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A Doctor to a Mother
282
PUBLIC HEALTH.
The Literature of Preventive Adulteration and Analysis of Food and Drugs. Birmingham Methods and Analyses of S a m p l e s - - R e v i e w of British Prosecutions during Half a Century. By J. F. LIVERSFA~.GI';, F.I.C., PH.C., formerly Public Analyst to the City of Birmingham. London, J. and A. Churchill, 1932. Price 36s. net.
Mr. IAverseege in this book has struck such a logical yet original method of presentation of the details of the work and duties of public analysts in general, that the wonder is that his method has never been adopted before. Successful innovations are often so simple in principle that, once the ideas involved are revealed to the world, most men feel that they have it in them to inaugurate the self-same things themselves, and so it is with this work of Mr. Liverseege. It is the ideal presentation of very technical work made still more complex by the legal aspect of the interpretation of the results obtained on the technical side. T h e book has, as it were, a dual personality. On the one hand, it presents a reasoned, Scientific yet concise view and review of modern analytical methods for the examination of practically every sample of food or drug that may come the way of the public analyst. On the other, and not by any means the less valuable, it deals with the legal aspect of prosecutions, from considerations of the forms in which public ~analysts should state their results to considerations of judgments given in prosecution cases during the last 50 years. That such a work, containing some 600 pages, should be quite free from fault is naturally asking more from the present state of evolution of humanity than can be reasonably expected. T h e mathematical error ~on page 382, in illustration of formula " A " given for cocoa on that page, is a case in point. Another is the confusion that may easily arise through the prosecution cases being always listed under the names of the police courts in which the various cases were heard. In London, at least, these by no means necessarily correspond to the analytical areas bearing possibly exactly the same name. This is because the borough areas are not co-terminous with the police districts, consequently cases initiated by one borough may
MAY,
Medicine.
have their hearings in a court bearing the name of another borough. Numerous examples of such possible confusion could be given from the prosecution cases mentioned in the book. This point should be made clear when a new edition becomes necessary. Apart from such relatively minor considerations, so many points of appreciation may be taken that it can b'e said truthfully, rather than conventionally, that no laboratory dealing with the analysis of foods and drugs can fail to find room for it on its shelves. Further, there is no public analyst who can afford to neglect the record of analytical methods and legal experiences which Mr. Liverseege has the ability and the public spirit to put on record so attractively for the benefit of his colleagues and his possible critics. From the stand-point of the public analyst, and from that of candidates for the examinations of the Institute of Chemistry in the food and drugs section, it may be said that not one of these can afford to be without the work; for the examination candidates, indeed, it should be one of their chief text-books, and to them the volume is unhesitatingly commended. A Doctor to a Mother. The Management of Maternal and Infant Health. By EARDLEY HOLLAND, M.D.,
F.R.C.S.,
F.R.C.P.,
F.C.O.G., Obstetric and Gymecological Surgeon, London Hospital; R . C. JEWESBVRY, M.D., F.R.C.P., Physician in Charge of Children's Department, St. Thomas's Hospital ; and WILFRID SHELDON, M.D., M .R.C.P., Junior Physician, Children's Department, K i n g ' s College Hospital. London : Edward Arnold and Co., 1933. pp. 96. Price ls. 6d. net. T h e broadcast talks here most usefully reproduced cover the subjects of ante-natal care, the management and feeding of the infant and toddler, normal development, and various disturbances of health that are commonly met with in y o u n g children. T h e y are clear and simple and practical, and are likely to provide the mother with just the kind of advice that she needs. It is a little disappointing to find the principles of ante-natal care confined, in Dr. :Eardley Holland's statement of them, to the prevention, discovery and treatment of com-
1933.
PUBLIC
plications. Tim directions for keeping the nose clear leave something to be desired, and it is strange that, whereas the mouth is to be left to nature, as is proper, the nose is to be cleaned out with a rag instead of by the sneezing reflex which nature has provided for lhe purpose, together with the flow of moisture that occurs after each warm feed. Amongst other suggestions that might be criticised are those regarding the thickening of soups with bread-crumbs or flour, and the giving of hard food at the beginning instead of at the end of a meal during and after weaning, by which time the baby is quite ready to be set in the right direction in this respect. These, however, are small details in a [)ook full of such sound and valuable instruction, as might be expected having regard to the distinction of its authors.
