Book reviews 313 survivorship, though both assume an appreciable know- ledge of statistics. The book provides a broad-brush outline of current applications of data processing methods in large-scale surveys, but some of the chapters detailing actual experience require careful reading to distill the principles involved. This volume will usefully fill a gap on epidemi- ologists' bookshelves and be of interest to many others concerned with medical surveys. M. R. ALDERSON Chemical Influences on Behaviour. Cibo Foundation Study Group No. 35. Edited by Ruth Porter and Joan Birch. (Pp. 221; £1-75.) London: Churchill. 1970. One of the many aspects of environmental health that has recently become a matter of concern is the effect that changes in our chemical environment may have on our mental health or behaviour. Industrial medical officers will remember madness in hatters and, more recently, difficulties in the dry cleaning industry. Otherwise acute and long-term disorders of behaviour in relation to industrial chemical hazards have not often been re- cognized. For this study group some 20 experts in toxicology, behavioural science, psychopharmacology, and the screening of new drugs and chemicals discussed this problem for two days. Each member ofthe group presented some aspect of the problem from his own point of view often backed by detailed experimental results. Each paper is followed by a discussion and there is further general discussion at the end of the meeting. Some of the contributions are lucid and highly informative, particularly those of Harris on inherited susceptibility to environmental hazards, and Dr. Steinberg's description of her experiments with amphetamines. Although interesting and in some instances thought-provoking, the work of the experimental behavioural scientists is so hedged about with jargon as to be difficult to understand. It is also apparent that this approach to the detection of chemical effects on behaviour is as yet in its infancy and it would be unreasonable to expect any reliable or useful results to emerge from this kind of work for some years to come. This is a book to browse through as a source of ideas, sometimes of worrying ideas (the effect of too much hygiene on the role of olfactory agencies in reproductive physiology, the effect of prolonged exposure to a low concentration of insecticides, and the effect of diet and urinary pH on the rate of clearance of toxic substances by the kidneys, for instance). But it is a book which raises more questions than it answers. Perhaps it will inspire further and more useful work in this field. I hope not all future work will be so elaborate (and presumably costly) and yet so entirely inconclusive as the study described by Joyce on the effect of alcohol on making decisions. P. C. ELMES Will Pickles of Wensleydale. By John Pemberton. (Pp. 224; illustrated; £2-50.) London: Bles. 1970. Anyone interested in the practice ofmedicine will be glad to read this book, with every aspect of medical practice in both Leeds and the pleasant dales of Yorkshire illustrated. Spanning over 100 years Dr. Pickles came from a medical family and was brought up with an accomplished father practising in an industrial practice in the heart of Leeds. His observations made on this style of practice are most vivid and the clink of medicine bottles can be imagined. After his training at Leeds University and a short career in the Royal Navy he resumed the endless round of locums before establishing himself as a partner in Wensleydale. The problem in those days, which to a large extent we have all forgotten, was not the ability to work with the existing partners of the practice but the ability to produce capital with which to buy a share. This was used to provide either a pension for the retiring doctor or his widow and was priced on its earning capacity like any other business. There were the days of heroic domiciliary midwifery and no doubt a high mortality rate. There were table-top appendicectomies, though this appeared to be before the day tonsils were thought to be worth while removing. This type of medicine was practised as of necessity because transport did not allow patients to be shipped to hospital in heated ambulances over the efficient road networks we have come to accept today. A surgeon would come over 60 miles for a domiciliary consultation and always travel with his instruments to perform the operation on the spot should it be necessary. There is a good picture of Dr. Pickles' eventual life in his country practice where the pace of living was much less than in a city. His knowledge of patients and their whereabouts, which at times caused embarrassing admissions, allowed him'to start his work on epidemiology. By his astute observations and careful clinical notes, written up between evening surgery and supper, he was able to determine the precise behaviour of infective hepatitis, then known as catarrhal jaundice, to the incubation period and its signs. In addition he described epidemic pleurodynia simultaneously with a practitioner on Bornholm Island and showed the infective nature of this painful complaint. By these observations pains- takingly recorded he eventually achieved world-wide recognition for his work and lectured on this subject with authority. It was fitting that he should become the first President of the Royal College of General Practitioners whose work is centred around the family doctor who holds a unique position with an individual to this day. P. M. 0. MASSEY Work, Creativity and Social Justice. By Elliott Jaques. (Pp. 262; £2-50.) London: Heinemann. 