BOOK REVIEVgS 267 is taken by the clinicians agreeing, inter alia, that while waiting for the chemists to develop satisfactory permanent hair colourants not based on diamines, p-toluyene diamine today remains the most satisfactory in practice. These remarks are backed by an excellent review on cross-sensitisation problems. The chapter on legislation is not quite so happy since it appears to be written in complete isolation from what has gone before, and is based on a very rigid view of current French laws. Substantially no account is taken of the problems involved in selling active hair products to the retail market. On this subject the French law is somewhat Canute-like and it is a pity that the author has joined the court. J. B. WILKINSON CELL WATER. D.A.T. Dick. Pp. x q- 155 q- Ill. (1966). Butterworths, London. 32/6. CELL pH. E.E. Bittar. Pp. viii q- 129 q- Ill. (1964). Butterworths, London. 27/6. These two volumes are companions in the same series of which Dr. Bittar is the general editor. First impressions reveal the close similarity in the two volumes but on closer inspection many differences become apparent. The book on water is more satisfactory because the author has achieved a balance of the relative interests and experiences of biologists and of physical chemists. The reader is taken quite painlessly through a lot of thermodynamics and the author clearly indicates which parts are important and which are optional extras. There is a simple lucid demonstration of the entropy changes occurring on mixing and there is even a chapter discussing the application of Irreversible Thermodynamics to water-solute coupling. This is a brilliant achievement for a lecturer in anatomy. The biological sections are equally satisfactory and are comprehensible to a mere physical chemist. Dr. Bittar, in his book on Ceil pH, faced similar problems to those of Dr. Dick in having to compress the vast literature into a small monograph. Instead of selecting particular areas and discussing them in some depth Dr. Bittar attempted to consider all areas superficially with the result that a vital section such as that on the nuclear membrane is discussed in ten lines and five references. There are statements which convey little to the non-expert while being so superficial as to be valueless to the expert. Reading the volume left me still unclear of the optimum method of actually measuring ceil pH. It is unfortunate that the volume written by Dr. Bittar alone is of a rather lower standard than one has come to expect from this normally excellent series of which he is an editor. A.W. HOLMES. MOLECULAR SPECTROSCOPY-VIII. I.U.P.A.C. Pp. vi q- 261-582 q- Ill. (1965). Butterworths, London. 75s. This is a collection of assorted, mostly short, papers presented by invited lecturers at the 8th European Congress on Molecular Spectroscopy in Copenhagen in August 1965 these papers were first printed in the IUPAC Journal (11 nos. 3 & 4) and are now republished under hard covers but retaining the original pagination. No

268 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS general index has been compiled. There are one French and four German papers: these are without benefit of translation or English synopses the other 15 lectures are rendered in English but these too are mostly without any summary. As has become customary, the invited lectures cover a wide range of highly specialised topics but maintaining a well leavened balanced between theoretical and experimental papers. The theoretical treatments of molecular spectra comprise a general wave mechani- cal introduction, derivation of approximate potential curves, comparison between spectra of triplet alternant hydrocarbons and divalent negative ions, group theory applied to vibration of molecules with nearly free internal rotation, the so-called Coriolis interaction in polyatomic molecules (including detailed examination of intensity peturbation and potential functions of symmetric and asymmetric tops), quantitative use of the 'exciton' model, the iterative analysis of high resolution nmr spectra (with some comments on the limitations of computers), and a Self-Consistent- Field study of •-systems in N- and O-heterocycles. Of more practical interest are a discussion of the ir analysis of a great variety of alkylene, amide, vinyl and acrylic polymers, an account of the exciting development of ultra-rapid scanning (10-100 gsec for 1000 cm-1) ir spectroscopes which may be used to detect free radicals and transient species in flash photolysis, a detailed analysis of the ir spectra of strong hydrogen-bonded systems (e.g. acid phosphates and tri- chloroacetic acid), detectors for far-ir radiation (mainly germanium and InSb bolometers), a well illustrated review of the extension of microwave spectroscopy down to 0.4mm wavelengths, and another covering new studies of its techniques and interpretation, the great facility of examining aqueous solutions by Raman spectros- copy, novel and versatile uses of optical masers, utilisation of the nuclear resonance absorption of gamma-radiation, polarisation spectra from photoluminescence in solution and finally an account of recent research at the National Physical Labora- tory with specially constructed Michelson interferometers in addition to the two commercial instruments in use there. Altogether a very comprehensive selection for which the organisers of the congress are to be congratulated. G.F. PHILLIPS. STRUCTURE AND BONDING. Vol. 1. Editors: ½.K. Jorgensen, J. B. Neilands, R. S. Nyholm, D. Reinen and R.J.P. Williams. Pp. 281 + Ill. (1966). Springer-Verlag, Berlin/Heidelberg/New York. DM48. This first volume is a collection of nine review papers by European and North American authors. The first comprises a long and esoteric survey of recent progress in the theoretical ligand field treatment of metal complexes it is based on a series of lectures that Dr. C. K. Jorgensen gave at a Swiss summer school. Next, Dr. D. F. Shriver provides a succinct account of work on the bifunctional character of cyanide complexes and the probable existence of bridged structures. Three distinct reviews, concerning the naturally occurring iron complexes, are contributed by members of different faculties of the University of California. In the first, the properties and structure of non-porphyrin iron compounds of low molecular weight - mostly poly- hydroxamic acid complexes - are comprehensively described by Professor J. B. Neilands then Dr. B. B. Buchanan makes a very detailed biochemical survey of the chemistry and function of the iron protein Ferredoxin finally Professor R. E. Feeney