356 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS gredients are briefly described and grouped into one of about 75 dif- ferent classes of compounds, so- called reference congeners. These, in turn, are discussed in detail in Section #3. Here toxicologically related compounds are satisfactorily grouped under a single heading so that a variety of different compounds are discussed simul- taneously. Sections #2 and 3 to- gether permit direct access to therapy: By starting with the name of the chemical involved (in Section #2), one is referred to the reference congener (in Section #3) with de- scriptions of systemic toxic mani- festations and of recommended treatment. Section #4 supplements Section #3 by giving detailed thera- peutic procedures and supportive treatments for acute chemical poisonings. These two sections (#3 and #4) form the heart of this volume and are its raison d'•tre. The largest section of this volume, Section #5, is the Tradename Index. Over 14,000 tradenamed products which might cause poisoning by ingestion are listed in alphabetical order. Many of them are further identified with regard to their composition and active ingredients. Such a list is of obvious importance to the practitioner who may be con- fronted with an acute case of poisoning with no information ex- cept the name of the offending product. It is likely, of course, that Poison Control Centers, which have sprung up through the United States, have still more detailed in- formation than that which can be found in this volume. These pages together with the information on general formulations contained in Section #6 are a gold mine of in- formation for the practicing chemist. As can be expected, the pages de- voted to cosmetics were of particular interest to this reviewer. Some common compositions are listed which have been formulated with raw materials which are identified in some of the other sections of this volume. The basic compositions, although they would be a formu- lator's nightmare, are essentially correct, as are the additional in- gredients which may be contained in some of these products. No serious errors were detected. Throughout the book, a so-called toxicity rating is given for every chemical or formulation described in this volume. These can range from 1 (which is practically non- toxic) to 6, which is supertoxic, i.e., lethal when administered or ingested at a level of 5 mg. per kg. Most of the cosmetic preparations are either classified as practically non- toxic or as slightly toxic (toxicity rating #3, i.e., lethal when ad- ministered at a level of 500 mg.-$ gm. per kg.). Although this volume is designed primarily for the clinicJan and toxicologist, it deserves a prominent place on the bookshelf of chemists engaged primarily in formulation work. A quick check in this book will frequently disclose that use of an ingredient is not advisable in a given household product. Ob- viously, blind reliance on the rat- ings given in this book is no excuse for formulating products with in- gredients which may interact or possess undesirable synergistic ef- fects. However, judicious use of this volume by formulators should be most helpful.--M. M. RtEOER, Warner-Lambert Research Insti- tute. INTERFACIAL PHENOMENA by J. T. Davies and E. K. Rideal. Academic Press, New York and London. 2nd Edition, 1963. 480 pages, illus- trated and indexed. Price $14. This is the second edition, the first having been published only in

JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS 357 1961. Naturally the first com- parison is the previous edition. Essentially the only changes are, as listed in thepreface, pages 269-273 and 335-336, with a slight corre- sponding change in the chapter ref- erences. Otherwise the pagination is identical with the earlier edition, and no changes could be detected. Hence, except for the passages cited as changed, this is still in its entirety the 1961 book with no attempt to update it otherwise. There is one difference, however. The index has been greatly ex- panded-almost doubled--so that it provides an excellent access into the book. In addition the complete author reference index is retained. The book is developed under eight chapter headings: The Physics of Surfaces, Electrostatic Phenomena, Electrokinetic Phenomena, Adsorp- tion at Liquid Interfaces, Properties of Monolayers, Reactions at Liquid Surfaces, Mass Transfer across In- terfaces, and Disperse Systems and Adhesion. The subject matter is very lucidly developed with extensive use of tables and figures, so that the whole is very readable. At the end of each chapter is an extensive list of references, in the order of a hundred each, which have been cited in the course of that chapter. The reader thus receives the impression that each chapter represents a complete review and that the bibliography represents all pertinent papers. This is unfortunately not quite the fact. The authors have de- veloped a complete exposition draw- ing heavily on the European publi- cations and almost completely ig- noring work from this side. Now admittedly publications fr3m the U.S. have not been as prolific as the importance of this field would justify. However, few receive even the courtesy of a citation. In this regard the reviewer feels that some companion book for balance needs citing, but there is no such available! However, another recent English publication "Gas/ Liquid and Liquid/Liquid Inter- faces--A Bibliography" (2 vols.), by D. W. Stephens, with an intro- duction by J. T. Davies, published June, 1962, by Joseph Crosfield & S,3ns, Ltd., Bank Quay, Warrington Lane, Gr. Britain, provides a wealth of additional references, without regard to national origin. Nevertheless, this is an excellent book, one that is a must for colloid chemists. The average cosmetic formularive chemist is likely though, to consider it somewhat too theoret- ical to be one of his standard texts. However, judicous selected readings cannot but enhance his under- standing for many of his problems, and it is therefore one of the books that should be available to him.-- JoH• H. WooD, Bristol-Myers Prod- ucts Division. INTERNATIONAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CHEMICAL SCIENCE, D. Van No- strand Co., Inc., Princeton, N.J. 1331 pages. Price $32.50. A distinguished group of con- tributing editors have condensed an enormous amount of chemical information into the 1300 pages of this volume. Organic name re- actions, thermodynamics, rotational energy levels of molecules, the law of ph.ysics, structures and names of organic and inorganic compounds, and thousands of other subjects have been combined to create this volume. Most headings are followed by brief explanations although many entries in this encyclopedia cover more than one page and are sound treatments of certain topics of chem- istry. Particularly noteworthy is the long entry on organic nomenclature. On the other hand, some less im-