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REVIEWS AND NOTICES OF BOOKS

Methodik der HormonforschungViol. 1. ByDr. Phil. CHRISTIAN BOMSKOV. Leipzig:Georg Thieme. 1937. Pp. 716. RM.56.

THE first volume of this work deals with generallaboratory methods and with the hormones of thethyroid, parathyroid, adrenal cortex and medulla,and the pancreas. It is remarkable for the detailin which it describes all the working methods whichmay be used in the chemical and biological investiga-tion of hormones and, in particular, of their assay.Thus the subjects included in the 142 pages of the" General Part " range from a description of necessarysurgical instruments and general operative methodsto electrometric measurements of pH, whilst thetheoretical side is not forgotten, and there are pageson the principles of biological assay and themathematics of dose-response curves; with a welcomeemphasis on the necessity of basing all biologicalassays on comparison with standard preparationsand international units. In the " Special Part "the matter is arranged under the headings of surgical,histological, biological, pharmacological, and chemicalmethods, and the treatment is so full and inclusivethat, whether the subject be the preparation of

thyroglobulin or the assay of adrenal cortex extracts,any method of repute is described in sufficient detailfor it to be carried out by a competent worker.

It is too often true of a work of this compilatorycharacter that it is uncritical-in some respects itmust be, where the subject is controversial, and theauthor must keep a judicial attitude while the caseis still being argued-but here this conclusion wouldbe unjust, for the author has a sufficiently wide first-hand knowledge to be able to indicate clearly andauthoritatively the advantages and disadvantagesof any method and its sphere of usefulness andlimitations. The author intends the book " forchemists and physiological chemists, for the medicalman engaged in scientific work, and for the clinician."It does in fact combine chemical and biologicalinformation in just the way to be useful to all thoselaboratory workers in endocrinology who, primarilytrained in one or other science, find themselves inthis subject working on the frontiers between them.For any type of worker, whether purely scientificor technical, it is a mine of information which cansave the labour of many references to the originalliterature.

A Synopsis of HygieneFifth edition. By W. W. JAMESON, M.A., M.D.,F.R.C.P., D.P.H., Professor of Public Health,London University, and Director of Public HealthDivision, London School of Hygiene and TropicalMedicine ; and G. S. PARKINSON, D.S.O., M.R.C.S.,D.P.H., Lieut.-Colonel R.A.M.C..(Ret.), AssistantDirector, London School of Hygiene. London :J. and A. Churchill Ltd. 1936. Pp. 623. 21s.

A FRESH edition of this well-known text-book wascalled for because of the mass of new public healthlegislation passed in the present year, and the

opportunity has been seized for revising much of thetext and bringing the synopsis fully up to date inscience as well as in law. The title of this bookaptly describes its purport and the positions heldby the authors and their collaborators guarantee itas a sound exposition of British public health science,practice, and tradition. The main appeal of the

book is to students for the D.P.H. course and toentrants to the various branches of public medicalpractice, but experienced practitioners may referto it for details which they are apt to forget. Itis designed to give, under each section, as much asevery medical officer of health is expected to knowand nothing in the non-medical field which he neednot know ; it does not profess to deal fully with thestrictly medical duties of health officers. But itleaves no subject untouched and is a true and fullsynopsis of preventive medicine.Despite the condensation of the material the book

is agreeable to read and it is remarkably free fromerrors. Indeed, we have noticed only one mis-state-ment-namely, " Every five years the M.O.H. mustissue a survey report." Survey reports are requiredonly when the Ministry of Health calls for them ;the last call was in 1930, none was required for 1935.The index is good ; the references at the end of eachparagraph are valuable. This is a thoroughly soundand useful book which should find a place in thecurrent library of every public health practitioner.

Textbook of PathologySixth edition. By W. G. MACCALLUM, Professorof Pathology and Bacteriology, Johns HopkinsUniversity, Baltimore. Philadelphia and London :W.B. Saunders Co., Ltd. 1936. Pp. 1277. 42s.

