Book Notices the Great Depression and its aftermath; World War II and its aftermath. During the second period there was active expansion: the School of Hygiene in 1925, the first of its kind in the U.S.A., and no less than eleven further major additions to the Medical Institutes. These included the Welch Medical Library and the world- renowned Institute of the History of Medicine, dedicated in 1928. History of medicine had been a feature of the Hospital and School from the beginning, fostered by Osler, Welch, Kelly, Jacobs, and many other staff members. Garrison was first Librarian and Welch the first occupant of the endowed chair in the history of medicine (1926), to be followed by Henry E. Sigerist, Richard H. Shryock, Owsei Temkin, and the present holder Lloyd G. Stevenson. Throughout its history the Johns Hopkins has been dependent upon the society it is part of, and in its turn has given back to society benefits both locally to Baltimore, and nationally and internationally by providing a centre of excellence for teaching, training, and research. Throughout its eighty or so years of existence the Hospital and Medical School have maintained consistently their position as one of the most outstanding medical institutions in the world, what Alan Gregg called "the heritage of excellence", a phrase selected by Dr. Turner for his title. It is against this intellectual and inspiring environment, compounded of dedicated members of staff and top- quality students, that the recorded events of history are here portrayed. It is a remarkably full record, some may say too full, and the author has called upon his own experience as well as using archives to provide a living account of a remarkable phenomenon. It will be read widely because of this, both to inform and to inspire. It can be warmly recommended. Book Notices H. M. KOELBING (ed.), Carl August Wunderlich, Wien und Paris. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte und Beurteilung der gegenwdrtigen Heilkunde in Deutschland und Frankreich, 1841, Berne, H. Huber, 1974, pp. 159, illus., DM. 25 (DM.19 paperback). In the first half of the nineteenth century Paris was the predominant medical centre in Europe, but in the 1840s Vienna and other German cities had already begun to overtake the French capital, eventually to displace it. Wunderlich (1815-1877), a typical product of the new German school of clinical medicine and pathological anatomy, was in 1841 the author of the book that is here re-published. In it he wished to -bring to the attention of his readers the activities of two cities of outstanding medical excellence. It, therefore, provides us with a vivid account of the best in European medicine as practised in 1840. Among the many interesting features are Wunderlich's remarks concerning the medical specialities in their embryonic forms. Professor Koelbing provides an introduction, dealing mainly with Wunderlich and his medical career. There are also notes to the essay, a glossary of obscure words, and a list of individuals mentioned. Descriptions of contemporary medicine, especially if recorded by an acute and critical observer, are documents of the greatest value to the historian. We are, there- fore, grateful to Professor Koelbing for providing us with a scholarly edition of this one. 205 at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025727300020214 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Carnegie Mellon University, on 06 Apr 2021 at 01:07:11, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025727300020214 https://www.cambridge.org/core Book Notices DOROTHY M. SCHULLIAN (ed.), The Baglivi Correspondence from the library of Sir William Osler, Ithaca and London, Cornell University Press, 1974, pp. xxi, 531, £22.50. Although no more than twenty-three letters out of a total of 173 come from Baglivi's own hand and these are spread over a period of twenty-one years, they do afford some insight into his character and habits, his ideas, his theories, his reactions to other people's views and, in one case, into the composition of one of his more famous books. He speaks about his early studies at Salerno, his travels through Dalmatia, Illyria and the Turkish Empire, his competing for the chair of anatomy at Rome, his classes on dissection, his dislike of the German "sciolists" who spend more time on conjecture and hypothesis than on observation, his admiration for Sydenham who fostered practical medicine, and much else. Like many scholars before and since he promised to write books which never appeared (like his book on surgery) or planned books (like his de fibra motrice et morbosa) which did not fulfil his ambi- tions. He thought he would live to be eighty, when he would settle down and com- pose, like Hippocrates, a book of aphorisms which would condense the result of his observations gathered over a period of sixty years, but he died at the age of thirty-eight. The correspondence, as a whole, tells us more about Baglivi's friends than about