BOOK REVIEWS 391 ane, trichlorofluoromethane, and carbon tetrachloride are described in this paper. Separation of isotopes is treated in the paper on "Gas Chromato- graphic Separation of Hydrogen Isotopes." Deuterium-hydrogen mixtures could be resolved using a column containing palladium black at room temperature. For those who are actively en- gaged in gas chromatography or for those merely investigating its possibilities, this book will round out the library of the several good books on this subject already pub- lished.--M. J. RooT, G. Barr and Co. ENCYCLOPEDIA or CHEMICAL TEeHNOLOOY, Volume 15, edited by R. E. Kirk and D. F. Othmer. Interscience Encyclopedia, Inc., New York 1, N.Y. 1956. 936 pages, size 71/2 X 101/,• inches, indexed. Price: Subscription $25, Single $30. The "Encyclopedia" is now complete. It took nine years to bring the work to its climax. The present contributions are typical of those made by some of the country's thousand experts in the various fields. The present work includes "Waxes to Zymos- terol" as well as a complete index to Volumes I-XV. One of the latest entries is that on wool grease comprising 16 pages, written by John Scanlan. Indeed, certain portions of the early history of lanolin are more complete than in Truter's recent book, "Wool Wax." Lanolin derivatives are quite well covered considering the limited number available at the time of writing. Bibliography Number 65 contains an error in spelling. The inventor of U.S. Patent No. 2,498,727 is Verblen. But this is a minor item. Those owning earlier volumes will want both to complete the series and to have the index. It is highly recommended.--M. G. DE- NAVARRE. CHEMISCHE KONSERVIERUNG VoN LEBENSMITTELN, by Paul Hirsch. Verlag yon Theodor Steinkopff, Dresden, Germany. 1956. 198 pages size 51/,, X 81/,, inches, illus- trated and indexed. Price 12 D.M. Ten chapters discussing pres- ervation from its various relations to foodstuffs, comprise this small book. About thirty pages are devoted to chemical preservatives. The dis- cussion is pertinent to foods though many of the compounds should never be used as food preservatives. A few pages of data cover the use of antioxidants. There are many useful data and numerous references on the subject. --M. G. DENAVARRE. THE ANALYTICAL USES OF ETHYLENEDIAMINE TETRAACETIC ACID, by Frank J. Welcher. D. Van Nostrand Co., Inc., Princeton, N. J. 1958. 366 pages, 6 X 9 inches, indexed. Price $8.50. This book should be of great interest to analytical chemists who desire to apply an EDTA method to a particular analytical problem. There are 963 references to pertinent papers previously published on the subject, together with a brief dis- cussion of these works. A thorough study is made of EDTA, its salts and complexes in chemical analysis, end-point detec- tion in EDTA titrations, metal indicators, cation determinations in mixtures and water hardness. Some anion determinations are also de- scribed. Extensive study is made of colorimetric determinations, the use

392 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS of EDTA in qualitative work and elimination of interferences. The versatility of analytical uses of EDTA in both macro and micro analysis is illustrated by the variety of types of methods which include direct titrations, back titrations, potentiometric titrations, ultra- violet spectrophotometric titrations and chromatographic separations. Some of the materials analyzed by EDTA include foods, fertilizers, slags, leather goods, glass, medicinal compounds, milk, mineral water, alloys, plating solutions, paper pulp, pharmaceutical products, rocks, soils, sugar solutions, saliva, spinal fluid and urine. No special reference is made to cosmetic preparations however, numerous EDTA methods should be ap- plicable to such products in deter- minations of aluminum, zinc, lead, titanium and other cations. The extent of this specialized treatise should make it invaluable to the cosmetic chemist performing control work, assays and analytical investigations.--LEo S. NASARE- VIC•, Gar-Baker Laboratories, Inc. TRACER APPLICATIONS FOR THE STUDY OF ORGANIC REACTIONS, by John G. Burr, Jr. Interscience Publishers, Inc., New York 1, N.Y. 1957. 291 pages, size 9 X 6 inches indexed. Price $7.50. In the preface, Joh,, n G. Burr, Jr., expresses the hope that this ma- terial will stimulate the use of isotopes among organic chemists." His book, which is primarily con- cerned with the role of isotopic tracers in elucidating reaction mech- anisms, contains many examples of important information gained through their use. An introductory chapter discusses advantages of isotopic labeling such as a potentially increased number of observable reaction products, an indication of the origin of a partic- ular atom in a product or an isotope effect which can be used to determine bonds broken or formed in the rate-determining step of a reaction. The second chapter con- tains a short discussion of the kinetic analysis of isotopic exchange reactions. Other c. hapters include: proton transfer m nonaromatic systems. nucleophilic displace- ments m nonaromatic substances exchange reactions in aromatic systems free radical processes carbonium ion processes molecu- lar rearrangements with specific mechanisms reactions of the car- bon-oxygen bond oxidation of ali- phatic molecules polymerization reactions and miscellaneous organic reactions. A final chapter on the structure of molecules and stable intermediates gives interesting cases in which the equivalence of atoms in a postulated symmetrical structure has been disproven or established through isotopic labeling and sub- sequent analysis of degradation products. References to a number of text- books and review articles concerned with properties, uses and analysis of both stable and radioisotopes are included in an appendix. Another appendix includes a list of texts on organic reaction mechanisms and some useful commentary on the range of subject matter covered. Unfortunately the complexity of certain discussions is compounded by numerous errors in structural diagrams. This undoubtedly re- duces the value of the book for the general study of organic re- action mechanisms. The literature however, has been extensively covered up through 1954 (a few 1955 references are included) and the book should serve as a useful source of references relating to specific reaction mechanisms.--J. R. TROWBRIDGE, Colgate-PalmoliveCo.