In the first volume of this series, the late Claude S. Hudson presented a review of the higher-carbon sugars which has now been brought up to date by J. M. Webber of Birmingham, England. J. A. Montgomery and H. JeanetteThomas, of Birmingham, Alabama, continue with our series on nucleosides and nucleotides, the first of which was written by R. S. Tipson for Volume 1.

This volume also places on record the authoritative summary of many years of work, by T. Reichstein and coworkers, on the strange sugars found in the cardiac glycosides and first noted by Heinrich Kiliani.

R. W. Bailey and J. B. Pridham cooperate between New Zealand and London to provide a much-needed review of the many oligosaccharides disclosed by the newer isolative methods.

0. Theander of Stockholm furnishes a wide-ranging review of the dicarbonyl sugars and their derivatives, while K. Heyns and H. Paulsen of Hamburg concentrate on one type of oxidation procedure, namely, that employing oxygen with a platinum catalyst.

D. J. Manners of Edinburgh ably summarizes the present status of the enzymic synthesis and degradation of starch and glycogen.

Finally, J. C. Sowden closes a brilliant classical period in sugar chemistry by a review of the life and work of the late, beloved Hermann 0. L. Fischer.