himself, and for anyone interested in late seventeenth-century medicine this book is a mine of information. This is mainly due, not to the letters themselves, but to the meticulous and impeccable scholarship of the editor, Dorothy Schullian, who has annotated the text in astonishing detail. She even identifies the twenty-four copper engravings of monuments in Rome sent by Baglivi to Manget, the indefatigable compiler of medical encyclopaedias. The bibliography she has consulted in this task runs to no less than eighty pages, the texts themselves ranging in date from 1556 to 1970 and written in seven languages. Such care and industry cannot be too highly praised and scholars everywhere will be grateful for the final product of her assiduous labours. The printers also are to be congratulated on their work, whicb, as far as one can see, is absolutely without blemish. RUTH HODGKINSON, Science and public health, Bletchley, Bucks, The Open University Press, 1973, pp. 64, illus., 80p. The open university offers a course on "Science and the rise of technology since 1800" and this handbook is a guide to part of it. It is an excellent presentation of the problems of public health in the nineteenth century, of the reform measures adopted, typified by the Public Health Movement, and of the applications of science to public health. The text is clearly and accurately compiled, with interjected questions for students to tackle, and there are copious illustrations; the portraits on pages 55 and 58, however, have been confused. It will be useful for any introductory course on the history of public health, and should also be widely popular in providing a rapid survey for anyone studying the nineteenth century, whether from the political, economic, religious, or from any other point of view. At the price it is a bargain. 206 at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025727300020214 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Carnegie Mellon University, on 06 Apr 2021 at 01:07:11, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025727300020214 https://www.cambridge.org/core Book Notices RICHARD HUNTER and IDA MACALPINE, Psychiatry of the poor. 1851 Colney Hatch Asylum. Friern Hospitall973. A medical andsocial history, London, Dawsons, 1974, pp. 264, illus., £4.50 (£1.50 paperback). When opened in 1851 Colney Hatch in the suburbs of London, known as Friern Hospital since 1973, was Europe's largest and most modem mental asylum. The late Dr. Ida Macalpine and Dr. Richard Hunter, who has been on the hospital's staff for more than twelve years, present a remarkable account of it based on public and hospital records, and personal knowledge. The story is not just that of the everyday activities and problems of a huge institution, but it also reflects general social, medical, and psychiatric progress. The book is by no means the usual parochial account of a hospital divorced from events taking place elsewhere, for, owing to the authors' deep and intimate knowledge of history, their superb skills in presenting historical material, and their lucid literary style they have presented yet another outstanding contribution to the evolution of British psychiatry. All aspects of the asylum's staff, facilities and activities are dealt with; there are also several chapters on the types of mental illness seen, and from them we can learn much about the history of the diseases per se. One's only regret is that Dr. Macalpine did not survive to observe the success that this book will without doubt achieve. It will fascinate all those involved with the handling of mental and neurological disorders, and as a social document of Victorian life it will also attract. It is well illustrated with sixty-nine pictures and tables, and the paperback version at £1.50 could not be a better bargain. K. C. von BOROVICZENY, H. SCHIPPERGES and E. SEIDLER (eds.), Ein- fulhrung in die Geschichte der Haematologie, Stuttgart, G. Thieme, 1974, pp. xi, 210, DM.59. The history of the blood in health and disease from Antiquity to the present day is dealt with by thirteen experts. The first essay explores cultural and symbolic aspects of blood in Antiquity; the second, knowledge of it in the pre-Greek Mediterranean communities, in Ancient Greece and Rome, and in Arabic and Western medieval medicine. Three articles discuss the founding of scientific haematology in the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. At the end of the eighteenth century blood chemistry commenced, and the influence of the cell theory of animal life in the 1840s onwards was of great significance and is considered here in detail. Modern haematology originated in the middle of the nineteenth century, with many advances in the techniques of examining blood. Haemostasis developed contem- poraneously, as did quantitative methods of investigation. As knowledge of blood serology advanced so blood transfusion, first employed in the seventeenth century, became a safe and life-saving measure. Each of these topics is discussed and finally there are lists of advances made in the pathology and genetics of the blood. There is an appendix of brief biographical sketches of individuals, a chronological table of events in the history of haematology, an excellent bibliography of forty-seven double- columned pages, and an index. This is the best history of haematology that has so far appeared and can be con- fidently recommended to scholar and student alike. 