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Altered states of consciousness. A book of readings
500
BOOK REVIEWS
wide range of experimental systems, in finding a unity which will appeal to a wide audience. In this book the dominant appeal to many pathologists will be the renal studies; I would have preferred this section first, with essays on the subcellular reactions to lethal injury following and orientated largely towards renal pathology. But this is a personal view and discounts the fact that this is the fourth volume on Methods and Achievements in Experimental Pathology. With such a wide scope it can hardly be expected that the content of all the volumes will be equally interesting
or relevant to individual readers. The standard of production is high. All the illustrations are very good, and more than t~othirds of the entire volume is printed on quality gloss paper and less than two-thirds on interspersed sheets of matt. Bibliographies are full and up-to-date and mistakes in print rare ; the overlap between authors is minimal and one feels the editors have done a highly creditable job. [ shall most certainly browse (as a minimuml through the other volumes in this series. B. E. TOMLINSON
Handbook o f Neurochemistry, Vol. 1 (Chemical Architecture o f the Nervous System), by A. LAJTr~A (Ed.), xxiii v 484 pages, 53 illustrations, 74 tables~ Plenum Press, New York, N.Y., 1969, US 8 35.-.
published work in each field is very thoroughly reviewed up to and including 1967 with some coverage of the 1967 literature; in all over 3000 references are cited of which about 20 % are 1966 or later. Because of the relatively limited number of workers who are likely to buy this book due to its high degree of specialisation, it is, of course, highly priced, but nevertheless good value. It is well produced and indexed but the style is terse, as befits a work of reference. One point of criticism to be made is that the coverage of the various chapters is somewhat inconsistent, e.g. the pathological aspects of some fields are covered whereas there is no mention of pathology in others. This may lead to nothing worse than some unnecessary duplication in some future volumes, but the editors must take care to avoid serious omissions from the whole series arising from these inconsistencies. W. F. COULSON
This is the first of a seven volume series which will survey in considerable detail the whole field of neurochemistry from chemical composition of the nervous system through metabolism and control to chemical pathology of nervous diseases. The completed work will be an invaluable source of reference to all workers engaged in neurochemical and neurological research. This first volume, concerned with the chemical composition of nervous tissue, has sixteen chapters devoted to various topics such as Chapter 1 : Inorganic Constituents, Chapter 9: Myelin, and Chapter 16: Enzymes. Each chapter is liberally illustrated with many tables and graphs of available data and the
Altered States o f Consciousness. A Book o f Readings, by C. T. TART (Ed.), 575 pages, Wiley, Chichester, Sussex, 1969, 88s. To the neurologist, the title of this compilation might suggest that it is concerned with such topics as deliria, confusional states and the borderlands of epilepsy. In fact, it is concerned with none of these things. The emphasis is fairly and squarely upon psychedelic and kindred experiences and their ramifications into the fields of hypnosis, dreams, meditation and mysticism. If of little direct interest to the neurologist, at least it cannot be said that the subject matter of this book lacks contemporary appeal. The book consists of 35 articles or extracts, mostly of fairly recent date - though a brief piece written by William James in 1882 on the subjective effects of nitrous oxide finds inclusion.
There is also an interesting account by Dr. Milton H. Erickson of his many interviews with the late Aldous Huxley. Among the few objective studies are two EEG studies of Zen and Yogi meditation (one from Japan and the other from India), and Dr. Kamiya's provocative report on modifying the alpha rhythm in normal subjects by an operant conditioning technique. By and large, the material contained in this book is uneven and much of it superficial. None the less, the book represents a marked swing away from the traditionally objective and behaviourist tenor of American psychology towards a more introverted approach towards consciousness and its problems. Provided that it does not get out of hand this is no bad thing. O. L. ZANGWILI.
.L neurol. Sci. l ! : 497 500
BOOK REVIEWS
wide range of experimental systems, in finding a unity which will appeal to a wide audience. In this book the dominant appeal to many pathologists will be the renal studies; I would have preferred this section first, with essays on the subcellular reactions to lethal injury following and orientated largely towards renal pathology. But this is a personal view and discounts the fact that this is the fourth volume on Methods and Achievements in Experimental Pathology. With such a wide scope it can hardly be expected that the content of all the volumes will be equally interesting
or relevant to individual readers. The standard of production is high. All the illustrations are very good, and more than t~othirds of the entire volume is printed on quality gloss paper and less than two-thirds on interspersed sheets of matt. Bibliographies are full and up-to-date and mistakes in print rare ; the overlap between authors is minimal and one feels the editors have done a highly creditable job. [ shall most certainly browse (as a minimuml through the other volumes in this series. B. E. TOMLINSON
Handbook o f Neurochemistry, Vol. 1 (Chemical Architecture o f the Nervous System), by A. LAJTr~A (Ed.), xxiii v 484 pages, 53 illustrations, 74 tables~ Plenum Press, New York, N.Y., 1969, US 8 35.-.
published work in each field is very thoroughly reviewed up to and including 1967 with some coverage of the 1967 literature; in all over 3000 references are cited of which about 20 % are 1966 or later. Because of the relatively limited number of workers who are likely to buy this book due to its high degree of specialisation, it is, of course, highly priced, but nevertheless good value. It is well produced and indexed but the style is terse, as befits a work of reference. One point of criticism to be made is that the coverage of the various chapters is somewhat inconsistent, e.g. the pathological aspects of some fields are covered whereas there is no mention of pathology in others. This may lead to nothing worse than some unnecessary duplication in some future volumes, but the editors must take care to avoid serious omissions from the whole series arising from these inconsistencies. W. F. COULSON
This is the first of a seven volume series which will survey in considerable detail the whole field of neurochemistry from chemical composition of the nervous system through metabolism and control to chemical pathology of nervous diseases. The completed work will be an invaluable source of reference to all workers engaged in neurochemical and neurological research. This first volume, concerned with the chemical composition of nervous tissue, has sixteen chapters devoted to various topics such as Chapter 1 : Inorganic Constituents, Chapter 9: Myelin, and Chapter 16: Enzymes. Each chapter is liberally illustrated with many tables and graphs of available data and the
Altered States o f Consciousness. A Book o f Readings, by C. T. TART (Ed.), 575 pages, Wiley, Chichester, Sussex, 1969, 88s. To the neurologist, the title of this compilation might suggest that it is concerned with such topics as deliria, confusional states and the borderlands of epilepsy. In fact, it is concerned with none of these things. The emphasis is fairly and squarely upon psychedelic and kindred experiences and their ramifications into the fields of hypnosis, dreams, meditation and mysticism. If of little direct interest to the neurologist, at least it cannot be said that the subject matter of this book lacks contemporary appeal. The book consists of 35 articles or extracts, mostly of fairly recent date - though a brief piece written by William James in 1882 on the subjective effects of nitrous oxide finds inclusion.
There is also an interesting account by Dr. Milton H. Erickson of his many interviews with the late Aldous Huxley. Among the few objective studies are two EEG studies of Zen and Yogi meditation (one from Japan and the other from India), and Dr. Kamiya's provocative report on modifying the alpha rhythm in normal subjects by an operant conditioning technique. By and large, the material contained in this book is uneven and much of it superficial. None the less, the book represents a marked swing away from the traditionally objective and behaviourist tenor of American psychology towards a more introverted approach towards consciousness and its problems. Provided that it does not get out of hand this is no bad thing. O. L. ZANGWILI.
.L neurol. Sci. l ! : 497 500