THE fact that MacCallum’s text-book is enjoyingits twentieth anniversary is sufficient proof of itscontinued usefulness and popularity. Like its prede-cessors the present edition is arranged on an ætio-

logical classification and not on the conventionalsystem of organ headings. The method has its

advantages, particularly in giving the student a

better concept of disease as a process and in avoidingany tendency to turn morbid anatomy into a seriesof " pots." On the other hand it has the disadvantagethat in the present state of our knowledge manydiseases cannot be so classified and this makes thebook less easy for quick reference; the index ishowever sufficiently good for this disadvantageto be minimal.Although the general lay-out of the book is the

same, there have been numerous additions andalterations ; in fact few of its 75 chapters havesurvived unchanged, whilst several new ones havebeen added. The additions have filled in the omissionswe noted in the last edition and include newlydescribed conditions such as healed pyelonephritisin children, monocytic leukaemia, von Gierk’s disease,and granulosa-cell tumour. Naturally the size ofthe book has increased a little, but with the 66 extrapages the reader gets 45 new illustrations. Thenew edition can be confidently recommended for itsup-to-date information on all branches of pathology.As a work of reference it should be no less useful.

Theory and Practice of PsychiatryBy WILLIAM S. SADLER, M.D. London : HenryKimpton. 1936. Pp. 1231. 42s.

THE author of this enormous book holds, as hesays in his preface, that there is a " dearth of prac-tical literature dealing with the non-psychotic groupsof mental disorder," and he attributes this dearthto a bias towards an " institutional " conception ofpsychiatry on the part of those who have written

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the accepted text-books. His work is designed tomake good the omission and is addressed not onlyto psychiatrists but to all physicians, sociologists,psychobiologists, and other trained men and women(clergymen, nurses, &c.) who may be desirous of

doing something, directly or indirectly, in the fieldsof preventive and curative psychiatry. The work isdivided into five parts. The first deals with generalprinciples and the second with personality problems :these make up a third of the book. The neuroses

occupy the twenty-three chapters of Part 3 ; in Part 4

(134 pages) the psychoses are described, and the lastpart (244 pages) is devoted to psychotherapy.Numerous books have been written by psycho-

therapists for the same reasons as prompted Dr.Sadler. His own book is well intentioned, anythingbut abstruse, attractive for many people in itsemphasis upon the value of religious and similarideals, and its almost pastoral psychotherapy. It isbased on the long experience of its author as directorof the Chicago Institute of Research and Diagnosis,a clinic for the treatment of paying patients ; it is,moreover, fortified by references to books and articlesdealing more authoritatively with some of the topicsraised. But the customary faults of such literatureare here more than usually conspicuous. It is diffuse,neither learned nor penetrating. Commonplacereflections on the world and human nature are setdown-either plain or translated into technicalterms-as important psychological principles, whilemany of the crucial problems of morbid psychology areignored. Psychiatry as a whole is treated inadequately.

Favourite PrescriptionsBy Various Authors. Edited by Sir HUMPHRYROLLESTON, Bart., G.C.V.O., K.C.B., F.R.C.P. ;and ALAN A. MONCRIEFF, M.D., F.R.C.P. London:Eyre and Spottiswoode. 1936. Pp. 227. 10s. 6d.

WHILST the older generation of physicians deploresthe fact that the art of elegant prescribing is moribund,the younger replies that, when a specific remedy isknown, there is no need to prescribe a blunderbuss.The general practitioner, whose contact with thesick is more intimate than that of any physician,will probably think that the prescriber is more

