Book Reviews THE CHEMICAL FORMULARY, VOL- UME XII, edited by H. Bennett, Chemical Publishing Co., Inc., New York. 1965. 502 pages, indexed. Price $8.00. This volume is the twelfth of a series representing a compilation of formulas for chemical compounding and treatment. With the exception of the introduction, all formulas are new and not repetitious of previous volumes, and for this the author is to be commended. The series was designed to aid the inexperienced in getting started in new fields, and for this reason the introduction, which is a chapter on procedure, has been repeated in each volume. It appears to this writer that a modernization of the introduction is in order. Since for- mulas for aerosols are given, a dis- cussion of their compounding would be desirable. Also, the author al- lotted considerable space to the units used in formulas but neglected to point out that formulas are often written with some ingredients stated by weight and others stated by vol- ume. The formulas, in general, are good, although sometimes superfluous. There are a few errors. For ex- ample, Aerosol Shave Cream No. l specifies use of trichloromonofluoro- methane, a propellent which cannot be used in the presence of water. The book is recommended for the beginner, but not for the experienced formulator.--W. R. NETZBANI)T, Lever Bros. Co. COMPREHENSIVE BIOCftEMISTRY, VOL- UME 6, LIPIDS AND AMINO ACIDS AN•) RELATm) COMPOUNd)S, edited by Marcel Florkin and Elmer H. Stotz, Elsevier Publishing Co., Amsterdam, London, New York. 1965. 323 pages, indexed. Price $17. This rather nonhomogeneous vol- ume contains nine chapters prepared by different authors. As a result of its diversity, this book is of con- siderable interest and holds the read- er's attention. The three chapters on lipids cover the subjects of fatty acids, alcohols, waxes, neutral fats and oils, and phospho- and glycolipids. Most of this material is concerned with the chemistry and the physicochemical description of a broad variety of lipids. Almost no attempt is made to discuss the important physiologi- cal functions which these lipids per- 131

132 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS form in biological systems. The second half of this volume is con- cerned with nitrogen-containing com- pounds of biochemical interest. The two major chapters in this portion are devoted to the chemistry and description of amino acids and nitro- genous bases. Four accessory chap- ters discuss the chemistry of melanins, the synthesis of peptides, capsular polypeptides, and the synthesis of bacterial polypeptides. The emphasis, again, is strictly on the chemistry of these materials and not on their physiological properties. There can be little doubt about the fact that this volume is an ex- cellent introduction and description of the innumerable chemical entities which can be found in biological systems. Despite omissions (e.g., the chemistry of the disulfide bond in cystine is not discussed the prosta- glandins are not mentioned and lipofusdn is ignored), this volume still deserves study. It should prove to be a valuable desk reference or dictionary to hundreds of diverse chemicals which are of biological interest.---M. M. RII•GER, Warner- Lambert Research Institute.