JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS 175 The modification of drugs by living organisms is discussed in a particularly interesting chapter wl•ich should be of considerable in- terest to cosmetic chemists. Possi- bly a foreign ag:nt may be con- vetted, xn vivo, to a new compound which then acts as the noxious agent of disease or irritation. Sex- ton also notes that the effect of a given substance on the org,•nism may depend on diet, etc. this, in turn, may affect conjugation of the noxious agent with the "detoxifying" material or other cell constituent. The broad scope of this book and the many diverse aspects of pharmaco- logical activity recorded in its pages make this volume interesting reading for cosmetic chemists.--M. M. RIECER, Warner-Lambert Research Institute PROTEINS AND NUCLEIC Actr)s, by Max F. Perutz. Elsevier Publish- ing Co., Amsterdam, 1962, x q- 211 pp. Price $9.00. This is an ideal book for anyone who wishes to be brought up to date in the fast-moving field of protein chemistry, which has such strategic bearing on cosmetic chem- istry. The author, along with J. C. Kendrew, was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1962 for his part in working out the tertiary structure of myo- globin and hemoglobin, thus estab- lishing the over-all shape of these large polypeptides and at the same time confirming or setting straight many hypotheses concerning second- ary structure. Perutz describes with admirable clarity the attack upon the knotty problem of protein architecture, using the myoglobin and hemo- globin effort as a fascinating illus- tration of the intricate methods and herculean persistence inw)lved in elucidating such a structure. He outlines the successive advances in methodology that made it possible to dream of such an accomplishment, from the development of chroma- tography by Martin and Synge in 1945, through Sanger's solution of the primary structure of insulin in 1955 and Perutz's own discovery, in 1953, of the use of a heavy metal atom as a landmark in mapping the complex x-ray diffraction patterns, to the final construction of the .myoglobin and hemoglobin models m 1961 and 1962. He points out that the ultimate aim of the x-ray analysis of proteins must be two- fold. "It should lead to an under- standing of enzymic function on a structural basis and to the formula- tion of a set of stereochemical rules whereby the structure of a protein could be predicted from its amino acid sequence. Regarded in that light the present achievements rep- resent a very modest beginning." True, but what a splendid beginning, even though it is said to indicate that "the rules of protein stereo- chemistry are very complex and may not become apparent before the structures of many proteins have been solved in atomic detail." The author goes on to describe the structure and replication of deoxyribonucleic acid, the biosyn- thesis of protein and DNA, and the genetic control of protein synthesis. A wealth of concise and lucid ex- position is packed into the 160 pages of text and six pages of appendix.--PAuL G. I. LAUFFER, Chesebrough-Ponds, Inc.

176 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS Tenth Honorary Membership The Society of Cosmetic Chemists recently announced the presentation of an honorary lifetime membership in the society to Mr. Walter Wynne. The award was made in recognition of his work for the society as its arrangements chairman for the past eleven years, a record unequalled in the society's history. Mr. Wynne, who is associated with Givaudan-Delawanna, Inc., is the tenth person to be so honored.