200 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS of inammalian carbohydrate inetabo- lism. Within the framework of the subjects covered, this reviewer found Vol. 17 to be a useful addition to the current series of "Comprehensive Biochemistry."--C^RL B. FELCEr•-- Gillette Company Research Institute IDENTIFICATION TECHNIQUES IN GAS CHROMATOC•A•'H¾, by D. A. Learh- ard and B.C. Shurlock. Wiley-Inter- science, New York. 1970. 282 pages. Price •g13.95. Although a very large number of books on gas chromatography (GC) have been published, this is the first in which identification techniques have been covered so extensively. This is not another general text on GC theory, apparatus, and tech- niques. Apart from a necessary in- troductory chapter on ,the funda- mentals of retention, it is solely a well-documented, up-to-date review of techniques for identifying com- pounds responsible for GC peaks. Topics discussed begin with the principles of retention and column selectivity and the use of retention as a tool in identification. They con- tinue with applications of chemical techniques such as selective abstrac- tion, cheinical modification, pyroly- sis, and other degradative methods, and conclude with physical and in- strumental methods of identification. The physical and instrumental meth- ods include molecular weight deter- ruination, detector response, infrared and other spectroscopic techniques, and mass spectrometry. Techniques for the effective trapping of peaks are also discussed. For each tech- nique mentioned, examples of its use are given and attention is drawn to its advantages and disadvantages and to special considerations regarding its use. The techniques covered range from those requiring simple equip- ment available to almost every chro- matographer to real-time computer processing of data from an on-line mass spectrometer. Thus, the book can be recommended to all who are interested in the qualitative aspects of GC but who have not already reached a high level of sophistication in this area.--G. J. C. FaOHNSDOaFF-- Gillette Company Research Institute