In the field of contact dermatitis, a number of excellent references are available to guide the practicing clinician, in addition to Alexander Fisher's classic text, Contact Dermatitis . One area that has not been specifically covered is that of irritant contact dermatitis. For this reason, the editors, Edward M. Jackson, PhD (researcher and toxicologist), and Ronald Goldner, MD (dermatologist in private practice), teamed up to produce a treatise on this important subject. They recruited interested, knowledgeable physicians to write the sections covering the wide range of factors relating to irritant contact dermatitis. The text is broken down into three areas—the first dealing with the inflammatory response of the skin on exposure to irritant substances, the second on the nature of exposure to irritant substances, and the last dealing with the testing procedures available at present. The first section is extremely well written and presents a very up-to-date and well-organized description of