Book reviews
troscopy. Nonetheless, they will probably need further
reading and additional explanations to make the more
advanced topics fully accessible.
Cees Gooijer
Trace Elemental Analysis of Metals: Methods
and Techniques
R. Thomas, A. Dulski, Marcel Dekker, New York,
Basel, 1999, pp. v+581, ISBN 0-8247-1985-9
The elemental analysis of metals is one of the most
important branches of inorganic analytical chem-
istry owing to the enormous economical challenges
involved. Indeed, there has been a lot of interest re-
cently in direct automated analytical methods in metal
industry with a number of developments focused on
laser ablation, glow discharge and spark source AES
and MS, in parallel with further progress in X-ray flu-
orescence spectrometry. A treatise on this topic aimed
at guiding the laboratory managers and technicians in
the choice of their analytical approaches in therefore
welcome.
The book is organised in 10 chapters, seven of them
deal with the different aspects of sampling, sample
dissolution, separation and pre-concentration tech-
niques, and the different determination techniques:
UVvisible spectrophotometry, atomic absorption,
atomic emission and mass spectrometry. Chapter 8
discusses in brief miscellaneous measurement tech-
niques such as thermal evolution methods, X-ray
fluorescence, radioactivation, and electrochemical
methods. The last two chapters deal with the analysis
of inclusions and phase isolation, and with quality
assurance aspects, respectively. Each of the chapters
includes the discussion of the basic principles of the
relevant chemical or instrumental techniques, instru-
mentation, calibration and measurement principles,
and applications. The book contains a wealth of in-
formation presented in a fluent easy-to-read narration.
The focus of the book is classical wet chemical tech-
niques. The longest chapters are on UVvisible spec-
trophotometry and atomic absorption spectrometry,
techniques of which their importance for trace analysis
of metals has been rapidly declining. It is surprising
that the techniques of direct metals analysis have been
given only casual remarks with not more than 20 pages
117
throughout the volume. The applications to problems
related directly to the elemental analysis of metals ex-
pected to constitute the core of the book represent ac-
tually only 2030% of the total volume of the treatise.
Very few data are tabulated which entails a loss to the
transparency of the text intended as a practical guide
to a laboratory worker. The average age of the refer-
ences is 20 years which makes them impractical for
use, if necessary. There is a huge number of citations
from only two sources: the Annual Book of ASTM
standards and the ASM Metals Handbook, in some
chapters reaching 50% for all the references included.
In summary, I enjoyed reading the treatise for its
expert and at the same time fairly informal style but
I have had the impression of having read most of this
information in the many books on analytical spec-
trometry published before. Nevertheless, the text be
recommended as supplementary reading for under-
graduate and graduate students and hence is worth
acquiring by university libraries.
R. Lobinski
Nonlinear Computer Modeling of Chemical and
Biochemical Data
James F. Rusling, Thomas F. Kurnosinski, Academic
Press, London, 1996, pp. xv+268, ISBN 0-12-6044-2
The authors have succeeded in their intention as
described in the Preface to provide a solid introduction
to the basics of non-linear regression analysis, with an
easily read writing style that is matched to the target
audience.
The book is divided into two parts and one ap-
pendix. Part 1 is organized into four chapters, covering
various sectors of regression analysis. Part 2 com-
prises 10 chapters, containing interesting and relevant
information on selected applications to specific ex-
perimental techniques. Each chapter is accompanied
by references for further reading. A BASIC program
for linear regression is given in the appendix. A brief
outline of the subjects considered is presented below.
Chapter 1 contributes little to the theme of non-
linear modelling. This chapter is mainly a preview of
the topics to be discussed in the subsequent chapters.
Chapter 2 discusses general aspects of linear and
non-linear regression. A provision of matrix alge-