322 BOOK REVIEWS [Vol. 76 Book Reviews THE NATIONAL FORMULARY. Ninth Edition. Pp. xl + 877. Washington : American Pharma- This book should not be confused with the British publication having a similar title, which is a compilation of prescriptions for use in connectionwith the National Health Service Act, 1946, whereas the book under review may conveniently be regarded as being approximately the American equivalent of our British Pharmaceutical Codex. Its purpose is to present a compilation of standards for widely used drugs and preparations that are not included in the United States Pharmacopoeia. The importance of the National Formulary has steadily increased since the appearance of the first edition in 1888 and by the terms of the Federal Food and Drugs Law of 1906 it was designated an official compendium along with the United States Pharmacopoeia, and this arrangement was confirmed by the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1938.The body of the work comprises 662 pages devoted to monographs giving detailed standards for drugs and their preparations. These monographs are arranged in the same way as those of the United States Pharmacopoeia and, in general, include a description of the medicament, statement of solubility, tests for identification, examination for likely impurities and, where applicable, a procedure for assay. For nearly every substance there is a direction about packaging and storage. After the monographs there follows a compilation of reagents and preparations for use in the clinical laboratory and then an important section devoted to standards for reagents, for ingredients of preparations and for dyes used as biological stain.s.Together, these two portions of the work occupy 114 pages of small print. Many of the specifications are very exhaustive, particularly those applying to the dyestuffs. The next section of 98 pages is entitled general tests, processes and apparatus and defines numerous analytical operations, such as the test foir arsenic, the determination of boiling range, disintegration tests for tablets, standards for light transmission, the measurement of viscosity, microbiological methods for the assay of nicotinarriide and riboflavine and many more general and special analytical procedures. A further list of general reagents and volumetric solutions, two tables of permitted coal-tar dyes for colouring purposes, a short addendum and.an index occupying 57 pages complete this handsomely bound volume. From all these thousands of tests and analytical processes it would not be difficult to make suggestions for alternatives or improvements, the more easily by concentrating on one’s own specialities. It is sufficient to say that every page reveals the immense care that has been devoted to the production of this compendium. Much of the matter has, of necessity, been derived from previous editions or from earlier Pharmacopoeias of the United States; but, on the other hand, much is new and the whole is dovetailed together to produce a work of reference invaluable to all concerned with the examination of medicinal substances.ceutical Association. 1950. Price $8.00 (in U.S.A.) ; $8.75 (elsewhere). But no useful purpose would be served. N. L. ALLPORT DDT AND NEWER PERSISTENT INSECTICIDES. By T. F. WEST, D.Sc., Ph.D., F.R.I.C., and G. A. CAMPBELL, M.Sc., F.R.I.C. Second Edition.. Pp. xiv + 632. London: Chapman and Hall Ltd. 1950. Price 50s. The first edition of this book appeared in 1946 when DDT was still something of a novelty. Even so, it ran to some 300 pages in recording the large amount of research results published up to 1945. In the succeeding years an even greater volume of publications on the applications of DDT in the control of animal and plant pests has appeared. Hence it is not surprising that the authors have found it necessary to produce a revised and extended second edition, or that the new edition should run to some 500 pages devoted to DDT, with a further 7 0 pages devoted to newer chlorinated hydrocarbon insecticides.Inclusion of the latter has, incidentally, necessitated an appropriate change in the original title. Chapter I, describing the development of DDT, has been completely rewritten on the basis of more detailed information obtained from Switzerland since 1945. Similarly, advances in knowledge of the chemistry of DDT have necessitated considerable revision of Chapter 11, which now includes a valuable tabulation of the many analogues that have been synthesised and gives an indication of their relative insecticidal activity, with references. This chapter deals with assay methods Part One of the book, dealing with DDT, follows the pattern of the first edition.May, 19511 BOOK REVIEWS 323 for DDT and its estimation in residues on biological or other treated surfaces, and also gives much more information on the solubility of DDT than appeared in the first edition.It is to be regretted that this latter information refers in the main to the pure p-p’-isomer and that the solubilities are expressed as “grams per 100 ml” and “grams per 100 grams” of solvent. The ordinary user is likely to be much more interested in the solubility characteristics of technical DDT, and even then on a weight/volume percentage basis. The remaining chapters, while preserving much of the matter presented in the first edition, have been considerably extended by references to more recent work.Part Two deals, rather briefly, with the newer chlorinated hydrocarbon insecticides, chapters being devoted respectively to benzene hexachloride, chlordane, toxaphene and “various new insecticides. ” The authors are to be congratulated on the manner in which they have undertaken the task of surveying the vast literature on this subject. Wisely, they have not attempted to do more than report on all work that appears to be relevant. In fact, they specifically disclaim any effort to make, at this stage of development, a “critical rbsumb.” It does, however, seem unfortunate that a book published in 1950 should review the literature only up to 1946; although, through unavoidable delay in production of the book, opportunity has been taken to include, as an appendix, lists of references tabulated according to chapter headings up to 1948.Suffice it to say that this is a book that must be available to all those who, as chemists or biologists, are interested in insecticides. The book is well produced and bound, contains relatively few mis- prints, and includes 13 plates, most of which appeared in the first edition. It is quite impossible in a short review to single out items of particular interest. W. MITCHELL ORGANIC REAGENTS FOR ORGANIC ANALYSIS. By the Staff of the Research Laboratory of Hopkin and Williams Ltd. Second Edition. Pp. viii + 255. Published by Hopkin and Williams Ltd., Chadwell Heath, Essex. 1950. Price 12s. 6d. (plus 5d. postage) from the publishers. The first edition of this laboratory handbook to the use of organic reagents in the identification of organic compounds by means of derivatives with diagnostic melting-points has already received favourable notice in The Analyst (1946, 71, 503).The general plan of the second edition follows that of !he first, but the book has undergone enlargement by the inclusion of about half a dozen new reagents and many additions, revisions and corrections to the melting-point tables. This increase in subject-matter fulfils, in some measure, the hope expressed by the reviewer of the first edition. From the large number of reagents that are continually being proposed for the identification of organic groups and compounds by means of the melting-points of characteristic derivatives, a selection is made of those that are, in the opinion of the authors and for reasons stated, the most useful and readily obtainable; for these, the properties and methods of use are described and the melting-points of the derivatives listed. Bibliographies to the literature of the selected reagents are supplied and the properties of many other reagents that are, for various reasons, considered to be of less general importance or usefulness are critically reviewed. It forms a useful companion to the standard textbooks on practical organic chemistry. F. L. OKELL The book is well indexed, and bound in proofed cloth for bench use.