important than the prescription. Whatever the

truth, the compiler of a hospital pharmacopoeiahas to consider not only simplicity and elegance butalso, and above all, economy. This book contains18 articles originally published in the Practitioner.Each of the first 17 discusses the pharmacopoeiaof one of the great general or special hospitals and iswritten by a member of its staff. The final article,by Dr. E. Lewis Lilley, gives an account of theNational Health Formulary. The reader, who shouldfind herein much to interest and amuse him, maywonder if some of the old remedies which survivedo so for any other reason than that they are senti-mentally associated with the name of a famous figurein hospital medicine. Incidentally he may wonderwho " Uncle Henry " was, this being the name usedaffectionately by East End patients to connote theuncoated pil. colocynth. c hyosc. B.P. Anotherpoint of interest among many is the fact that Guy’sHospital consumes some 2000 gallons yearly of

liquid paraffin, whereas St. Mary’s makes shiftwith a mere 330 gallons. It may also be noted thatmost of the pharmacopoeias now include some methodof giving iron in massive doses in a compact formso that the patient is no longer compelled to swallowvast numbers of pills daily. The prize for survivalamong remedies must surely be awarded to salicylic

acid. In the Regimen Sanitatis of the eleventhcentury it is stated that " willow bark treated withhot vinegar dissolves warts." In the form of collod.acid. salicyl. it is still prescribed for the same purposein the National Formulary. There is a forewordby the senior editor and an index is appended.

The L.C.C. PharmacopoeiaCompiled by a Departmental Committee. London :P. S. King and Son, Ltd. 1936. Pp. 279. ls. 6d.

FROM a preface contributed by the medical officerof health we learn that this pharmacopoeia is thework of a departmental committee composed ofmembers of the L.C.C. hospital and central medicalstaff, assisted by eminent authorities on modernmedical and pharmaceutical practice. A study ofthe book soon confirms the expert nature of theproduction. Two hundred and seven pages are

devoted solely to drugs and formulae. Short notesare given on all the medicinal drugs and preparationsof the British Pharmacopoeia and the more importantones of the British Pharmaceutical Codex. Unlikemost hospital pharmacopoeias, the B.P.C. prepara-tions are here given preference to formulae whichdiffer only in detail from those more widely known.This is an excellent step in the right direction.Drugs and preparations subject to Schedule I and

Dangerous Drug restrictions bear distinguishingmarks, and this help might well have been extendedto drugs in Schedule IV of the Poisons List and Rules.The increasing use of parenteral injections is recog-nised in the long list of ampoules. Sterilised waterfor intravenous injections is prepared in accordancewith the B.P. 1932. The Addendum has modifiedits preparation, and it is unfortunate that this and

many other changes were not available to the com-pilers. Prepared ergot, the best preparation nowavailable, is prescribed in capsules of 5 grains ; no

mixture containing the liquid extract has beenincluded-a step which will be approved by allobstetricians who still prefer ergot to the isolatedalkaloids. Somewhat surprising is the absence ofany reference to ergometrine. Special L.C.C. formulaeare more numerous in the collection of mixtures.The use of liquid extracts instead of large doses ofthe corresponding tinctures serves economy withoutloss of therapeutic activity. A few parochialismshowever find their place. Why for instance ismist. magnes. sulph. c senna included as well as

the mist. sennæ co. of the B.P. ? Ammonium bromidewhich has lost its official status occurs in twomixtures. Mist. cascarae co. might have been mademore palatable by using the elixir in place of theliquid extract. A syrup or an elixir of ammoniummandelate would have been a welcome addition.Pills have disappeared and a comprehensive list oftablets appears in their stead. Antitoxins, sera,

toxins, and vaccines are adequately represented, butthere is no reference to staphylococcus antitoxin.The common proprietary arsenobenzene preparationsare omitted. Time-honoured tables, such as dentition,incubation and quarantine, methods of administrationof drugs, collection of pathological specimens, urine test-ing, and treatment of acute poisoning are well compiled.The preface claims that at the time of its publioa-

tion this pharmacopoeia was the most comprehensiveand up to date of its kind, and expresses a hopethat it may also be found useful by medical prao-titioners in general. Both the claim and the hopeare fully justified ; any practitioner would find thebook a mine of useful information.