THE BRITISH SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS BECAUSE Of the current interest in aerosol packaging, the April 26th meeting featured Mr. A. Herzka, a member of the Society, who dis- cussed "Technical Aspects of Aerosol Packaging." The meeting was held at the Royal Society of Arts, John Adam Street, London, W.C. 2. The Annual Golf Tournament took place in April this year and was open to all members and employees of cosmetic manufacturing and supply houses. Three vacancies exist on the Council as well as for all offices of the Society. Nominations will be held at the Annual General Meeting this month. NOTE The March issue had to be cut down in size, length and width due to the Journal being overweight for sending under our mailing privileges. We regret that this was necessary. 331

BOOK REVIEWS CHEMICAL PILOT PLANT PRACTICE, Vol. I, by Donald G. Jordan. Interscience Publishers, Inc., New York. t955. 150 pages, 33/4 X $1/2 inches, illustrated and indexed. Price $3.50. The content of Mr. Jordan's little book will, we think, come as quite a surprise to those chemical engineers who purchase it solely from a consideration of its title. The problems involved in the operation of a chemical pilot plant are extremely varied, and a great many texts on the subject are available, no one of which (nor any group of which) even touches on all of the important ramifications. Mr. Jordan addresses himself almost exclusively to those aspects which are most likely to be of concern to management: whether or not a pilot plant should be constructed, what answers it shoud provide, how big it should be, how much it should cost, where it should be located, how it should be staffed, how its answers should be reported, and what value these answers can be expected to have. All of this matter is handled skillfully, and with the clarity and persuasiveness of a man who is obviously highly experienced in his field. This information is hard to come by, and should prove of considerable value to those who are now strug- glingwith these questions. When he gets down into such details as to how to construct a pilot plant, it seems to us that Mr. Jordan's suggestions are of strictly limited value. He recommends, for example, as a batch reactor for general purpose work a type 316 stainless steel, 100-200 gallon kettle, jacketed to take a steam pressure of 140 psig., with internal baffles, and a turbine- type agitator, and equipped with an overhead stainless condenser. The writer's last three pilot reactbrs were designed, respectively, for studying the sulfation of fatty alcohols with chlorosulfonic acid, for the formation and washing of thioglycolate esters, and for the condensing of tertiary fatty amines with benzyl chloride. Not a single one of Mr. Jordan's specifications for his reactor would be sound for the construction of a reactor intended for the study of any of these re- actions. Mr. Jordan's book is strongly recommended to the attention of those who are debating the installa- tion of a pilot plant, or wondering how to integrate such an endeavor into existing research and produc- tion departments. It will also be of ' specific interest to engineers and chemists who are piloting polymeric reactions of the type which Mr. Jordan uses as his examples.--Ross WHITetAN, Raymond Laboratories, Inc. PHYSIOLOGY AND BIOCHEMISTRY OF THE SKIN, by Stephen Rothman. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 37, Ill. 1954. 741 pages, 61/4 X 91/4 inches, illustrated and indexed. Price $19.50. This book is an obelisk to the author. Its outstanding importance 332