SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS OF GREAT BRITAIN 125 ß .• ..:.. •.: ....•-:?- ... ß .. . ..•.. ...: .. .: . . .: • -• •,:. ::. Theodore Ostrowski, Chairman, 1959, New York Chapter of Society of Cosmetic Chemists. The Chapter is participating fully in the activities of the Technical Societies Council of New York. The work of the Chapter Education Committee has resulted in establishment of a cosmetic chemistry course at Columbia University, College of Pharmacy. This is, at the present time, an extension course given in the evening with full college credit. All meetings of the New York Chapter will be held at the New Yorker Hotel, on the first Wednesday of the month except during June, July, August and December. Officers for 1959 are as follows: Theodore Ostrowski, Chairman Saul A. Bell, Secretary John M. Longfellow, C•airman-Elect Martin Katz, Treaxurer SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS OF GREAT BRITAIN TI• •OLLOWX•O MEETINGS have been held in London: January 23rd, "The Use of Cosmetics in Hospitals," by Eleanor Mac- Donald February 16th, "Modern Methods of Photography with the Microscope," by R. McVitie Weston March 16th, "Ampholytic Surface Active Agen rs," by C. D. Moore

BOOK REVIEWS SURFACE ACTIVE AGENTS AND DETERGENTS, Volume !I, by An- thony M. Schwartz, James W. Perry and Julian Berch. Inter- science Publishers, Inc., New York 1, N.Y. 1957. 860 pages, illus- trated and indexed. Price $17.50. An earlier volume published in 1949 is Volume I of this set. The present volume brings up to date material appearing since publi- cation of the earlier volume. The work is divided into four parts, the processes of synthesizing and manufacturing surfactants, special function of surfactants and com- positions, physical and colloidal chemistry of surfactants and practical applications of surfactants. New trade names are used wher- ever possible. Patents, literature and manufacturers data are care- fully footnoted on each page. Ampholytes, the most recent surfactants to gain usage are de- scribed in a number of places, but mainly on pages 171, 138-143 and 227. A portion of the section on applications covers cosmetics in some ten pages or so. However, the inactivation of germicides by nonionics does not appear to be included. The book is well made. No errors were noticed during ex- amination of many of the pages. This companion volume cannot be recommended too highly to set beside its earlier Volume I.--M. G. DENAVARRE. MOLECULAR STRUCTURE AND ORGANOLEPTIC QUALITY, comprising papers read at a symposium organ- ized by the Overseas Section, Soci- ety of Chemical Industry, Geneva, Switzerland, May 2-3, 1957. S.C. !. Monograph No. 1. The Mac- millan Co., New York. 1957. 124 pages. Price $3.75. In May, 1957, several of the world's outstanding scientists in the field of odor chemistry read papers at a symposium of the Society of Chemical Industry in Geneva, Switzerland. These papers, and the brief but significant discussion, are gathered and published in book form as S. C. I. Monograph No. 1. The literature of oilaction has been marked by unproven asser- tions, contradictions and conjectures constituting an obstacle facing workers seeking to construct scien- tifically valid concepts. The in- ability to classify odors, the con- tradictions between the reports of diverse investigators, the reactions of single individuals reported as if they were reproducible, the lack of an accepted theory of the mechanism by which the animal (human and infrahuman) smells. These are factors militating against progress in an understanding of odor. Despite the caliber of the contributors to this symposium (Ruzicka, Stoll, Beets, Naves, among others), the difficulties of contradiction and con- jecture are seldom avoided and occasionally aggravated in these 126