformations The “noise” chapter highlights the effects of detector hmlted, source lumted and fluctuation noise on Fourier and Hadamard transformations showmg that it 1s pos- sible to gam a ngnal-to-noise enhancement using these multiplex techmques, or m the case of source limited noise even a signal-to-noise degra- dation The followmg Chapter considers alterna-