A set of valuable small books presenting chemical backgrounds helpful in biology was published last year by W. A. Benjamin, Inc. These books, composing the General Chemistry Monograph Series are as follows: Barrow, The Structure of Molecules; Herz, The Shape of Carbon Compounds; King, How Chemical Reactions Occur; and Mahan, Elementary Chemical Thermodynamics. Each volume was written by a scientist who has done extensive research in his subject.