1970. Professor Elliott Jaques has worked with the Glacier Metal Company as a social-analytic consultant for over 20 years and the books he has written on the research projects with which he has been involved are well known. He has, since 1966, been Head of the School of Social Sciences at Brunel University. This volume is a collection o n A p ril 5 , 2 0 2 1 b y g u e st. P ro te cte d b y co p yrig h t. h ttp ://o e m .b m j.co m / B r J In d M e d : first p u b lish e d a s 1 0 .1 1 3 6 /o e m .2 8 .3 .3 1 3 -b o n 1 Ju ly 1 9 7 1 . D o w n lo a d e d fro m http://oem.bmj.com/ 314 Book reviews of 14 papers, written by him over the past 15 years, dealing with a wide range of topics such as industrial work, management, economics, education, the meaning of work, and problems of groups and of individuals. The studies that Jaques describes, the conclusions he reaches, and the ideas he puts forward, are based on the application of the findings of the social sciences and of psychology; it is this that gives the papers on these varied subjects their particular quality of fascination and, at times, excitement. One theme which runs through the papers is that it is in a just environment that creativeness and the capacity for work find their optimum conditions for expression. That is the reason for bringing them together in this book, and the aim throughout is to clarify thinking and to define concepts. The papers were prepared for different audiences; thus, some will appeal more to one group of readers, whereas others will be of greater interest to a different group. Some, but by no means all, require a basic knowledge of psycho-analytic concepts, and for those without this, some of the papers will, in places, be hard to follow. Most, however, should be ofchallenging interest to anyone concerned with organizations, their structure and their management, and the interaction between organizations and the people who work in them. Several of the papers are on topics which are of immediate concern to the industrial medical officer. In the first, for example, Jaques considers the human consequences of industrialization, and in particular the highly complex relationship of superior and subordinate. In a paper entitled 'Stress', he identifies some stress-inducing situations and considers the problems of the balance between a person's capacity for work, the level of work he is carrying, his financial reward for that work, and his rate of career progress. Although 'Psycho-analysis and the Current Economic Crisis', is concerned with the crisis of the mid-'50s, it is equally relevant to the present one and he introduces his original thinking on equitable payment. In the paper 'On being a Manager' he tackles the complicated problem of what this really means. 'Death, and the Mid-life Crisis' is a classic on some aspects of problems of middle age. It would have been helpful if at the beginning of each paper there had been a note indicating when it had been written and for which audience or journal it had been prepared; also it would have been helpful if the papers had been collected in sequence, which would have indicated the development of Professor Jaques' thinking. These are minor criticisms of an extremely valuable collection of essays. NOTICES III International Competition for the Prevention of Silicosis-1970 The National Institute for Accident Prevention announces a competition for the year 1970 awarding a prize for original, unpublished work on 'New medical, technical or medical-technical contributions to the prevention of silicosis'. Participation in the competition is open to all nation- alities, institutions or industrial concerns. The prize amounts to 4,000,000 Italian Lire subdivided into two prizes of 2,000,000 Lire each. For further information write to the Ente Nazionale per la Prevenzione degli Infortuni, Direzione Generale, Premio Internazionale Silicosi ENPI, Via Alessandria, Nr. 220/E-00198, Rome (Italy). Short Course on Laser Safety The Medical Laser Laboratory and the Office of Con- tinuing Medical Education of the University of Cincinnati announces a special short course on safe laser use to be held at the University of Cincinnati on 2-6 August 1971. For further information please contact Mr. R. J. Rockwell, Laser Laboratory, Children's Hospital Research Foundation, Cincinnati, Ohio 45229. IV International Pneumoconiosis Conference The IV International Pneumoconiosis Conference or- ganized by the International Labour Office in collabora- tion with the Ministry of Labour of Rumania will be held at the Palace of the Republic in Bucharest on 27 Sep- tember to 2 October 1971. Further information may be obtained from: The Organizing Committee for the IV International Pneumoconiosis Conference, Ministerul Muncii, Str. Scaune, no. 1-3, Bucharest, Rumania. A.M.A. Congress on Occupational Health The 31st annual A.M.A. Congress on Occupational Health will be held at Jackson Lake Lodge in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming on 29-30 August, 1971. For further information please write to the American Medical Association, 535 North Dearborn Street, Chicago, Illinois 60610. o n A p ril 5 , 2 0 2 1 b y g u e st. P ro te cte d b y co p yrig h t. h ttp ://o e m .b m j.co m / B r J In d M e d : first p u b lish e d a s 1 0 .1 1 3 6 /o e m .2 8 .3 .3 1 3 -b o n 1 Ju ly 1 9 7 1 . D o w n lo a d e d fro m http://oem.bmj.com/