207 at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025727300020214 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Carnegie Mellon University, on 06 Apr 2021 at 01:07:11, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025727300020214 https://www.cambridge.org/core Book Notices SAUL NATHANIEL BRODY, The disease ofthe soul. Leprosy in medieval literature, Ithaca and London, Cornell University Press, 1974, pp. 223, £4.75. Leprosy is perhaps the most fascinating disease to study from the historical point of view. During the Middle Ages, when it was rife in the West, it permeated all aspects of society and an accurate account of it can therefore be given only by a medievalist. Dr. Brody, a scholar of medieval literature, looks at the leper in terms of society, religion, and literature and presents an excellent account of his wretched state, invariably associated in the medieval mind with sin and moral defilement; his aim is ". .. to interpret medieval literature involving leprosy and to evaluate it in the light of its cultural context." (p. 12). He precedes these discussions with a chapter on "Medical understandings of leprosy" in which, understandably, he occasionally displays ignorance or nalvety. The linking of leprosy with moral perversion has been remarkably tenacious, and this and other medieval attitudes towards the disease are still with us today to some extent. A work, therefore, that investigates in a thorough and scholarly fashion the distant origins of present-day attitudes to a disease is a useful contribution to modern medicine as well as to the history of medicine. Dr. Brody's documentation is im- peccable, and he provides the original.language as well as translations of his frequent quotations. His book will find a wide audience amongst historians of medicine, medievalists, literary scholars, and practitioners of medicine. PENELOPE B. R. DOOB, Nebuchadnezzar's children. Conventions of madness in Middle English literature, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1974, pp. xvii, 247, illus., £6.25. The literary use of madness in Middle English literature is extensive, and this study seeks first to find out what a fourteenth-century Englishman would consider real or literary madness to be. Then the author examines in detail the conventional ways of representing madness, and shows how this knowledge allows us a deeper understanding of certain literary works. She wishes in particular to illustrate a late medieval view of madness and its conventions by drawing upon a representative selection -of sources: religious, literary (drama, poetry), physiological, psychological, etc., from biblical times through the fifteenth century. It seems there were thought to be three purposes of madness, each being a visitation from God and each giving rise to a distinct literary convention: the Mad Sinner, afflicted as a punishment for the damned; the Unholy Wild Man-representing purga- tion of sinners; and the Holy Wild Man to test the virtue of saints. Examples of each from important literary works are cited and considered in detail. The pattern of Nebuchadnezzar's life resembles all three conventions and he can thus be seen as the father of most literary mad-men; thus the book's title. This is an excellent and scholarly work dealing with an aspect of medical history that is, on the whole, little appreciated. Attention should therefore be drawn to it, especially for those concerned with any aspects of psychiatry or with medieval medicine. It provides another example of how a non-medical scholar can make an important addition to the history of medicine. We are in need of many more such persons contributing to the discipline. 208 at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025727300020214 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Carnegie Mellon University, on 06 Apr 2021 at 01:07:11, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025727300020214 https://www.cambridge.org/core Book Notices PAUL F. CRANEFIELD, The way in and the way out. Franfois Magendie, Charles Bell and the roots of the spinal nerves with a facsimile of Charles Bell's annotated copy of his "Idea of a new anatomy of the brain", Mount Kisco, N.Y., Futura Publishing Co., 1974, pp. xviii, 54, 308 unuimbered 11. (facsimile), $25.00. The importance of the discovery that the spinal roots have different functions was only exceeded by the acrimonious priority claims of the two discoverers, Charles Bell and Franqois Magendie, and the subsequent controversy which has continued to the present day. In a long, drawn-out battle like this, the only way of arriving at, and demonstrating, a careful evaluation is to assemble all the evidence both primary and secondary. Five-sixths of this book consists of such material in facsimile, ranging from Bell (1811) to A. D. Waller (1912).