IN VIVO TESTING OF TOPICAL ANTIMICROBIALS 323 It appears that the older agent--undecylenic acid--chosen mainly for its antifungal effect, also has antibacterial potency. The numbers of organisms seeded in the experiments are comparable to those noted in some bacterially infected skin. It is possible that this may have a clinical effect--if bacteria indeed add to the pathology of fungal infections. REFERENCES (1) R. Aly, C. Shirley, R. Cunico and H. Maibach, Effect of prolonged occlusion on the microbial flora, pH, CO2 and transepidermal water loss on human skin,J. Invest. Dermatol., 71,378-381 (1978). (2) R. R. Marples and A.M. Kligman, Growth of bacteria under adhesive tapes. Arch. Dermatol., 99, 107-110 (1969). (3) R. Aly and H. Maibach, Clinical Skin Microbiology, (C. C. Thomas, 1978) pp 20-28. (4) P. Williamson and A.M. Kligman, A new method for the quantitative investigation of cutaneous flora,J. Invest. Dermatol., 45,498-503 (1965). (5) R. Aly, H. I. Maibach, W. G. Strauss and H. R. Shinefield, Survival of pathogenic microorganisms on human skin,J. Invest. Dermatol., 58, 205-210 (1972). (6) R. Aly and H. I. Maibach, Aerobic flora of intertrigenous skin, App. Environm. Microbiol., 33, 97-100 (1977). (7) A.M. Kligman and J. Leyden, The interaction of fungi and bacteria in the pathogenesis of athlete's foot, in Skin Bacteria: Relevance to Clinical Inaction, Eds. H. I. Maibach and R. Aly, (Springer Verlag 1981) (in press). (8) M. Marpies and M.J. Bailey, A search for the presence of pathogenic bacteria and fungi in the interdigital space of the foot, Brit. J. Dermatol., 69, 379-388 (1957). (9) D. Taplin, D.C. Bassett and P.M. Mertz, Foot lesions associated with Pseudomonas cepacia, Lancet, 2, 568-571 (1971).

Book Review WOOL SCIENCE: THE CHEMICAL REACTIVITY OF THE WOOL FIBRE, by John A. Maclaren and Brian Milligan Science Press, Marrickville, NSW, Australia, 1981. 328 pages (illustrated, softbound). Price $35 (Australian). Sheep's wool is of great interest to the cosmetic scientist. Firstly, wool grease-- the sheep's sebum--is the source of lano- lin, which, in its native form as well as derivatized, continues to be an important cosmetic raw material. Secondly, because' textile finishing started to be converted from an art to a scientifically-based tech- nology in the '20's--about 25 years before the same process occurred in cosmetics m the early cosmetic scientist had only liter- ature on wool to turn to when wanting to know something about human hair. Stud- ies of the wool fiber continue to be of interest and of relevance, though today knowledge flows in both directions. The book under review is an excellent treatise on its topic--which is not prop- erly described by its title. Surely, '•wool science" includes the ontogeny of the fiber, its mechanical, thermal, optical and electrical properties, its surface structure, its behavior in both dry and wet process- ing, as well as the composition and prop- erties of wool grease and suint. Such fields are only touched on insofar as they relate to what is in fact the book's scope, which is perfectly described by the subti- tie, The Chemical Reactivity of the •/ool Fibre. Following an introductory chapter which discusses the structure and compo- sition of wool (placing large emphasis on the various protein components obtained by different degradation and fractiona- tion methods), 15 chapters are devoted to the reactions of wool with various classes of reagents. The two concluding chapters deal with analytical techniques and the effect of chemical modification on the wool properties. The text is a very good, up-to-date, critical overview of the state of science in the field of wool reactivity and chemical modification. It is less useful as a guide to industrial practice: although practical applications of various reactions are occa- sionally mentioned, it is not always clear to what extent specific processes have been, or are, industrially exploited. The layout is attractive, though some- what wasteful, a wide margin being used for literature references and occasional illustrations. The photographs inter- spersed in the text include, as a nice human touch, informal portraits of a few of the great names in wool chemistry (Lennox, Speakman, Zahn) as well as a picture of the CSIRO Division of Protein Chemistry in Melbourne, the working home of the authors. They also include pictures of various activities in sheep rais- 325