This book deals with a subject that has been studied since the beginning of physical chemistry. Despite the thousands of articles and scores of books devoted to solvation thermodynamics, I feel that some fundamen tal and well-established concepts underlying the traditional approach to this subject are not satisfactory and need revision. The main reason for this need is that solvation thermodynamics has traditionally been treated in the context of classical (macroscopic) ther modynamics alone. However, solvation is inherently a molecular pro cess, dependent upon local rather than macroscopic...

My personal involvement with the problem of hydrophobic interactions (HI) began about ten years ago. At that time I was asked to write a review article on the properties of aqueous solutions of nonpolar solutes. While surveying the literature on this subject I found numerous discussions of the concept of HI. My interest in these interactions increased especially after reading the now classical review of W. Kauzmann (1959), in which the importance of the HI to biochemical processes is stressed. Yet, in spite of having read quite extensively on the various aspects of the subject, I acquired...