Customer Reviews

The Merck Index: An Encyclopedia of Chemicals, Drugs, and Biologicals

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the most important and useful chemistry book for chemists and advanced level organic chemistry students. It shows all the physical constants, structures, information about synthesis, toxicity and use and reference. Although there are a few sites that provides the free online Merck Index, if you are into organic chemistry, it is not a bad idea to buy this one. It is much cheaper than the CRC Handbook of chemistry and physics!

The Merck Index is another one of those rare reference books which achieves 'Biblical' status. It is essential reading for anyone who works with chemicals/biologicals/pharmaceuticals. Highly recommended!

The Merck Index contains detailed information for roughly 10000 relatively common chemicals found in industry, medicine, and agriculture. This book is a MUST-HAVE for anyone who works with chemicals or expects to come in contact with chemicals. Details include formula, structure, trade names, further bibliographic references, physical properties, some chemical reactivity data, uses, and information about human and veternary uses and toxicities. Common name and formula indices help the reader find what they are looking for.

PARENTS - this is actually a great book to give to aspiring students of the physical sciences. It is clear, accessible, and browsing through it begins to give the student a feel for the relationships between structure and activity.

This is an indispensable reference book. I use it daily. I recently upgraded to this most recent version. I have had it about 3 weeks. I went to look up quinine today and couldn't find the Q's. Then I had a brief moment of disbelief and I recited the alphabet to myself to make sure I wasn't missing something. Then, I noticed my copy skipped from page 1376 to page 1425! Fortunately I can still exchange the book, but beware....count your pages when you get this book.

Otherwise, great book. And the included CD-ROM provides a little extra searching power. I would prefer that the CD interface and printouts were a little cleaner.

This edition of "The Merck Index: An Encyclopedia of Chemicals, Drugs, & Biologicals" shows remarkable improvement over its predecessor.
Boasting of diverse groups of chemicals and pharmaceuticals, it is a success in its own right. There are just plenty to be explored! The book brims with accurate up-to-date information. Pharmacists, Medics, Chemists, Biologists, Physicists, Agriculturists, and many other professionals who work with elements, compounds and mixtures will find this book very useful. It is revised, and is complemented with detailed descriptions, which include molecular formulae, molecular weights, as well as the percentage compositions of constituent chemicals in a compound or mixture.
It is a valuable reference tool.

This book must be the most organized reference book I have ever used. Its so fulfilling to be able to find exactly what you're looking for when you need it. Includes a common name index, chemical formula index, as well as registry numbers, therapeutic categories for drugs, useful tables, and organic chemical equations. highly recommended!

The Merk Index is an essential reference book for chemists. During my entire career working in the research and development of analytical chemistry methods for pharmaceuticals, there always was a copy of The Merk Index in the laboratory. Usually, I had my own copy of an earlier edition on my own bookshelf, over my desk. I cannot imagine starting a new method development project without, first, looking for any pertinent information that might be in The Merk Index.

Have heard some good things about this book and have not been disappointed. All who buy this book will get what they pay for and more. All Merck books have been awesome resources for me. I am in pre-med and am taking pharmacology next semester and I know that this book will make things loads easier; also it is not as expensive as any CRC Handbook. I am thrifty buyer and this book was worth the extra I payed for it. =o) Thanks for reading.

PS> buy the book!!!! it is awesome.

The problem can be resolved by thier "stupid" customer service people, if you can somehow convince them that you have the correct CD. The Merck software is excellent, and the Cambridgesoft software running it is terrible, I feel sorry for Merck. It wouldn't run properly on my machine, I had to go back and forth over 4 days to resolve this issue with their outsourced (to India) technical staff via email. Apparently if you have a previous version of Merck installed with Cambridgesoft software on your XP, then you will need to perform some surgery on your Registry, and then install an update into certain files locaed on the C drive.

Once you get it working, it should be fine.

No doubt however that the TEXT Merck Index is EXCELLENT.

I got the index as a reference for compound solubility and stability. Depending on the compound, there were varying amounts of detail on these topics. In general, the reference was very helpful--at least indicating which compounds were stable and indicating which compounds might require more research on their stability. The CD also allowed for easier searching electronically, or in cases when I did not want to bring the book with me!