•20 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS an experimenter may fall and ways to avoid them. Tables of basic statistical function (i.e., normal distribution areas, Chi- square, etc.) are included in the ap- pendix. However, although these tables are referred to quite often in the illustrative examples in the text, the use of most of the tables is not very clearly indicated. There are also many numerical errors in the illustrative examples and occasional errors of f•ct (e.g., Y=aP 2 plus bT 2 is given as an example of a case where the variables P and T "interact" in the determination of Y). Never- theless, this book should serve as a useful basic text for chemists who wish to apply statistical methods to their experimentation.--RuTH R BiF. s, Good Housekeeping'. INDUSTRIAL FERMENTATIONS• Vol. I, Edited by Leland A. Under- kofier and Richard J. Hickey. Chemical Publishing Company, New York 10, N.Y., 1954. 565 pages. Price $12. It is probable that the organic chemical industry began with the production of aicoholic beverages and vinegar. What began as an art has developed into as precise a science as biological variation will allow. This book is the first of a two-volume symposium which will consider the microbiological proc- esses of major industrial impor- tance. Its value to those in the industry is subject to the usual limitations imposed upon all ref- erence books on industrial chem- istry. Competition requires that details be kept secret. Competi- tion also results in such rapid tech- nological advances as to insure the obsolescence of a chapter even as it is being written. The chapters concerned with the venerable tech- niques for the production of al- coholic beverages suffer less from obsolescence than the others on the production of industrial chemicals by microorganisms. The chemist with no experience in the field will find most of his questions-logically treated and systematically answered. To insure this the editors have attempted to induce the several authors to conform to an outline to avoid a lack of continuity of style. The attempt was not entirely suc- cessful. The alcoholic fermentation proc- esses considered include the pro- duction of wine and of beer the production of ethanol from grain, molasses, sulfite-waste-liquor, and wood waste the butanol-acetone fermentation and the production of glycerol. Two chapters describe the production of commercial, and food and feed yeast. The remain- der of the book is devoted to dis- cussions of the production of citric, lactic, gluconic, iraconic and fu- maric acids and vinegar. Those who realize the serious threat imposed by the growing problem of feeding the world will find the model of an ideal solution described in the chapter on the production of food and feed yeast. The economical conversion of in- edible wastes into high quality protein would appear to be a task for which the yeast cell is ideally suited.--P. H. HID¾, Commercial Solvents Corp. DAS CHLOROPHYLL IN MEDIZIN UND KOSMETIK, by Hans Vogel. Verlag Hans Carl, Nurnberg, Ger- many, 1954. 151 pages, 5 X 71/2 inches, indexed. Price 7.5 DM. This interesting book of what was a "grand" project a year or two ago covers the main drug and cosmetic uses of chlorophyll. The book is divided into three parts, namely, chlorophyll in medicine and cos- metics--eighty pages, chlorophyll

BOOK REVIEWS 421 in chemistry and physiology-- twenty-six pages, extraction and production of chlorophyll and its derivatives--twenty-seven pages. The author covers only part of the current and some of the early work. Killian's fine report on the deodorant properties of chlorophyll is not mentioned. Some patents, particularly Japanese are reviewed. Probably the best contribution the author has made is the discus- sion of the chemistry, physical and chemical properties of chlorophyll. --M. G. •)ENAv^RRE MODERN COSMETICOLOGY. Volume I of The Principles and Practice of Modern Cosmetics, by Ralph G. Harry. Leonard Hill (Books) Ltd., London N.W. 1, England. 1955. 786 pages, 51/2 X 8'•/4 inches, illustrated and indexed. Price 65s. In writing any book an author has to make advance decisions on the purpose of the book the scope of the work size of the expected publication the audience he intends to reach the style to follow thoroughness of coverage orienta- tion of contents and the amount of his own personal work to be con- tributed to the effort. Harry's purpose appears to couple dermatology and cosmetics--per- haps "cosmeticology" is the result of that marriage. Some may argue that the dermatological aspects have been overstressed. But if the der- ivation of the title of the book is the one surmised above, then this is not true. As to scope, this reviewer feels that the cosmetic side of the work is, in general, quite wide. Indeed very few cosmetic products are omitted. Now, the audience to be reached is ostensibly both dermatologists and cosmetic chemists. So far, so good. But the number of people trained in the cosmetic science (der- matologists or chemists) is far too small to hazard a venture such as this by any publisher. Hence, the fringe prospects must be greater than the core. But for the fringe with limited cosmetic knowledge and possibly less chemical and der- matological training, much of the book is then useless. They are basically interested in the formula- tion of products with reasons for using the various materials in the proportions indicated. The pres- ent book has many formulas. But too many are directly lifted from the work of others, particularly sup- pliers. This is no condemnation of suppliers formulas which so often are well worked out, but instead, a feeling that a qualified man should develop his own formulas. Any- one can reprint formulas already published elsewhere. When it comes to usage and style, authors have a great deal of latitude excepting when writing technical books. In scientific work, the various technical societies of the world have long ago established a standard usage and style. It is true that European countries use a different style than we do here (in fact we have at least two styles) but any style should be uniformly followed. Author Harry is incon- sistent. References follow several styles. Use of names of people is similarly irregular (pages 85 and 95, for example). On page 178, the second and third paragraphs are repeated as they appear in para- graphs one and two on page 110. When it comes to "credits" for other's work, author Harry is me- ticulous to a fault. Neither in this book or otherwise has he ever know- ingly failed to give credit where due. In contemplating a coverage of at least two large subjects, derma- tology and cosmetic science, a book