Book Reviews PLASTmS, by J. Harry Du Bois and Frederick W. John. Reinhold Pub- lishing Corporation, New York. 1967. 342 pages, illustrated and in- dexed. Price $11. This book can be barely recognized as the fourth edition of a work last revised in 1945. Developments dur- ing this rapid growth period of the plastics industry have required a vir- tually complete rewriting of the ear- lier edition. This edition provides a broad treatment of plastics materials and processing with emphasis on the engineering aspects. Following an interesting presenta- tion of the history of the industry since early in the last century there are concise descriptions of each of the various commercial plastics. The advantages of both thermosetting and thermoplastic materials are described as well as their principal and unique applications. The remainder of the book is prin- cipally concerned with processing methods and material properties in so far as they are related to processing. Extensive treatment is given to extru- sion, injection, and compression mold- ing techniques including several de- tailed diagrams of the processing 641 machinery. Other precedures such as vacuum coating and blow molding are also outlined, but in less detail. Considerable discussion of a rational for material choice from both end-use and processing viewpoints is also in- cluded. The book is well illustrated with more than a hundred photographs as well as many line drawings, graphs, and diagrams. It is dearly written and would be useful to the cosmetic chemist generally concerned with packaging and processing problems. --John D. Galligan--Gillette Re- search Institute. NON•ONm SURFACTANTS, edited by Martin J. Schick. Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York, N.Y. 1967. 1085 pages, illustrated and indexed. Price $43.50. This volume is the first one in a se- ries entitled Surfactant Science Series. It is a collection of papers covering the subject of nonionic detergents. This book is massive and comprehen- sive and includes 28 chapters by more than 30 contributors. The book is divided into four parts. The largest

642 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS portion is devoted to Organic Chem- istry but includes also comments on the practical applications of the many chemical entities discussed. The remaining three parts are concerned with Physical Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry, and Biology of Nonionic Surfactants. Any review of a book covering such a wide variety of highly specialized fields is difficult and perforce becomes very personal and subjective. To this reviewer the chapters on Mech- anism of Ethylene Oxide Condensa- tion (Shachat and Greenwald), Sol- ubilization (Nagakawa), and Thermo- dynamics of Micelle Formation (Hall and Pethica) were the most interest- ing. Admittedly, the chemist con- cerned primarily with application problems may find other sections of greater interest still, answers to the more fundamental problems should be most helpful whenever the utility of various nonionic wetting agents is the ultimate concern. Unfortunately, the large number of authors makes for occasional repeti- tion however, the editor is probably justified in presenting chapters which can be read without need for referral to other chapters. The major objec- tion to the book is its size. Much of the material in the first 400 pages is reminiscent of the catalogues pub- lished by companies engaged in the distribution of surfactants. Much space and effort could have been saved by referring the interested read- er to these readily available sources of practical information. Additional space could have been saved by re- ducing the size of the figures and pay- ing closer attention to their arrange- ment. Only a few of the chapters are pro- vided with summarizing paragraphs this, in turn, makes it rather difficult to gain a clear picture of the scope of each chapter except by scanning the chapter index. The alphabetical in- dex comprises almost 50 two-column pages but is still inadequate to make the material within this volume read- ily accessible. It is unfortunate that authors, at times, emphasize some as- pects of the activity of nonionic sur- factants while neglecting aspects which are of practical importance. For example, this book allots consid- erable space to the rather meager antimicrobial activity of nonionic sur- factants but refers only in passing to the interference by nonionic sur- factants with the activity of many commonly used preservatives. Many contributors to this volume are em- ployed by commercial organizations, and the emphasis on the favorable qualities of nonionic surfactants can be readily understood. In summary, this book is not in- tended for casual reading or for browsing. It is, instead, a compre- hensive reference to the science and technology of nonionic surfactants. Despite some minor flaws, the pri- mary objective of this book, "to pro- vide the neophyte research worker with an introduction and the ad- vanced reader with critical reviews," has been admirably met.--M. M. Rieger--Warner-Lambert Research Institute.