356 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS obwohl er, angemessen dem Stadium der wis- senschaftlichen Fundierung, das die Kosmetik •nit ihren Mitteln in den letzten Jahrzehnten erreicht hat, und das er selbst mitwirkend er- lebt, seine eigene Meinung noch nicht konso- lidieren konnte. Er verleugnet damit nicht sei- ne Herkunft aus der Zeit des reinen Empiris- mus. Dies macht das Buch trotz aller Schwii- chen besonders empfehlenswert. Der Rezen- sent meint, dab fdtere analoge Biicher dutch dieses Werk fiir lingere Zeit fiberholt worden sind. H. FREYTAG (Darmstadt) ROMPP'S CHEMIE-LEXIKON, Volume 1, A to C, and Volume 2, D to G, by Dr. Otto- Albrecht Neumtiller. Completely revised and enlarged 7th edition of the Chemistry Dictio- nary founded by Professor Dr. Hermann R6mpp and continued for the 6th edition by Dipl. Chemist Dr. Erhard Ohlein. Volume 1, 734 pages Volume 2, 612 pages both volu- mes generously illustrated linen in slipcase Franckh'sche Verlagshandlung, Stuttgart 1972/ 1973 price DM 125 each subscription price DM 110 each. After the death of Professor Dr. Hermann R6mpp, the founder of this world-renowned encyclopedia, the completion of the 6th edition and partial preparation of this edition was con- tinued by E. Ohlein, who unfortunately passed away too young, in 1969. His successor man- aged an overwhelming amount of material with only a small group of collaborators (Dr. K. Esser, K. Siekmann, and three assistants). This effort is evidenced not only by expertise in the subject matter, by the establishment of novel relationships to industry, and by the utilization of personal communications from specialists, but also especially by the ability to organize. The reviewer, shall, therefore, not limit him- self to pointing out errors which generally should be classified as oversights instead, he will offer some collaborative advice and sugges- tions, although the editor has the right of final decisions. Even the most critical user of this dictionary must respect the effort of the editor and must give recognition to the publisher for his investment. The reviewer would like to suggest the preparation of an English edition of the dictionary which should be not merely a translation but should also include an upda- ting of the contents in order to bridge any time-gap between the English and the German editions. Many entries have the scope of small mono- graphs. This is evidence for the welcome atten- tion to detail with which the revision of earlier entries and the collection of new entries has been carried out. The first volume still leaves the impression that the character of the R6mpp (which shall communicate to all interested in chemistry brief, readily comprehensible infor- mation about the most important concepts, technical expressions, and key terms) is that of a textbook as a consequence of its detailed treatment of especially important entries. Hap- pily, the second volume shows some restraint in this respect and some shortening, as for example in the entry on protein (EiweiB). The editor successfully avoided an excessive incre- ase in size, although the monographs of some particularly important entries have been enlarg- ed..The biographies of scientists might be shortened by references to accessible publica- tions, such as Who's Who, Poggendorffs Biographisch-Bibliographisches Handw6rter- buch der exakten Naturwissenschaften or Ktirschners Gelehrtenkalender, and eulogies in scientific iournals. Each chemical specialist--and in a broader sense all natural scientists--will immediately check how well the entries which are relevant to his specialty have been handled. Therefore, the entries of special importance to cosmetics have been evaluated. Examples follow: A mis- understanding concerns the entry, Gesellschaft Deutscher Kosmetik-Chemiker e. V. (abbre- viated G. K. C.), whose publication reportedly is the iournal, Parftimerie und Kosmetik. Of course, the Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists is involved, of which the G. K. C. is responsible for the two biennial German issues. Reference to the fact that the G. K. C. is com- parable to the American Society of Cosmetic Chemists and, together with similar societies in otl•er countries, belongs to the International Federation of Societies of Cosmetic Che- mists will appear in the next volume under the entry Kosmetik. The cosmetic chemist probab- ly is not likely to consult entries in his own spe- cialty (such as cucumber juice, detergents, de- pilatories, permanent waving preparations, and topicals). He is more likely to consult R6mpp for information on other subiects , which use constitutes the real value of the dic- tionary for him. Fortunately, critical comments under entries on cosmetic chemistry and on cosmetics--both of importance to humans-- are not suppressed. Typical is the case of Royal Gelee for which reiuvenating powers have been claimed without documentation and who- se pharmacological activity is questionable. The new edition of the Lexikon can be re- commended to natural scientists and their asso- ciates on the basis of the first two volumes. In view of the eventuality of an English edition, it would be meaningful to cite more of the ori- ginal literature and fewer iournals which pu- blish only secondary or even tertiary contri- butions which may not be authentic. H. FREYTAG (Darmstadt)