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Biological bases of individual behaviour
247
Book reviews J. K.
CRELLIN and J. R. SCOTT: Glass and British Pharmacy 1600-1900. Wellcome Institute of the History of Medicine, London, 1972. p. viii, 72. Price d4.00.
THE EXTRAORDINARY wealth of material in the Wellcome Museum is being slowly catalogued and illustrated. As each publication appears, the historian, the collector and the interested medical man can only be grateful once again to Dr. Noel Poynter, the Director of the Institute for the stimulus he has given to the production of these invaluable records. In this small catalogue the British glass vessels used in pharmacies are superbly illustrated, and prefaced by a brief but fascinating account of how pharmacies developed physically over the 16th to 19th centuries. How many of us know that the distillation of water, and the production of cordials was bitterly contested; how many are aware of how salutary it is to-day to remember the healing effects of harmless preparations and coloured waters. The modern pharmaceutical industry has developed from the chemists and druggists of the 17th and 18th centuries-it is good to see the unfolding of this marvellous process in down to earth productions such as this catalogue. May we see many more similar Wellcome contributions to our knowledge. DENIS LEIGH
Biological Bases of Individual Bchaviour. Edited by V. D. NEBYLITSYNand J. A. GRAY, Academic Press, New York and London, 1972. pp. 417. THE PSYCHOBIOLOGICAL research conducted in Eastern Europe is inadequately appreciated in the West. The barriers are partly language-translations are often poor or unavailable; and partly conceptual-the theoretical structure of Pavlovian psychology seems complex and puzzling to those nurtured outside its influence. J. A. Gray has already done much to familiarize English readers with the background to the Pavlovian theory of personality and its later variants. The present volume is a collection of essays on neuro-physiological topics related to behavioural psychology. The individual authors are generally distinguished and the contributions often of a high standard. The book is not, as its title might imply, a comprehensive account of the subject. The chief interest of the work lies in the contributions of the Soviet authors. It is refreshing to find that Russian neurophysiologists are breaking out of the Pavlovian stereotype to an extent which would have seemed impossible a decade ago, Thus Teplov comes close to suggesting that the Pavlovian theory of “four types” has no more empirical formulation than the Galenic theory of four humours, while Nebylitsyn seems fully aware of the difficulties in applying the theory of the partial properties of the nervous system to the complexities of human emotion and behaviour. PETERNOBLE
T. A. BAN: Schizophrenia, a psychopharmacological Illinois, 1972. pp. ix + 134. Price *OO.OO.
approach.
Charles
C. Thomas,
Springfield,
THIS USEFULlittle book packs a great deal of information into its ninety pages of text. The information is supported by chapter and verse on every conceivable occasion as evidenced by a total of nearly five hundred references. The book is divided into chapters dealing with the drugs used in the treatment of schizophrenia, with schizophrenic patients themselves and with the schizophrenias as disease entities. The usefulness of modern psychotropic drugs as tools to investigate various aspects of this most puzzling of psychiatric conditions is very clear from the author’s account. Ban’s own careful work on conditioning processes in schizophrenia and the use of such variables as predictors of treatment response is briefly outlined. The empirical usefulness of this approach seems established, at least in a preliminary way, but it is a pity that the data is interpreted in terms of Pavlovian neukomythology. The biochemical section which deals with most of the suggested biochemical abnormalities in schizophrenia is much too breathless and frenetic, being crammed into about ten pages. The relevance of much of this to psychopharmacology is not made clear. This is the only part of the book where the high level of critical analysis typical of the rest of the book is not maintained. M. H. LADER
Book reviews J. K.
CRELLIN and J. R. SCOTT: Glass and British Pharmacy 1600-1900. Wellcome Institute of the History of Medicine, London, 1972. p. viii, 72. Price d4.00.
THE EXTRAORDINARY wealth of material in the Wellcome Museum is being slowly catalogued and illustrated. As each publication appears, the historian, the collector and the interested medical man can only be grateful once again to Dr. Noel Poynter, the Director of the Institute for the stimulus he has given to the production of these invaluable records. In this small catalogue the British glass vessels used in pharmacies are superbly illustrated, and prefaced by a brief but fascinating account of how pharmacies developed physically over the 16th to 19th centuries. How many of us know that the distillation of water, and the production of cordials was bitterly contested; how many are aware of how salutary it is to-day to remember the healing effects of harmless preparations and coloured waters. The modern pharmaceutical industry has developed from the chemists and druggists of the 17th and 18th centuries-it is good to see the unfolding of this marvellous process in down to earth productions such as this catalogue. May we see many more similar Wellcome contributions to our knowledge. DENIS LEIGH
Biological Bases of Individual Bchaviour. Edited by V. D. NEBYLITSYNand J. A. GRAY, Academic Press, New York and London, 1972. pp. 417. THE PSYCHOBIOLOGICAL research conducted in Eastern Europe is inadequately appreciated in the West. The barriers are partly language-translations are often poor or unavailable; and partly conceptual-the theoretical structure of Pavlovian psychology seems complex and puzzling to those nurtured outside its influence. J. A. Gray has already done much to familiarize English readers with the background to the Pavlovian theory of personality and its later variants. The present volume is a collection of essays on neuro-physiological topics related to behavioural psychology. The individual authors are generally distinguished and the contributions often of a high standard. The book is not, as its title might imply, a comprehensive account of the subject. The chief interest of the work lies in the contributions of the Soviet authors. It is refreshing to find that Russian neurophysiologists are breaking out of the Pavlovian stereotype to an extent which would have seemed impossible a decade ago, Thus Teplov comes close to suggesting that the Pavlovian theory of “four types” has no more empirical formulation than the Galenic theory of four humours, while Nebylitsyn seems fully aware of the difficulties in applying the theory of the partial properties of the nervous system to the complexities of human emotion and behaviour. PETERNOBLE
T. A. BAN: Schizophrenia, a psychopharmacological Illinois, 1972. pp. ix + 134. Price *OO.OO.
approach.
Charles
C. Thomas,
Springfield,
THIS USEFULlittle book packs a great deal of information into its ninety pages of text. The information is supported by chapter and verse on every conceivable occasion as evidenced by a total of nearly five hundred references. The book is divided into chapters dealing with the drugs used in the treatment of schizophrenia, with schizophrenic patients themselves and with the schizophrenias as disease entities. The usefulness of modern psychotropic drugs as tools to investigate various aspects of this most puzzling of psychiatric conditions is very clear from the author’s account. Ban’s own careful work on conditioning processes in schizophrenia and the use of such variables as predictors of treatment response is briefly outlined. The empirical usefulness of this approach seems established, at least in a preliminary way, but it is a pity that the data is interpreted in terms of Pavlovian neukomythology. The biochemical section which deals with most of the suggested biochemical abnormalities in schizophrenia is much too breathless and frenetic, being crammed into about ten pages. The relevance of much of this to psychopharmacology is not made clear. This is the only part of the book where the high level of critical analysis typical of the rest of the book is not maintained. M. H. LADER