Books: The Father of Halitosis

ALL OUT OF STEP (316 pp.)—Gerard B. Lambert—Doubleday ($4.50).

The venerable employee of the Lambert Pharmacal Co., makers of Listerine, opened his book of news clippings and said: "It says in the British Lancet that in cases of halitosis . . ."

"What's halitosis?" interrupted Gerard Lambert, the company's general manager. "Oh, that is the medical term for bad breath," said the employee.

Before anyone could say "Listerine," Lambert "bustled the dear old gentleman out of the room" and soon, with glistening eyes, he was punching out Listerine's first, fine, fetid halitosis ad. That was in 1922. Ever since, says Lambert in this rousing,...