'216 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS McCvTcHEoN's D•.T•.RCE•TS A• Ex•v•,sn•m•as, 1972 ANNUAL, McCut- cheon Division, Allured Publishing Corp., New Jersey, 1972. 232 pages, indexed. Price $10.00. This new edition retains the over- all format of previous editions listing the trade name, manufacturer, class and formula, form, properties, and uses of detergent and emulsifiers available in the U.S. As such it is a very valuable compilation, although by its very nature the contents can- not change much from year to year. However, there are a number of new materials included in this edi- tion and the increasing use of HLB numbers to define a given detergent is reflected in the expanded HLB in- dex which now includes materials with HLB's up to 42. Unfortunately, in doing this the editors have omit- ted a few compounds such as Aky- porox RLM100 and Zonyl A, which, since they do appear in the main list- ing of the book, are apparently still available. There is a concise, but fairly com- plete, discussion, by J. C. Harris, of the composition of detergents, build- ers, detergent additives, and the sta- tus of the various Government and local laws and actions concerning phosphates, NTA, enzymes, bacterio- stats, bactericides, flame retardancy, and labeling. The absence of a dis- cussion on sodium carbonate is, I think, a serious omission. Neverthe- less, this addition xvill be most use- ful to chemists who need an overall view of the current situation. There are remarkably few typo- graphical errors and the printiug is uniformly clear and readable. A seri- ous drawback of all editions to date, including the current one, is the in- clusion of terms such as "fortified" (page 53), "modified" (page 172), "blend of solvents and detergents" (page 172), and such general terms as "alkyl aryl" or "long-chain." If more complete information cannot be obta'ned from the manufacturer then it might be worth considering omitting these materials. The inclu- sion of the telephone numbers of all suppliers is a valuable addition in this respect which will be useful to many users. Despite these shortcomings, this yeaifs McCutcheon's is an excellent book to look for materials for use in such widely diverse areas as deter- gents, metal cleaners, foods, and the manufacture of polyurethane foams. It should be on every chemist's book shelf.-A. H. GtL•ERr--Lever Broth- ers Go.