414 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS L'AEROSOL EN PARFUMERIE. Tran Anh Tuan. Pp. 28 + Ill. (1964.) Editions Varia, Paris. 20s. This booklet deals very briefly with general principles, with propel- lants, active ingredients, containers, valves, filling methods and laboratory techniques. It is always difficult to deal with a large subject in a relatively brief manner, and this publication suffers from the faults which one would expect in such circumstances. It is generally conceded that it does take quite a while to publish a textbook and parts of it could therefore become out-of-date between writing and actual publication. These difficulties are not, however, inherent in a small booklet and it is therefore incompre- hensible why this particular publication should be so out-of-date, e.g. in the note on propellants reference is made to a German manufacturer who has not supplied propellants for some time, and what is remarkable is that the trade names of a group of French propellants is given wrongly. The obsolete commercial numbering of Arctons and Algofrene is given in fact these propellants were renumbered to the generally accepted form in 1960. Numerous spelling mistakes also occur. EVALUATION OF DRUG ACTIVITIES: PHARMACO- METRICS. Editors: D. R. Laurence and A. L. Bacharach. Vol. 1. Pp. xvii + 456 + Ill. 95s. Vol. 2. Pp. vii d- 457-900 d- Ill. 90s. (1964.) Academic Press, London and New York. The coining of new hybrid words for subdivisions of sciences which have expanded sufficiently to have exclusive books written on them is always an interesting intellectual exercise. Whether in fact it necessarily contributes to the science of communication is another matter. When confronted with such a term one tends to work through a mental list- pharmacography, pharmacodynamics, etc., and arrive at the meaning rather slowly by a process of elimination. Pharmacometrics is defined as the identification and the comparative evaluation, qualitative and quantitative, of drug activities. It comprises the screening tests used in development of new drugs, and is distinguished from bioassay in which the object is to measure quantities of active materials. The objective of the book is to provide a review and a critical dis- cussion of general and special pharmacological techniques used in the search for new drugs. It is aimed at the pharmacologist who needs a

BOOK R•V•WS 415 quick guide to the methods available for a particular screening job, at other scientists working in pharmacological laboratories but trained in other disciplines, such as biology, physiology, and biochemistry, and at the clinical workers who receive the end products of pharmacometrics for final evaluation. It is not a handbook, although a variable amount of experimental detail is given in the different chapters. Vol. 7 is divided into two parts, the first comprising chapters on general principles underlying screening and clinical trials, and discussing limita- tions of animal tests. The second part of Vol. 7, and the whole of Vol. 2, contains chapters on particular applications to the different types of pharmacological activity. Statistics quoted by J. R. Vane, in his chapter entitled "A Plan for Evaluating Potential Drugs," show that in a survey of over one hundred pharmaceutical companies, dermatological preparations form the largest single group of products. It would be satisfying to record that such effort in the marketing field receives suitable pharmacometric backing. A. Jarrett, in discussing dermatological aspects, however, feels that studies of altera- tions in the skin of man and laboratory animals have provided little information about the pharmacological activities of substances used in dermatology for the cosmetic chemist, this is a disappointingly short chapter. Other chapters on different types of drug activity vary considerably in length and the extent to which they fulfil the editors' objectives. There is perhaps a tendency to fall between the two stools of being on the one hand insufficiently informative for the pharmacologist, and on the other hand too detailed for the more casual reader. Nevertheless, both will find much of use and interest in the book. An index is not included, but chapter headings are self-explanatory, and the two volumes are generally well produced. B.G. OVERELL. DISINFECTION AND STERILIZATION. G. Sykes. 2nd edn. Pp. xx + 48t3 + Ill. (19135.) E. •. F. N. Spon Ltd., London. (84s. U.K. only). It is no mean achievement to have a publication recognized as one of the foremost reference books on a subject and to gain this standing as quickly as Mr. Sykes has done. Eloquent testimony to this effect is given by the speed with which this second edition has come along. The second edition has naturally incorporated new facts and new ideas but the author planned the original well enough not to have found it