352 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS the Centre Technique d'Enseigne- ment Ouvrier. If one keeps in mind the fact that this apparently is a transcription, the chronology holds together quite well. The book is definitely for be- ginners. It touches very lightly on many subjects in the cosmetic domain, including 28 pages on perfumery. This reviewer's opin- ion is that the nature of the book hardly allows for the discussion of either perfumery or cosmetics with- in so few pages even though the numerous topics be condensed. As a result, both .perfumery and cos- metics suffer •n their handling. Thus the author devotes 31/•. inches to the description of lanolin and only 10 words to discuss cetyl alcohol. Essentially factual matter, the book contains no formulas. It is illustrated with 13 figures, all simple yet informative. Since its U.S. equivalent cost is around a dollar, one gets a cardboard cover in- stead of the usual cloth cover. The book is divided into two parts, perfumery and cosmetics. Under perfumery, the author dis- cusses natural and synthetic mate- rials, completing this section with a discussion of fabrication. The cos- metic portion gives some general- ities, moves on to emulsions, then a discussion of principal materials used, followed by chapters on creams and lotions, closing with a review of make-up items. The book is well printed.--M.G.DEN PERFUME THRU THE AGES, by Alexander Farkas, 25 pages, 6 X 91/4 inches. Psychological Library, Publishers, New York, N.Y. 1951. Price $2.00. The author presents an unusual impression in his effort to tell "all about perfume." It is easy and interesting reading throughout. It is not a digest or abstract but as the author puts it, "a distillation." This bit of fragrance is for the layman or general reader, giving him a pretty picture of the origins of perfume through the ages, down to the present day. One can find no fault with the work, though this reviewer ques- tions the statement that 95 per cent of the perfume is bought by men rather than women, yet who should know better than Dr. Farkas whose company sells a lot of perfume. Perhaps the only place where a bit more explanation might have been made is the differentiation between cologne and toilet water which is in fact not really distinct. It is almost twenty-five years since so enchanting an essay has been read by this reviewer. Ac- cordingly, one anticipates the au- thor's more professional effort in his forthcoming thesis on the rela- tionship between psychology and perfumery. No errors were found. The book is well printed and bound. You should have it in your library.-- M.G.DEN. HANDBOOK OF DANGEROUS MA- TERIALS, by N. Irving Sax, 848 pages, size 7 X 10 inches, illustrated, indexed. Published by Reinhold Publishing Corp., New York 18, N.Y. 1951. Price'S15. This is a handbook, giving safety facts on some 5000 materials ar- ranged alphabetically, cross refer- enced, with full information on I.C.C. shipping regulations and radiation hazards. It is a mammoth book and it must have been a gigantic task to write the manuscript. But this re- viewer wonders if the authors in fact did achieve their goals.

BOOK REVIEWS 353 Too often one finds the words "This material has been known to cause allergic symptoms in humans" and it is followed by another erudite observation, "Exposed personnel who are sensitive to it should wear protective clothing, if necessary, to avoid bodily contact." Now the author and his assistants, all of whom are employed by the General Electric Company, must be aware of the fact that there is nothing in Creation that doesn't "cause aller- gic symptoms in humans." And if they are not so acquainted, they better go back to school. A casual check of some of the ma- terials used in the cosmetic industry finds the aforementioned description applied to such chemicals as alumi- num chloride (the sulfate was not even mentioned), ceresine wax, char- coal, gum arabic (gum karaya, often thought to be more allergenic than arabic, is not mentioned), sperma- ceti, to name some. The descrip- tions of sodium thioglycolate and of thioglycolic acid will make the cold hair waving industry first see red, then purple. The coup d'etat is the hazard in using or handling zinc stearate... suffocation is not men- rioned. Not to be outdone are the descriptions of the hazards due to perfumes and cosmetic creams. These are truly gems. While there are some splendid data on many chemicals, those of the cosmetic industry are badly handled. Solvents are better de- scribed than most other materials. Some drugs are as poorly dealt with as are cosmetic materials, boric acid ointment, ichthyol, and theophylline for instance. The book has 222 pages of inter- state shipping regulations sixty- three pages discuss fungus disease and a 69-page review of radiation and radiation hazards completes the book. The book is intended for those handling, storing, or shipping chemi- cals. That includes a lot of dif- ferent industries and people. To this reviewer, the person re- sponsible for the first part of the book dealing with the 5000 odd chemicals did not do a good job. A part list is better than none of course, but it should have been more complete. Too many chemi- cals are considered hazardous that offer little if any hazard, such as those mentioned earlier. If we shall go to the extreme as was in the case of some of the materials men- tioned, then let us include water as a hazard, which would be ridiculous. A few more associates in writing, chosen from diverse fields, would have made for a better book. If you haven't already concluded that the book fails to come up to expectations, this reviewer has to tell you so. The publisher in ques- tion has offered few "duds" how- ever, this book has all the earmarks of a disappointment . . . and an ex- pensive one.--M.G.D•.N.