Book reviews TEXTBOOK OF DERMATOLOGY. Editors: A. Rook, D. S. Wilkinson and F. J. G. Ebling. Vol. 1. Pp. xvi q- 1-101t3 q- Ill. Vol. 2. Pp. xvi q- 1017-19134 -•- Ill. (19138). Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford. oe21. As stated in the Preface, this is the first comprehensive reference book on dermatology to be published in England for over a quarter of a century. The briefest glance at the two new volumes will convince anyone that there is an immense field to be covered and it is inevitable that the success of the editors (each of whom has been a distinguished contributor to British research in this area for many years) should be questioned. A reference work dealing with a rapidly advancing branch of science is necessarily liable to become out-dated even before publication day. Dermatology is not, perhaps, advancing by means of fundamental research as rapidly as some other biological sciences or as fast as it really should be. However, original research papers appear in fair numbers and one of the tests to be applied to a new textbook is the up-to-dateness of its bibliography. There are certainly many references up to and including 1066, but apparently no later ones. The two volumes are made up of a collection of monographs by over twenty writers, and so it was doubtless necessary to gather together all these separate contributions for editing some time in advance of publication. The con- tributors include not only well-known British authorities such as Drs. Rowell, Sneddon, •Vells, and Parish, but also Professor Fregert from Sweden, Dr. Hjorth (Denmark) and Professor Kerdel-Vegas (Venezuela). There is no doubt at all that this varied authorship adds a wealth of experience to the text which is of great value, but the standard of editing is such that uniformity of treatment and continuity are quite excellent. High praise is also merited by the clear lay-out, language, printing, illus- tration and, in fact, all technical departments. So far, this review has been concerned with generalities and it is necessary to comment on the scientific content. A reviewer who is not a dermatologist naturally approaches this task with some diffidence. However, there are numerous topics where the interests of the dermatologist and the cosmetic scientist are closely inter- woven and an opinion of the treatment given to such matters can be formed quite readily. For example, a great deal of the material in the earlier chapters is of mutual interest and is handled with great clarity and simplicity. Likewise there are lucid chapters dealing with the eccrine and apocrine glands, the sebaceous glands and the hair. Subjects relating to the effects of externally-applied agents, dermatitis, patch- testing etc. are probably discussed more clearly and comprehensively than in any other single work of reference. Lest this praise should appear too fulsome, let it be noted that "the" is printed as "hte" in one place. The authors regrettably do not acknowledge that a primary 755

756 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS function of sebum may be to waterproof the epidermis and thereby aid the volatili- zation of eccrine sweat (a thermo-regulatory mechanism?). More serious, perhaps, is the fact that they do not appear to recognize a connection between oral candidosis and denture sore mouth or quote any of the many references to this relationship published from 1965 onwards. Those who knew that Drs. Rook, Wilkinson and Ebling were working on a new textbook of dermatology must have felt that the result would be masterly. This is indeed the case. N. J. VAN ABBI•, SYNTHETIC DETERGENTS. A. Davidsohn and B. M. Milwidsky, Pp. 231 q-Ill. (1967). Leonard Hill, London. 70s.. Handsomely bound and in a strikingly attractive dust jacket, this is the fourth edition in a series, the first edition of which was published in 1938 (under a different title). In the preface, the authors state that the book is written for the practical man and is intended to be a guide to the small and medium scale manufacture and com- pounding of synthetic detergents. In this case, would not "Synthetic Detergent Manufacture" have been a more valid title? The greater part of the text is given over to the outline of manufacturing processes and there is much useful information con- cerning equipment, safety precautions, snags that may be encountered, analytical control, etc., as well as some very good diagrams of equipment layout. However, the authors' prose leaves much to be desired. Many paragraphs are badly constructed (e.g. pages 14, 15, 64 and 76) and are even grammatically incorrect on occasions, some sentences being quite meaningless. Indeed, the usefulness of the book as a source of information is largely nullified by the very large number of errors and generally slip- shod composition proof-reading must have been non-existent. Apart from the spelling mistakes, the typographical inconsistencies with regard to lay-out, sub-headings, etc., and the incorrect chemical formulae, all of which could be blamed on the printers, there is much for which the authors must bear responsibility the oxyethylene group -OCH2CH 2- is repeatedly given incorrectly as--CH2OCH 2 (pp. 7-21) there are errors of one sort or another in Tables XIII, XIX, and XXXI in pp. 48-49 there is talk of surface and interfacial tensions (no units given!), of solutions of detergents and additives without any mention of the phase against which the inter- facial tension was measured only by working backwards from a formula for a 2% solution (p. 197) do we learn that U.S. and not Imperial gallons are intended etc. etc. The physical chemistry, rudimentary though it may be intended to be, has a general "half-baked" atmosphere about it. For instance, the authors are obviously unaware that the term "deflocculation" has a precise meaning in surface che•nistry the conventional "dehydration" explanation for the "cloud point" of nonionic detergents in aqueous solution is given without any mention of more recent work, e.g. Elworthy, P. H. and McDonald, C., Rollold Z., 1915, 16 (1964), which has provided considerable evidence that the "clouding" at higher temperatures is due to increased micellar hydration the term "cloud point" is also repeatedly used in connection with anionics when "I(rafft point" is obviously intended. The information contained in this book could have provided an excellent intro- duction to the detergent industry for the newly qualified chemist or chemical engineer,