- The reader can thus study the precise con- tribution of each contestant and weigh the numerous opinions that have been expressed. Dr. Cranefield also provides his own analysis of the dispute and, like several authors before him, he is in favour of Magendie rather than Bell. The Bell-Magendie problem has here been given the definitive and ultimate treat- ment, which will be of interest to all those involved with nineteenth-century physiology. But in addition the arrangement adopted by this book is unique, and it could well set a pattern for presenting other important polemics in the history of medicine and science. JOHN S. HALLER, Jr., and ROBIN M. HALLER, The physician and sexuality in Victorian America, Urbana, Chicago and London, University of Illinois Press, 1974, pp. xv, 331, illus., $10.00.- The late Victorian era in America was a period of confusions and paradoxes, and the conflicts were nowhere more apparent than in the complexity of relations between the sexes: the functions, purposes, capacities and behaviour of men and women and their relative roles. Women were moving from their traditional place of subservience in the home -to a state of emancipation and in so doing found the medical practi- tioner their chief moral adviser. The social history of the medical profession is, there- fore, part of this story, as is, of necessity, the feminist movement. The suppressed sexuality of the female was,-in fact, a transitional period in the evolution of middle- class morality. The authors discuss the increasing popularity of neurasthenia, especially in women, and the many cures, often electrical, used to combat it., The role of the female in society, the attitudes to sex and to contraception, the hygiene of the body for women and fitness- for men, venereal disease, and the woman's "silent friends", opium, alcohol and quack remedies, are all dealt with. In each instance the presentation and documentation are excellent. As has been often suspected, much lay hidden behind the Victorians' traditional attitude to sexuality, and this important study reveals in a scholarly and absorbing fashion just what this was. RICHARD COLLIER, The plague of the Spanish Lady. The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919, London, Macmillan, 1974, pp. viii, 376, illus., £3.95. It is curious that one of the world's. worst medical catastrophes, which is said to 209 at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025727300020214 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Carnegie Mellon University, on 06 Apr 2021 at 01:07:11, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025727300020214 https://www.cambridge.org/core Book Notices have affected more than half the world's population and killed more than 21J million, has been given so little attention by historians. This was the influenza pandemic, October 1918 to January 1919. It first gained widespread publicity in Spain, and thus the title of this book which describes the disaster. The author, at one time journalist and now a prolific writer, has tackled his subject in a unique fashion. Instead of relying mainly on literary sources he has based his record on the memories of 1,708 survivors from all parts of the world, and whose names and countries are recorded here (pp. 335-376). The evidence collected, both oral and written, is woven with great skill into an historical narrative, but the historian will protest the fabrication of direct speech and of descriptions of events unseen, and he will denounce the overdramatized prose. It is also backed by data derived from manuscript sources (pp. 332-334), newspapers and periodicals (pp. 315-319), and printed sources (pp. 320-331). Mr. Collier's book will therefore be praised as a remarkable contribution to historical research methodology, but it will be criticized for the mode of presentation. GEORGE ROSEN, From medical police to social medicine. Essays on the history of health care, New York, Science History Publications, 1974, pp. 327, illus., $8.95 ($5.95 paperback). One of the most prolific contributors to medical history in the last few decades has been the distinguished American historian of medicine and public health educa- tionist, Professor George Rosen of Yale University. One of his special interests has been the study of the evolution of social medicine, and, over a period of thirty years or so, he has published several books and a series of papers on this topic. It is from these writings that the present selections have been chosen, and they deal with sub- jects such as medical police; medical care and social policy in seventeenth-century England; mercantilism and health policy in eighteenth-century French thought; hospitals, medical