288 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS This volume, though relatively small, contains a wealth of interest- ing information and should be read and consulted by all interested in skin, hair, or teeth.--Martin M. Rieger, Warner-Lambert Research Institute. COLL^OE•r, edited by N. Ramana- than. IntersciencePublishers, New York, N.Y. 1962. 579 pages, illustrated. Price $20. Collagen is a compilation of papers presented in person or by corre- spondence at a Symposium in Madras, India, in November of 1960. Sponsoring agency was the Central Leather Research Insti- tute, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. The symposium is divided into three main divisions: Structural Studies Medical and Biochemical Studies and Physical-Chemical and Technological Studies. Virtually every aspect of the theory and evidence concerning structure, physical chemistry and biological properties of collagen is discussed. Clinical and pathological conditions of collagen are not stressed. Many aspects of this volume are outstanding and impressive. For one thing, the list of major contrib- utors numbers 58, and they are drawn from all over the world and both sides of the Iron Curtain, in- cluding the United States, Russia, South Africa and India. The caliber of these investigations is very high and generally oriented toward the physical-chemical and molecular level. This reviewer, having served on the S. C. C. Special Award Committee for four years, was struck by the fact that not one of these numerous original investigators was ever nominated for the special award. It can be concluded that either interest in collagen or the amount of basic scientific reading by Society mem- bers is deplorably low. It is gratify- ing that this year's Award winner, Dr. Jerome Gross, is extensively quoted by many of the authors in Collagen. The highlights of the book are an excellent review of protein structure by G. N. Ramachandran, a thorough evaluation of the correlation of structure theory with X-ray dif- fraction and other evidence, O. Kratky's work correlating X-ray diffraction patterns with age of human tendon collagen, E. Kuhnke's presentation of collagen as a basis of tendon tissue function, and, especially for cosmetic chem- ists, K. T. Joseph's study on the influence of biological aging on the stability of skin collagen in albino rats. Each chapter has an extensive bibliography and an often penetrat- ing discussion section. English is used throughout, although many of the original manuscripts had to be translated from other languages. Despite this, not more than a half- dozen errors in text were found by this reviewer. Beautifully clear pictorial representation of collagen structure, electron micrographs and other tables abound. On the negative side, the lack of chapter sequential numbering and a subject index should be mentioned. A definite lack of continuity results from inclusion of a few papers on narrowly limited aspects of collagen. Occasionally, lack of sufficient in- troduction to a subject detracts from reader understanding. Over-all, this is a valuable sum- mation of current status of collagen research for the basic researcher in this field, especially the physical biochemist. For the cosmetic de- velopment chemist, this should be an interesting contribution to his understanding of skin, its structure and properties.--H. E. Jass, Revlon, Inc.

JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS 289 SURFACE ACTIVITY AND DETER- GENCY by K. Durham. Macmillan & Co. Ltd., London. 1961. 250 pages, illustrated and indexed. Price $8.00. This book presents a brief account of the basic physical chemistry. of detergent systems and examines detergent action from a fundamental standpoint. It is an excellent summation of the state of our knowledge and is primarily written for people working on and familiar with theories of detergency. The book's major weakness is that it was written by five contributors, making for discontinuity of presentation and style and leading to needless repetition. Five of the nine chapters of this volume are contributed by Durham. His opening chapter, Properties of Detergent Solutions, is poorly or- ganized. The author covers micelle formation very briefly, discusses adsorption phenomena in more de- tail, and then quite abruptly de- scribes in detai! the properties of nonionic detergents. No such de- tailed treatment is g?en. to the equally important anxomc deter- gents. The author discusses the use of Gibbs' adsorption equations but admits it is much less difficult to use Gibbs' formulae than to understand them. Chapter 2, /tggregation in De- tergent Solutions, by Garrett is an excellent review of the theory of micelle formation. The chapter is very well written and well docu- mented, with references to the basic work in this field. Particularly interesting is the discussion of the controversy between the "spherical" versus the "lameliar" micelle schools of thought. Another chapter by Durham, I/Fetting, is a thorough job and, in contrast to Chapter 1, is very well organized. The different types of wetting are discussed, as are the equations associated with the wet- ting of smooth and rough gorous and nonporous surfaces. One of the very interesting topics covered is the influence of fabric structure on its surface wettability. The duck's feather is a classic natural example of a water repellent structure, and apparently, its water repellency is due to the spatial arrangement of its fibers rather than any water- proofing agent (preen gland oil) on the feather. In Chapter 4, Dirt Removal, by Jones, a good review of the theory of oily and particulate dirt is given. The author presents data which clearly show how the composition and particle size of the soil affect the efficacy of detergents. The effect of builders on dirt removal is well presented, and it is interesting to learn that only soils contaminated with metal-ions respond to the action of builders. A number of incon- sistencies have crept into the text: Data presented in Table 4 on page 89 indicate that carbon soil is easier to remove than vacuum cleaner dust, yet the data shown in Figs. 4.7 and 4.8 are completely reversed. Moreover, the values for the per cent detergency of given detergents vary by more than 50%, depending on whether one refers to the tables or the graphs. The effect of temperature on detergency is treated briefly, and very little information xs given relating the efficacy of detergents to temperature, chemical structure or molecular weight. In Chapter 5, Effects of Detergents on Redeposition, Durham covers the mechanism of detergency. The discussion of the effect of the ionic double layer as a barrier to coales- cence and the theories by which oily and particulate soils are re- moved is in large measure a repeti-