Glen's Law relating to Public Assistance. By RANDOLPH A . GLEN, M.A., LL.B. CANTAB., Recorder of Penzance; assisted by E. BRIGHT ASHFORD B.A., a n d ALEXANDER P. L. GLEN. L o n d o n : Law and Local Government Publications, Ltd., 1933. pp. 786. Price 30s. net. A volume dealing with the law relating to public assistance was an obvious necessity from the moment the Poor Law Act, 1930, was passed, and the variety of regulations dealing with public assistance and relief began to appear. :Equally obvious alll3Ost was it that when the volume appeared it would bear the name Glen. To public heahh workers this name is known because of its association with the legal publication most frequently consulted in the health d e p a r t m e n t - - " G l e n ' s Public Health " and that other that is almost as frequently consulted, " Glen's Local Government Act, 1929." In the preface to this present publication, which hardly needs to be recommended to all concerned in any degree with public assistance, amongst whom must now be numbered, of course, members of the health service, there is a most interesting little historical note which is further extended in the introduction, where a short account of poor relief in other days is given. In the general contents probably the parts dealing with the relief of those suffering from mental disability, and the Children and Y o u n g Persons Act, 1932, will be most inter-
HEALTH:
28~
esting to health officers. W i t h regard to the former it is noted that though most of the L u n a c y Act, 1890, remains untouched, the Mental Deficiency Act of 1913 introduced changes into the methods of dealing with this problem, and the Mental Treatment Act, 1930, and tbe Rules under it, introduced still further changes, and "lunatics are now to be called " persons of unsound m i n d , " and " pauper lunatics either " rate-aided persons of unsound mind or " rate-aided patients." " Asylums " are now " mental hospitals." All these Acts have been dealt with very fully, so far particularly as they concern poor law authorities. The Act of 1932, as to children and y o u n g persons, was passed while the work was going through the press, and repealed most of the provisions of the Children Act, 1908, affecting poor law authorities, which had already been set up by the printer. The repealed provisions have been left with footnotes referring to the new provisions, which are set out in an appendix. In the preface the hope expressed for the book--in the preparation of which, it is acknowledged, great assistance was received from Miss Bright Ashford, Barrister-at-Law, a member of the St. Marylebone Borough Council--is that, coming from the hands of the third and fourth successive generations of Glens, it will be received with the same favour as were those which were written b y the first and second. So far as this is concerned, there seems to be no doubt whatever that the hope will be realised, and the third and fourth generations may be congratulated on the manner in which they have upheld the standards set by the first and second. "
"
"
Water Purification Control. By EDWARD S. HOPKINS, Principal Sanitary Chemist, Bureau of W a t e r Supply, Baltimore. L o n d o n : Bailli~.re, Tindall and Cox, 1932. pp. 131. Price 10s. net. As a result of experience gained in his laboratory in connection with the training of persons to take charge of water purification plants, the author came to the conclusion that a book dealing with this subject, short and as non-technical as possible, was required. I{e has gone to a great deal of pains to put together the facts that he considered necessary to include, and has done the work extremely well, providing illustrations and tabular stale-
PUBLIC HEALTH.
The Literature of Preventive Adulteration and Analysis of Food and Drugs. Birmingham Methods and Analyses of S a m p l e s - - R e v i e w of British Prosecutions during Half a Century. By J. F. LIVERSFA~.GI';, F.I.C., PH.C., formerly Public Analyst to the City of Birmingham. London, J. and A. Churchill, 1932. Price 36s. net.
Mr. IAverseege in this book has struck such a logical yet original method of presentation of the details of the work and duties of public analysts in general, that the wonder is that his method has never been adopted before. Successful innovations are often so simple in principle that, once the ideas involved are revealed to the world, most men feel that they have it in them to inaugurate the self-same things themselves, and so it is with this work of Mr. Liverseege. It is the ideal presentation of very technical work made still more complex by the legal aspect of the interpretation of the results obtained on the technical side. T h e book has, as it were, a dual personality. On the one hand, it presents a reasoned, Scientific yet concise view and review of modern analytical methods for the examination of practically every sample of food or drug that may come the way of the public analyst. On the other, and not by any means the less valuable, it deals with the legal aspect of prosecutions, from considerations of the forms in which public ~analysts should state their results to considerations of judgments given in prosecution cases during the last 50 years. That such a work, containing some 600 pages, should be quite free from fault is naturally asking more from the present state of evolution of humanity than can be reasonably expected. T h e mathematical error ~on page 382, in illustration of formula " A " given for cocoa on that page, is a case in point. Another is the confusion that may easily arise through the prosecution cases being always listed under the names of the police courts in which the various cases were heard. In London, at least, these by no means necessarily correspond to the analytical areas bearing possibly exactly the same name. This is because the borough areas are not co-terminous with the police districts, consequently cases initiated by one borough may
MAY,
Medicine.
