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

416 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS necessary to introduce any radical changes. It is interesting to note that practically every chapter has been expanded to some extent, with the exception of the one on dyes presumably this is one group of antiseptics that is tending to wane in popularity. Literature citations have been extended to 1963 and apparently the early part of 1964. More attention is now devoted to the background theory of sterilization, in the light of the current state of knowledge on the effects of heat, cold, radiation and desiccation. In the section dealing with sterilization by gases and yapours, it is interesting to observe that/•propiolactone is now elevated to the status of having its own monograph. Methods of testing disinfectants and antiseptics have long been the happy hunting ground for microbiologists with a taste for dialectics Mr. Sykes has brought the subject up to date in his text, though still leaving the reader with the impression that current methodology is as debatable as ever it has been since the turn of the century. Chapter 17 dealing with Preservation has been re-written and extended considerably, though the amount of detail it is possible to give on individual aspects is still rather limited. The author devotes only two paragraphs to the inactivation of preservatives by the nonionics. It is of interest to wonder whether he feels that this topic has been unduly magnified by others, or whether he was just a bit weary by the time he came to write these very last paragraphs of the book. Mr. Sykes is well known as a powerful exponent of the need for termino- logical exactitude in the field of -cides and -stats. But his writing style is neither pedantic nor unduly academic and it has an easy flow coupled with the care taken in adequately quoting the published literature and the comprehensiveness of the volume as a whole, this helps to produce a readable text book as well as a serviceable treatise for general reference purposes. THE CHEMISTRY OF NATURAL PRODUCTS 13. I.U.P.A.C. Pp. vii -t- 191 -t- Ill. (1964.) Butterworths, London. 60s. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry republish lectures by senior contributors to its symposia on the chemistry of natural products. At Prague (1962) the eleven papers included a number of specialist topics, e.g. chemotaxonomy, conformational analysis and photo- chemical transformations, but at the third symposium, held in Kyoto, Japan, in April 1964, the emphasis shifted more towards physical methods. In addition to three speakers specifically surveying physical techniques,