care, and social policy in the French Revolution; medical aspects of factory conditions in New England; the hospital; the health centre movement; etc. The papers are mostly well known and from readily available sources, and are preceded by a series of graphic illustrations and a brief introduction. In the latter, Dr. Rosen states the purpose of the collection is to provide insight into present-day problems of social medicine and health care. It will thus appeal to a wide audience and should make an excellent students' course book. CLAUDE BERNARD, Lectures on the phenomena of life common to animals and plants, Volume I of translation by Hebbel E. Hoff, Roger Guillemin and Lucienne Guillemin, Springfield, Ill., C. C. Thomas, 1974, pp. xxv, 288, illus., $12.95. Claude Bernard died in 1878 whilst correcting the proofs of these lectures, which are better styled a course of general physiology. In them he summarized all his doctrines, thus providing his most complete and most systematic work; they are a basic statement of the philosophy, the problems, and the future of general physiology. This excellent and accurate translation is preceded by the orations given at Bernard's funeral by his pupils, Vulpian and Paul Bert. It is an important and welcome addition to the gradually growing Bernard literature and can be strongly recommended. 210 at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025727300020214 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Carnegie Mellon University, on 06 Apr 2021 at 01:07:11, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025727300020214 https://www.cambridge.org/core Book Notices W. DAVID SMITH, Stretching their bodies. The history of physical education, Newton Abbot, David & Charles, 1974, pp. 190, £4.50. Games were not organized officially in the public schools until the beginning of the nineteenth century, and since then controversy as to their worth as a character- as well as a body-builder has continued. Today it appears as a debate on the aims and value of school games. This story is traced here and the author gives an excellent account of the social attitudes which have both aided and deterred the acceptance of physical education's two-fold contribution to the development of the young. Social distinctions have played an important role and only in the last forty years have the opportunities for the working-class child to play recreative games been widespread. Many other factors, including nutrition, the influence of wars, finances, the School Medical Service, therapeutic physical education, medical theories, patriotism, the aims of education, etc., were responsible and are discussed here. The material has been well researched and the documentation is good. The author provides an important contribution to a little-discussed aspect of medical history and it will be of especial interest to those involved with physical medicine, paediatrics, physiotherapy, school medicine, and nutrition. MICHEL GAUQUELIN, Cosmic influences on human behaviour, London, Garnstone Press, 1974, pp. 286, £3.50. The present-day popularity of astrology cannot be denied, the latest development being a computer dating system geared to zodiac data (P.H.S., in The Times, 24 October 1974, p. 18). Perhaps its survival for three millennia argues for some influence of the heavenly bodies on man, but if this is so the mechanism continues to mystify him. Repeated efforts have been made both to justify and to explain, and the latest is this one, translated from French. It is an attempt to examine astrology scientifically, by a man with respectable statistical skills who has laboured at the problem for twenty years or more. The data have already been presented, in thirteen volumes, and the author now provides a popular distillate of them. First, he is able to disprove popular astrology as it appears in the newspapers and magazines. Second, he has produced what the astronomer, J. Allen Hynek, in his Foreword believes is valid evidence. Gauquelin has discovered what he terms "planetary heredity", whereby members ofcertain groups ofexceptional men, doctors, soldiers, sportsmen, actors, etc., have the same planetary configuration at the time of birth. Importantly for his thesis, this circumstance applies only to natural births, and he proves that it cannot be explained by the laws of chance. The author looks at each professional group in turn, and presents his evidence in a clear and attractive style, with numerous explanatory diagrams. The book is, therefore, both interesting and provocative and should attract all those who are fascinated by the possibility of extra-terrestrial influences on man, and those who wish to evaluate the important role of astrology in the history of medicine. Perhaps there is some as yet unidentified force at work. The author does not deal with this, and the title of his book, is therefore, somewhat inaccurate and misleading. 