498 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS DISCUSSIONS OF THE FARADAY SOCIETY. No. 40 1965: INTERMOLECULAR FORCES. Pp. 291 d- Ill. (1966). Butterworth, London. 80s. The 40th of a series of 'General Discussion' meetings organised by the Faraday Society was held at Bristol University during three days in September 1965 the 276 participants included visitors from 19 other countries. The meeting was built around the manifold studies currently being conducted for the understanding of 'Inter- molecular Forces'. The Society has now published under one cover the Spiers Memorial lecture with which Professor Longuet-Higgins opened the meeting, the 24 contributed papers, the text of the five general discussion sessions, and the synthesis of ideas and prospect in the summary by Professor C. A. Coulson. Broadly speaking the papers fall into four groups. Those dealing with examination of interatomic forces in the gas phase are largely theoretical and require increasingly complex electronic computational assistance a number of papers are concerned particularly with 3- (or even many-) body treatments and these concepts are extended to crystal structure. More complex discussion is needed to cater for the short-range repulsive interactions in the liquid and solid state a few contributors have perhaps sought an interpretation that is too physical for some of their calcula- tions. Useful papers quantify non-polar repulsion in a fluid or at a surface, but much more study is needed on absorption phenomena. The description of non-polar inter- actions in molecular crystals, and other polyatomic systems, are also largely of a repulsive character, depending little upon mutual orientation, but dipole-quadrupole interaction may lead to angular dependence. Of course where a molecule has a perman- ent dipole this may swamp the subtle defects described. Literally the most vital, and requiring the most indulgence in the way of assumptions, are interactions in biological systems. Crude estimations of non-bonding repulsion in peptide helixes lead to predictions of geometrical rigidity for a given amino-acid sequence. Perhaps the most striking feature of these papers is the difference in level of sophistication: some problems appear to require a profound study of forces between (say) gases other (e.g. liquid-solid) interactions are examined from crude approxima- tions and assumptions. The somewhat specialised interaction of the hydrogen-bond in organic systems was deliberately excluded from this General Discussion no doubt a special meeting could be set aside - the Faraday Society last held one on this topic in 1940. This collection of papers is so broad ranging, and in many instances so specialised, that the book is unlikely to commend itself for general reading. Its value lies as a reference source to a broad spectrum of current thinking in the analytical treatment of the nature and magnitude of forces between molecules in many different physical states. This extension of physical chemistry was aptly summarised by Professor Coulson when he defined the discussion as a synthesis of theoretical physics and exDerirnental chemistry. G.F. PHILLIPS

Society of Cosmetic Chemists of Great Britain ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING The Eighteenth Annual General Meeting of the Society took place on the 22nd May, at the Washington Hotel, Curzon Street, London, W. 1. The Annual Report was presented by the President, Dr. A. W. Middle- ton, who referred particularly to the acquisition of office accommodation in Central London, to the appointment of Mrs. S. Taylor as General Secretary, in succession to Mrs. D. Mott, and the retirement of Dr. M. Cantley as Hon. Education Secretary. The Treasurer's Report was pre- sented by the Hon. Treasurer, Mr. G. A. C. Pitt. In the voting for three new Members of Council the following were elected: Mr. R. L. Davis, Mr. K. M. Godfrey, Mr. K. Tomlinson. The officers for 1967-68 are:- President: Mr. Immediate Past President: Dr. Vice-President: Mr. Hon. Secretary: Dr. Hon. Treasurer: Mr. Hon. Editor: Mr. Hon. Education Secretary: Dr. D. E. Butterfield A. W. Middleton C. Pugh J. J. mausner G. A. C. Pitt A. Herzka T. J. Elliott Mr. L. S. Smith •vas re-appointed Hon. Auditor, and Messrs. H. Vv'. Fisher & Co. were re-appointed Auditors for the current year. The business meeting xwts followed by a buffet 'supper. 499