The Chemical Senses

IN four hundred pages, Mr. Moncrieff has collected together most of the factual knowledge related to the sensations of taste and smell, and, for good measure, has summarized the many theories which have, from time to time, been advanced to account for these and their related phenomena. That such a volume must savour of 'compilation' is inevitable ; and to say from a single reading of this book, packed as it is with data of all kinds, that it is difficult to obtain a clear view of the subject is no serious criticism of the author ; indeed, he has been at pains to miss no single topic, and has chronicled everything from the cash value of ambergris to the nature of Raman spectra.The Chemical SensesBy R. W. Moncrieff. Pp. vii + 424. (London: Leonard Hill, Ltd., 1944.) 25s.