211 at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025727300020214 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Carnegie Mellon University, on 06 Apr 2021 at 01:07:11, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025727300020214 https://www.cambridge.org/core Book Notices REAY TANNAHILL, Food in history, London, Eyre Methuen, 1973, pp. 448, illus., £4.95. Rather than compiling merely a history of man's food and of his dietary and eating habits, Mrs. Tannahill has elected to show how these factors have influenced the progress of history. Obviously they have had an important influence on population growth and sites of cities as well as on economic, social and political-events. Moreover the situation still exists and will do so until a completely adequate artificial diet can be synthesized. A knowledge, therefore, of past events will help to solve the recurring problems of today and tomorrow which relate to food. The author's objective is to investigate the forces shaping man's diet over a period of 30,000 years as well as to show how more and better food has helped to direct history. This pioneer work, therefore, begins with prehistory and ends with the present day, covering not only supply, -type, adulteration, preservation and cooking of food, but also table manners, markets, agricultural techniques, and related phenomena. The book is richly illustrated throughout, and the documentation is thorough and accurate; an occasional myth is transmitted, such as Galen's centenarian Father (p. 181), but these are trivial. It is an important contribution to the history ofmedicine, for it will be essential reading for those concerned with many aspects of it, in addition to historians of food and diet. It can be warmly recommended. DUDLEY WILSON (ed.), French Renaissance scientific poetry, London, University of London (Athlone Press), 1974, pp. vi, 185, £4.00 (£2.00 paperback). This is an anthology ofverse dealing with several aspects of Renaissance knowledge: "Fish, plants and medicine", "The microcosm-man, his anatomy,, senses and feelings", "The universe-meteorology and astronomy, mathematics and music", etc. Each indicates that Renaissance scientific poetry is compounded of science, philosophy and magic. The last of these is of especial significance, because the scientist of this age was usually a visionary, and rarely a modern experimenter. Thus the last section con- t-ains poems illustrating the poet as magus. There is, in fact, little Renaissance; tech- nological poetry, as would be expected from the fact that the main ingredients of this literary form, philosophy and meditation, outweighed factual data. In his introduction the author defines "scientific poetry" and discusses his choice and the establishment of texts, and the arrangement of the anthology. There are copious notes to .each selection and brief biographical sketches of the poets. Dr. Wilson's excellent book is an important contribution to Renaissance studies, and he brings to the attention of historians of science and medicine an aspect of this period which they may not be aware of, but should be. It is designed as an intro- duction, and-offers opportunities for further reading and study. M. DUREY, The first spasmodic cholera epidemic in York, 1832, (Borthwick Papers, No. 46), York, St. Anthony's Press, 1974, 8vo., pp. iv., 29, 55p. A fully documented account based on local records, newspapers and other primary sources, which also traces the public health, political, religious and economic conse- quences of the outbreak. A useful- addition to the cholera literature, but instead of "spasmodic" in the title there should be "asiatic". 212 at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025727300020214 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Carnegie Mellon University, on 06 Apr 2021 at 01:07:11, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025727300020214 https://www.cambridge.org/core Book Notices H. P. TAIT, A doctor and two policemen. The history ofEdinburgh Health Department 1862-1974, [Edinburgh], no publisher, 1974, 8.vo., pp. 253,. illus., £2.00. Edinburgh's first medical officer of health was. appointed in 1862, with a staff of two policemen acting as sanitary inspectors. Due to local government reorganization, this post and the health department ceased to exist on 31- March. 