have their hearings in a court bearing the name of another borough. Numerous examples of such possible confusion could be given from the prosecution cases mentioned in the book. This point should be made clear when a new edition becomes necessary. Apart from such relatively minor considerations, so many points of appreciation may be taken that it can b'e said truthfully, rather than conventionally, that no laboratory dealing with the analysis of foods and drugs can fail to find room for it on its shelves. Further, there is no public analyst who can afford to neglect the record of analytical methods and legal experiences which Mr. Liverseege has the ability and the public spirit to put on record so attractively for the benefit of his colleagues and his possible critics. From the stand-point of the public analyst, and from that of candidates for the examinations of the Institute of Chemistry in the food and drugs section, it may be said that not one of these can afford to be without the work; for the examination candidates, indeed, it should be one of their chief text-books, and to them the volume is unhesitatingly commended. A Doctor to a Mother. The Management of Maternal and Infant Health. By EARDLEY HOLLAND, M.D.,
F.R.C.S.,
F.R.C.P.,
F.C.O.G., Obstetric and Gymecological Surgeon, London Hospital; R . C. JEWESBVRY, M.D., F.R.C.P., Physician in Charge of Children's Department, St. Thomas's Hospital ; and WILFRID SHELDON, M.D., M .R.C.P., Junior Physician, Children's Department, K i n g ' s College Hospital. London : Edward Arnold and Co., 1933. pp. 96. Price ls. 6d. net. T h e broadcast talks here most usefully reproduced cover the subjects of ante-natal care, the management and feeding of the infant and toddler, normal development, and various disturbances of health that are commonly met with in y o u n g children. T h e y are clear and simple and practical, and are likely to provide the mother with just the kind of advice that she needs. It is a little disappointing to find the principles of ante-natal care confined, in Dr. :Eardley Holland's statement of them, to the prevention, discovery and treatment of com-
1933.
PUBLIC
plications. Tim directions for keeping the nose clear leave something to be desired, and it is strange that, whereas the mouth is to be left to nature, as is proper, the nose is to be cleaned out with a rag instead of by the sneezing reflex which nature has provided for lhe purpose, together with the flow of moisture that occurs after each warm feed. Amongst other suggestions that might be criticised are those regarding the thickening of soups with bread-crumbs or flour, and the giving of hard food at the beginning instead of at the end of a meal during and after weaning, by which time the baby is quite ready to be set in the right direction in this respect. These, however, are small details in a [)ook full of such sound and valuable instruction, as might be expected having regard to the distinction of its authors.
Glen's Law relating to Public Assistance. By RANDOLPH A . GLEN, M.A., LL.B. CANTAB., Recorder of Penzance; assisted by E. BRIGHT ASHFORD B.A., a n d ALEXANDER P. L. GLEN. L o n d o n : Law and Local Government Publications, Ltd., 1933. pp. 786. Price 30s. net. A volume dealing with the law relating to public assistance was an obvious necessity from the moment the Poor Law Act, 1930, was passed, and the variety of regulations dealing with public assistance and relief began to appear. :Equally obvious alll3Ost was it that when the volume appeared it would bear the name Glen. To public heahh workers this name is known because of its association with the legal publication most frequently consulted in the health d e p a r t m e n t - - " G l e n ' s Public Health " and that other that is almost as frequently consulted, " Glen's Local Government Act, 1929." In the preface to this present publication, which hardly needs to be recommended to all concerned in any degree with public assistance, amongst whom must now be numbered, of course, members of the health service, there is a most interesting little historical note which is further extended in the introduction, where a short account of poor relief in other days is given. In the general contents probably the parts dealing with the relief of those suffering from mental disability, and the Children and Y o u n g Persons Act, 1932, will be most inter-
HEALTH:
28~
esting to health officers. W i t h regard to the former it is noted that though most of the L u n a c y Act, 1890, remains untouched, the Mental Deficiency Act of 1913 introduced changes into the methods of dealing with this problem, and the Mental Treatment Act, 1930, and tbe Rules under it, introduced still further changes, and "lunatics are now to be called " persons of unsound m i n d , " and " pauper lunatics either " rate-aided persons of unsound mind or " rate-aided patients." " Asylums " are now " mental hospitals." All these Acts have been dealt with very fully, so far particularly as they concern poor law authorities. The Act of 1932, as to children and y o u n g persons, was passed while the work was going through the press, and repealed most of the provisions of the Children Act, 1908, affecting poor law authorities, which had already been set up by the printer. The repealed provisions have been left with footnotes referring to the new provisions, which are set out in an appendix. In the preface the hope expressed for the book--in the preparation of which, it is acknowledged, great assistance was received from Miss Bright Ashford, Barrister-at-Law, a member of the St. Marylebone Borough Council--is that, coming from the hands of the third and fourth successive generations of Glens, it will be received with the same favour as were those which were written b y the first and second. So far as this is concerned, there seems to be no doubt whatever that the hope will be realised, and the third and fourth generations may be congratulated on the manner in which they have upheld the standards set by the first and second. "
"
"
Water Purification Control. By EDWARD S. HOPKINS, Principal Sanitary Chemist, Bureau of W a t e r Supply, Baltimore. L o n d o n : Bailli~.re, Tindall and Cox, 1932. pp. 131. Price 10s. net. As a result of experience gained in his laboratory in connection with the training of persons to take charge of water purification plants, the author came to the conclusion that a book dealing with this subject, short and as non-technical as possible, was required. I{e has gone to a great deal of pains to put together the facts that he considered necessary to include, and has done the work extremely well, providing illustrations and tabular stale-