Book Reviews FATTY ACIDS, THEIR CHEMISTRY, PROPERTIES, PRODUCTION AND USES: Part 3, Second edition, Interscience Publishers, New York. 1964. 992 pages, illustrated and indexed. Price $35. Maintaining the high standards and quality of work set by Parts I and 2 of the Second Edition of Fatty Acids, Part 3 of the series covers the special areas of fatty acid chemistry such as the biological oxidation, nitrogen and sulfur derivatives, chemical synthesis of fatty acids, the biogenesis of fatty acids, etc. This volume gives con- siderable space and emphasis to the techniques of separating of fatty acids by the various analytical means. Methodology and the analytical tools which have emerged in recent years have given fatty acid chemistry the impetus which it required to come to its own. Careful review of the literature and the techniques involved in one volume is most timely and certainly welcome. True to the announcement notices, almost overnight the volumes of this series on fatty acids have become the indispensable working tool of the or- ganic chemist. Although the entire volume is worthy of praise we must give special praise to Dr. Mahler for 185 his chapter on Biological Oxidation of Fatty Acids and to Dr. Sonntag for his comprehensive and complete chap- ter on Nitrogen Derivatives. The volume utilizes the idea of a table of contents for each chapter at the start of the chapter. It is very helpful and useful in understanding and locating the spedfie material in the chapter. The bibliographies are extensive and well organized, as are the index and cross references at the end of the volume. We highly recommend Part 3 and the previous volumes in this series on Fatty Acids. Both as reading matter and reference use for the organic chemist the volumes are indispens- able.--V. K. BABAYAN--Drew Chemi- cal Corp. NEw METIIODS OF ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, by Ronald Belcher and Cecil L. Wilson. Second edition, Reinhold Publishing Corp., New York. 1964. 366 pages. Price $13.50. The first edition of this book, pub- lished in 1955, described gravimetric and titrimetric methods originated after 1932 and not included in stand- ard analytical textbooks. The second edition is almost entirely new. It

186 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS excludes the many methods listed in the first edition which have since entered the standard textbooks and omits certain of those methods which have not proven their worth after continued trial. The second edition also includes many methods origi- nated since 1955. This work includes no strictly in- strumental procedures, but it does include an "arbitrarily selected" group of spectrophotometric methods which provide highly specific, selec- five, or unique means of determining low levels of certain inorganic ions by forming highly colored complexes. Successive chapters cover titri- metric standards, indicators, titrants, organic reagents, selective spectro- photometric methods, precipitation from homogeneous solution, solvent extraction, and miscellaneous meth- ods. The book's subtitle might well be "Chemistry can be fun," for the enticing array of bizarre and exotic reagents tempts the reader to try out the procedures just for the fun of it. Methods are included for synthesiz- ing many of the special reagents. Novel methods are listed for de- termining 48 elements, including those likely to interest the cosmetic chem- ist. For many metals a wide choice of methods is given, and a full description is given of other metals which interfere in each case. For copper, no less than 16 methods are set forth, 11 for iron, 10 for mercury. A treatise on chelating agents is in- cluded, detailing their usefulness for separating many mixtures and for forming complexes that can be used in many determinations. Many pro- cedures are included for separation of mixtures by solvent extraction, in- cluding methods of separating small amounts of a given metal from large excesses of others. The methods are well described and conveniently documented. For any laboratory not irreversibly com- mitted to instrumentation, this book should provide valuable assistance. It should make interesting and in- strucfive reading for almost any analytical chemist, as well as pro- vide a convenient source of special methods for unusual tasks.--PauL G. I. LAuFFER--Chesebrough-Pond's, Inc.