JOURNAl, OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS 247 similar to the efforts of the AMA for the physician, a notably success- ful achievement. The SOCTETY OF COSM•ZT•C CHV:.M- JSTS comes in for special mention one respondent is quoted to the effect that the SOC•En'V is "of more practical help" than the ACS. Another special mention is made of the fact that chemists, regardless of their problems with status, salary, advancement, etc., seem to be extraordinarily sure of themselves in their vocational choice. The au- thors note that "they are able to locate themselves fairly well [in their scientific and chemical world ]--unlike many Americans who have trouble placing their own work in some meaningful frame." Furthermore, chemists are "incor- rigible optimists" about the future of their field, m contrast to many other professionals they feel that chemistry is an expanding field, with many opportunities-- in fact, almost unlimited opportunities. Finally, chemists (along with physicists) are almost unique because there are no major splits between various specialities. This homogeneity sug- gests the possibility of cooperation for the betterment of the individual and of the profession, the latter being of almost equal importance with the former to most chemists. This book is of value to those who are involved in guiding young people in a choice of careers, as well as to those who want an objective view of our culture. The individual chemist may be interested in com- paring himself with other chemists and assessing some conceptions he may have about his occupation. Chemists who are curious about their fellow scientists and concerned about status and the public view of their profession will find this book interesting reading.--D•. F. R•o• COMPREH ENS1 VE BIOCHEMISTR¾, Volume II, by M. Florkin and E. H. Stotz. Elsevier Publishing Co., Amsterdam, New York. 1962. 328 pages, indexed. Price $14.50 singly, $11.50 in Series. Florkin and Storz have under- taken an ambitious task in editing this series of volumes which will make up "Comprehensive Bio- chemistry." Although the over-all plan is not fully established, it ap- pears that this series may comprise as many as 20 volumes. The vol- ume discussed here is Volume II of Section 1, which is devoted to physico-chemical and organic as- pects of biochemistry. Two-thirds of this volume are taken up by a chapter on the mechanisms of organic reactions by Bender and Breslow. Chapter II, Behaviour of Molecules in Solutions, and Chapter III, Diffusion and Osmosis, are contributed by W. D. Stein. The chapter on mechanisms of organic reactions is devoted to a systematic description of the mecha- nisms of those reactions which may be of interest to biochemists. In view of the enormous latitude of bio- chemistry, it is fair to state that this chapter covers almost all reactions of interest to organic chemists. This chapter is not concerned with enzymatic reactions but is designed to bring "to...enzymology the fruits of organic chemistry." The discussion of mechanisms is de- scriptive, and the use of mathe- matics and of complicated kinetics is held to a minimum. As a result, this book should appeal to all those chemists whose mathematical back- ground is a little shaky. Wherever kinetics are used to describe a series of reactions, the description is lucid and to the point. The discussion of the chemistry of the bimolecular elimination reactions can be recom- mended to anybody who wants to

248 JOURNAI. OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS refresh his knowledge of organic chemistry. Similarly, the discus- sions of the general acid and general base catalysis are worthy of careful study. The general treatment of the mechanisms of chemical reactions in this chapter is excellent, although many more up-to-date aspects have been neglected. Particularly strik- ing by their absence are the recently elucidated mechanisms of reactions of disulphides which are of prime importance to biochemists and are believed to proceed via a homolytic mechanism (cf. Calvin's work on thioctic acid) or nucleophilic path- ways (Fava, The two chapters by Stein deserve special mention because they repre- sen t, in the opinion of the reviewer, a most readable description of the physical chemistry of solutions and the physical chemistry of diffusion in nonmathematical terms. The descriptive discussions of Raoult's law and of Hildebrand's regular solutions are excellent. Particular mention should be made of the chapter on diffusion in which dif- fusion is discussed not as a macro- scopic but as a molecular or atomic process. The author describes the concepts of Danielli and presents a good introduction to the problems of cellular biochemistry. Over-all, the volume is very read- able and written in a very lucid style. In the reviewer's opinion, this volume could have been made more legible if the structural for- mulas were presented in larger type. Regardless of this minor defect, this volume makes good reading for most chemists who do not specialize in kinetics and physical chemis- try.--M. M.