This first Report surveys the literature over a two-year period (January
1970-December 1971), in order to put in perspective the developments in
this wide area of organic chemistry. Subsequent Reports will be annual.
At an advanced production stage it was decided that the length of Volume 1
made it impractical to publish it as one book. It, like Gaul, has therefore
been divided into three parts:
I Aliphatic Chemistry
I1 Three- and four-membered rings (carbocyclic and saturated hetero-
111 Five- and six-membered rings: medium sized rings: bridged and
Aliphatic chemistry is covered in three chapters, two dealing with functional
groups and a third devoted, in each Report, to a class of related natural
products (in this instance fatty acids). The chapters on functional group
chemistry reflect an increasing interest in new synthetic methods, and interconversions.
It may well be that this aspect of next year’s Report will be
extended to give, in effect, an annual comprehensive coverage of General
Methods.
It was originally envisaged that the coverage of carbocyclic and saturated
heterocyclic chemistry would be dealt with in an integrated fashion. Some
3000 references later it was apparent that this method of tackling the subject
matter was unwieldy, and so it was decided to produce separate chapters on
carbocyclic and saturated heterocyclic chemistry, with the division based on
ring size.