1974, -and Dr. H. P. Tait, the Principal Medical Officer, Child Health Service, has, therefore, prepared a commemorative account of the 112 years of their.existence. He gives a brief description of Edinburgh before 1862, and the events leading up to it, providing a vivid picture of the social, sanitary and hygienic conditions, and prevalent infectious diseases. He then considers in turn the provision and evolution of each service: infectious disease control, personal health services, nursing services, hospitals,. community care, environmental services, health education, research, and educational activities. In each instance, Dr. Tait produces. a wealth of detail, but sources are not cited. He has given us a century, of public health development, as seen. in .a capital city, and has thereby. contributed importantly to the -social history of medicine. It is hoped-that other towns will follow his lead. CHESTER R. BURNS. and H. TRISTRAM ENGELHARDT, Jr. (editors), The humanities and. medicine, in, Texas Rep. Biol. Med., 1974, 32: xiii, 368, illus., [no price stated]. The editors have assembled a series of essays to illustrate the medical humanities, a term they apply ". .. to a body of issues in medicine which concern the value and purpose of man..They are [the] core.to medicine." (p. ix). These issues include philosophy, law and religion, and they are distributed through five sections of the book: humanities in medicine; history and medicine; law and medicine; philosophy, ethics and medicine; theology and medicine. Although most articles contain some historical material, those of greatest interest to the medical historian are in the second section. They are a curiously mixed collection: early scientific journals; tissue theory in Comte's biology; anatomy at the University Qf Texas Medical Branch 1891-1932; Pavlov; eighteenth-century French surgery; pathology and Matthew Baillie and Osler; dental medicine and focal infection; the white man in the tropics; nursing ethics; non-U.S.A. medical ethics. That by Audrey Davis on the myth of focal infection is especially noteworthy. The collection should interest a wide audience, because so many vital issues touching medical practice are discussed. A secondary reason for its publication is that it repre- sents .... a symbol of the continuing development of an enduring programme in the humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch . . .". The staff members are to be congratulated on their achievements so far. GEORG SCHULER, Der Basler Irrenarzt Friedrich Brenner 1809-1874, Aarau, Verlag Sauerlander, 1974 (Ver6ffentlichungen der Schweizerischen Gesellschaftfur Geschichte der Medizin und der Naturwissenschaften, Band 27), 8vo., pp. xiv, 236, S.Fr. 24. A scholarly contribution to the history of Swiss psychiatry, and to the social, religious, and cultural history of Basle in the nineteenth century, based on the life 213- at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025727300020214 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Carnegie Mellon University, on 06 Apr 2021 at 01:07:11, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025727300020214 https://www.cambridge.org/core Book Notices of Brenner, who was the first to remove the chains from the insane of Basle. He was also the first to lecture on psychiatry in Deutschschweiz, and his treatment of lunatics, including non-restraint, was, on the whole, progressive. His wide use of drugs is described in detail, and his interest in mentally handicapped children likewise. Politically Brenner was a liberal and he was involved in local politics as well as in the formulation of mental laws. Unlike some biographies, this one deals with the background to the man and his work, as well as with his character and even his handwriting. It is well documented and can be recommended as a reliable and useful contribution to the history of Swiss medicine as well as to the history of psychiatry. MARK DAVID MERLIN, Man and mariyuana. Some aspects of their ancient relationship, Rutherford, Madison and Teaneck, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1972, 8 vo., pp. 120, illus., £3.50. Despite the great interest recently shown in the hemp plant (cannabis sativa) on account of its addictive qualities, and the social consequences thereof, this is the first history of man's use of it. This book deals with its ethnobotanical origins, and with the early use of it by man, which was determined by ecological factors, especially environmental adaptation to climate, soil, topography, animals, man, etc. The author speculates on man's early contact with the drug, and wonders if it was the first domesticated plant, and whether medical, nutritional, religious, or entertainment reasons determined its first use. The wide use of the plant is also discussed. A competent, well-researched and well-documented monograph on a popular present-day topic. BOOKS ALSO RECEIVED (The inclusion of a title in this list does not preclude the possibility of subsequent review.) J. G. CROWTHER, The Cavendish Laboratory 1874-1974, London, Macmillan, 1974, pp. xvi, 464, illus., £25.00. JOAN SOLOMON, The structure of matter. The growth ofman's ideas on the nature ofmatter, Newton Abbot, David & Charles, 1973, pp. 178, illus., £3.95. JOAN SOLOMON, The structure of space. The growth of man's ideas on the nature offorces, fields and waves, Newton Abbot, David & Charles, 1973, pp. 219, illus., £4.50. 214 at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025727300020214 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Carnegie Mellon University, on 06 Apr 2021 at 01:07:11, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025727300020214 https://www.cambridge.org/core