Book reviews

Radical Transitions. The Survival and Revival of Entrepreneurship in the GDR. By Andreas Pickel. Boulder, San Francisco and Oxford: Westview Press, 1992. £25.95 pb.

Europe and German Unification. By Renate Fritsch‐Bournazel. Oxford: Berg, 1992. £30 hb, £8.95 pb.

The Oder‐Neisse Line ‐ A Reappraisal under International Law. By Philip A. Bühler. Boulder: Eastern European Monographs, distributed by Columbia University Press, 1990. $32.50 hb.

Recasting the Ruhr, 1945–1958. Manpower, Economic Recovery and Labour Relations. By Mark Roseman. Oxford: Berg, 1992. £42 hb.

The US Congress and the German Bundestag: Comparisons of Democratic Processes. Edited by Uwe Thaysen, Roger H. Davidson and Robert Gerald Livingston. Boulder, San Francisco, Oxford: Westview Press, 1990. £31.50 pb.

Der verkappte Einheitsstaat. By Heidrun Abromeit. Opladen: Leske und Budrich, 1992.

Wir Kollaborateure. Der Westen und die deutschen Vergangenheiten. Edited by Cora Stephan. Reinbeck bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1992. DM9.90 pb.

Die CDU. Organisationsstrukturen, Politiken und Funktionsweisen einer Partei im Föderalismus. By josefschmid. Opladen: Leske und Budrich, 1990. DM48.

Moscow, Germany and the West from Khruschchev to Gorbachev. By Michael J. Sodaro. London: I.B. Tauris, 1991. £29.95 hb, £12.95 pb.

Deutsche Irrtümer. Schönfärberei und Helfershelfer der SED‐Diktatur im Westen. By Jens Hacker. Berlin: Ullstein, 1992. DM68 hb.

Föderalismus in der Bewährung: die deutschen Länder vor der Herausforderung fortschreitender EG‐Integration. Edited by Bernhard Vogel and Günther H. Oettinger. Köln: Deutscher Gemeindeverlag/Kohlhammer, 1992.

The Territorial Imperative: Pluralism, Corporatism, and Economic Crisis. By Jeffrey J. Anderson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. £35 hb.

The Federal Republic of Germany and NATO: 40 Years After. Edited by E.J. Kirchner and J. Sperling. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1992. £45 hb.

The Economy of United Germany: Colossus at the Crossroads. By W.R. Smyser. London: Hurst &; Co., 1992. £25 hb.     

The application of anodic stripping voltammetry to forensic science I. The construction of a low-cost polarograph

Intended for forensic gunshot residue analyses and other applications, a low-cost (about $250.00) polarograph was constructed. This instrument is essentially' an operational amplifier version of a three-electrode potentiostat containing a voltage ramp generator, a scan amplifier, an amplifier and a current-to-voltage converter, two voltage followers and an electrolysis cell. An anodic stripping procedure was developed for the simultaneous determination of a zinc, cadmium, lead, antimony and copper mixture, and used for testing the instrument. Effects of pre-electrolysis time, concentration changes, presence of other species and overlapping were also studied.     

Detection of latent fingerprints by the use of silver nitrate

Silver nitrate has been an established agent for the detection of latent fingerprints for some 120 years, and it was one of the few reagents suitable for use on porous surfaces until ninhydrin was introduced in forensics. The method is based on the reaction of silver ions with chlorides in the fingerprints, which are visualized in brown, violet or black. The literature describes many variations of the procedure, but the information provided is often vague and imprecise. The purpose of this study was to show whether this method can also be used on modern types of paper and how it should be applied. The results of the tests showed that silver nitrate solutions do work also on modern papers, but that they cannot be recommended as a standard, because the appearance of the prints and the paper background can strongly change in the course of time. The findings also do not justify the use of methanol-containing silver nitrate solutions in contrast to the variations based on water. For reasons of occupational safety, methanol, which is classified as poisonous, should not be used. The silver nitrate method may be taken into consideration, however, e.g. after the application of ninhydin, if there are hints that the potential fingerprints are not too old, have not been affected by moisture and if there are clues that the perpetrator perspired strongly while causing the prints.     

Ninhydrin permeability tests of common packaging materials in the field of fingerprint examination

With a simple experimental set-up, common packaging materials were tested for their ninhydrin permeability. The packaging material was loaded with a ninhydrin treated paper on the inside and covered with an amino acid treated paper on the outside. If ninhydrin penetrates through the packaging film, "Ruhemann's purple" will form on the amino acid treated paper. In all, 28 packaging materials were tested over a period of 24 weeks. It turned out that all the films made of polyethylene (PE) showed ninhydrin permeability. With one exception, this permeability occurred after three days already. All packages made of other film material were not permeable to ninhydrin.