Biochemistry and the Central Nervous System

This textbook on the chemical structure and changes of the nervous system is directed to the advanced student of biochemistry who is interested particularly in the difficult and specialized field of neurochemistry. Unlike the recent monumental symposium, "Neurochemistry: The Chemical Basis of Brain and Nerve," edited by Elliott, Page, and Quastel, and reviewed inThe Journal, Nov. 12, 1955, page 1169, it is a well-integrated volume, written from the viewpoint of a single author. It opens with a competent and succinct general discussion of the metabolism of the intact brain, passes on to a description of the chemical composition of the brain, of the energy transformations taking place in the animal with degradation of high energy compounds during activity and their resynthesis during rest, of chemical and enzymatic events during development of the nervous system, and of the important roles of acetylcholine, sympathin, serotonin, and histamine phosphate and closes with