It is quite interesting to me that a rather tongue in cheek post
on my part sometimes yields very interesting results, I thank you
both for giving additional food for thought.

  Indeed, the first two are the work of Mees, the third was
published after his death and is mostly the work of Thomas
H. James, who eventually took over as head of the Kodak
Research Labs. The original and "revised" editions have a
sense of unity where the third and fourth editions are more
like a collection of journal articles. Grant Haist's _Modern
Photographic Processing_ was, I think, an attempt to publish
a modern version of Mees's book. One which was aimed at the
advanced photographer rather than the specialist.
  Today, the only way to keep up is to read journal
articles and patent literature.
  For those who don't know who Mees was perhaps a bit of
biography is in order. C.E.Kenneth Mees was an English
chemist who became a partner in Wratten and Wainwright, an
early manufacturer of photographic materials in England. W&W
was renouned for the quality of their materials, partculary
in being advanced in color sensitizing. This was mostly the
work of Mees. Through his research on dyes, which are used
to sensitize emulsions, Mees also developed excellent light
filters, hence the name Wratten Filter, which remains to
this day.
 In 1912 Mees was invited by George Eastman to come to
Rochester and set up a proper research laboratory for him.
Mees agreed provided that Eastman would buy out his
partners, the Wrattens, father and son (Wainright had died
long before) but leave them in charge of the company.
Eastman agreed and Mees set up the famous Kodak Research
Laboratories. Mees decided from the outset that research
papers from the labs would be published in established, peer
reviewed, scientific and technical journals rather than in a
house organ. This immediately gave them high prestige and
wide availability. George Eastman wanted to make photography
available to everyone and included education in photography
in his offerings. The Kodak labs published prolifically,
many of the papers are still of great interest and also
trace the historical development of the photographic
process.
   Mees retired about 1960 and died about a year later. The
last book he was personally responsible for was _From Dry
Plates to Ektachrome Film_ which was published after his
death.