BOOK REVIEWS PERFUMES, COSMETICS AND SOAP, by William A. Poucher, Vol. I, 6th Ed., 1959. 463 pages, illustrated, Ap- pendix I, II, III. Price $12.50 Vol. II, 7th. Ed., 1959. 453 pages, illustrated and index. Price $12.50, Princeton, N.J., D. Van Nostrand Co. Poucher's works have always been of special value to perfumers and would-be perfumers for he brought together, within the covers of his books, a happy combination--a glossary of the rare, the recent, and the exotic, as well as the standard aromatic items, along with a reliable and readable odor description of them. His accent was on odor and not on the chemistry or chemical and physical constants of the mate- rials he discussed. In a field as secretive as the fragrance industry, he was one of the few who dared disclose the odor properties and applications of the many raw mate- rials. The volumes were iv, forma- tive and inspirational, and many a neophyte took his first faltering steps with these, the guide books to the romance and mysteries of crea- tive perfumery. This was the situa- tion that existed in the 1920's when the first volumes of his books came out. Now a golden opportunity has presented itself. Fifteen years have gone by since the last edition and re- vision, and in this period we have gathered a fantastic harvest of new aromatics, have acquired a vastly improved knowledge of older aro- matics and of the essential oils new essential oil producing areas have appeared, and of course we have witnessed the inevitable cast- ing aside of a certain number of materials, both natural and syn- thetic, which are no longer interest- ing. The Sixth Edition of Volume I, unfortunately, is more of a re- print than a revision. The passing of fifteen years, nay even thirty years, has not brought about a re-orientation of the author's opin- ions, descriptions, or applications. Despite studies around the globe on the essential oils, the references quoted are still those of thirty or forty years ago. The text itself is badly in need of rewriting as, for instance, under the monograph on Ambergris he writes, "Even in these times of depression" obviously re- ferring to the early 30's, certainly not to the late 50's. Flower har- vesting and processing is no doubt the same, or almost the same, today as it was at the time of World War I. However, the photographs of these workers in their early 1900's garb lends them a rather quaint, old- fashioned charm but hardly invokes the impression that this is an up-to- date reference book. One deeply regrets that this unique work has been allowed to become obsolete. With a re-evaluation in the light of modern information, it still could be the outstanding perfumery primer and reference work. Volume I has always been burdened with de- scriptions and use information of a large number of cosmetic and phar- maceutical raw materials that might better fit in Volume III. Volume II of this new edition 322

JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS 323 suffers the same flaw as Volume I-- it is obsolete. The research of hundreds of chemists has gone by unnoticed while the scanty data of other days is recorded. The approach to perfume fixation is a sound and modern one and quite likely reflects the overt or intuitive technique of most professional per- fumers. The cherished notion of holding light, fugacious bodies by means of inodorous, non-volatile resins or plasticizers is refuted via a series of experiments. Poucher's system of odor evaluation is care- fully explained and considerable space has been devoted to odor classifications of the different odor types. I feel that systems are for their authors and no one else. Poucher is at least ahead of others in that he avoids abstract generalized categories and has not employed sterile numerical ratings. He as- sociates one odor with other chemi- cals and essential oils and thus draws on a thousand adjectives of great specificity for instance, "sweet" may mean almost anything to any- body but "vanillin" implies a very particular sweetness. Most of the important odor types, both the florals and the fancies, are described both by his system and by formulae to produce the desired effect. It is not hard to imagine which of these two are going to be studied! There is probably no better way to explain the odor of a lilac to a perfumer than to write down the formula for a good one--then he understands it in terms of raw materials, and equally im- portant, their proportion. Formu- lae are given for all the important odor types. It is almost a credo that good perfume formulae are never published, and although these are useful as ideas or rough models they are certainly not to be taken seriously as working compounds. Expensive floral absolutes appear in many of his recipes, whereas in actual practice such products are reserved for fine perfumes only, where cost and availability are not likely to be exceeded. I feel that few readers will use or profit by the new system even when completely baffled and it is necessary to resort to association to take the place of direct knowledge of notes present. Perfumers just will not use a middle ground or bridge--they prefer to go direct from the odor in the product to some component, chemical or oil as dictated by their past contact with the raw materials of the in- dustry. Short chapters on tobacco flavors, breath sweeteners, sachets and fruit flavors have been provided as well as more extended presentations on soap perfumery and on handker- chief perfumes in general. A copy of Poucher's works should be on every perfumer's shelf, and every young student of the art will read them to his advantage but it would not make much difference which editions were chosen--those of thirty-five years ago or these of most recent vintage.--C. F. van Ameringen-Haebler, Inc. TRAITI•, DE BIOCHIME CUTAN•E' LEs PROTIDES, Vol. II, by Jean Morelle. Editions Varia, Paris 6% France. 1958. 398 pages, illus- trated. Price 5800 francs. This is the most amazing con- densate of over 3000 published articles on various facets of bio- chemistry relating to the skin. To condense so much material into an easy reading manuscript is a grand undertaking on' subject. any The author handles his material quite well, covering the world's literature on quite an impartial basis. The first volume of this series of three discussed biochemical generali- ties. It had over 1500 references.