- Email: [email protected]
Brief Notes
The orthopaedic and surgical sections give irrefutable evidence of the types of accident which occur in all forms of travel, with emphasis on motoring casualties. The suggested preventative and rehabilitation measures in this day and age of mechanisation are worth noting. The paper on alcohol and drugs as causative agents of traffic offences, conforms with the findings of many known publications. The author agrees that safe driving and drinking are not compatible, but he is much against enforced legislation for total abstinence, not only as an infringement on the liberty of the person, but also that such an intrusion into the personal sphere of life may have the reverse effect of its intentions. Prohibition in America, he says, was followed by the most undesirable and even dangerous consequences. Whether the simile is apt is a matter of opinion ! He concludes, however, in finding it difficult to establish a safe blood alcohol level for the drinker who drives. Elsewhere one is given helpful advice on doctors' ministrations to the injured and lawyers' duty to the disabled litigant-not to mention recommendations on the transportation of the sick in suitable vehicles to hospital. Hazards of the aeroplane-seasickness-the public health aspect of victuals and hygiene on long journeys, occupational diseases in train and ship personnel -even the use of modes of transport for suicide and crime-all are considered in this ambitious study. Yet all in all the subject matter is too vast to be treated as a whole ; this book can only be considered as a medico-legal encyclopaedia.
A valuable guide to lawyers and doctors, its chief merit lies in the fact that i t is a superb study of the social history of the last three decades and as such will find a place on the bookshelves of a bibliophil or in a Public Health Library. M. P. McHugh
BRIEF NOTES
Bibliography of Pharmaceutical Reference Literature Magda Pasztor and Jenny Hopkins (The Pharmaceutical Press, London, 1968, $9. 167) This paper back book provides a list of sources of information in pharmacy, pharmacology, biological sciences and chemical engineering. I t includes material published from 1960 to the end of March, 1968, and is almost entirely restricted to works in the English language. I t is divided into types of source and subdivided by subject. The authors, of the School of Pharmacy of the University of London, are to be commended for compiling this very useful book. Table of Isotopes, 6th Edn. C. M . Lederer, J . M . Hollander and I . Perlman (John Wiley and Sons Inc., London, New York and Sydney, 1967, pp. 594) Since 1940, when the first edition was produced, a large amount of information has been collected as new isotopes have been discovered. The book has gone through four other editions since then and this latest work has been compiled to a rather different format. I t is divided into two principal sections. The first lists both stable and unstable isotopes according to element or atomic number but the spectroscopic information given in earlier editions has been omitted and is given in the second part as decay-scheme and energy level diagrams. These diagrams are extremely comprehensive and the work is completed by a substantial bibliography of over 100 pages. 97
The Analytical Toxicology of Industrial Inorganic Poisons Morris R, Jacobs (Interscience, New York, Logzdon and Sydney, 1967, pp. 943 £11 14s.) This book was started as a revision of the second edition of "The Analytical Chemistry of Industrial Poisons, Hazards and Solvents" which had formed Volume One of the "Chemical Analysis" series twelve years before. The revision ultimately became this book-Volume 22, and, in the author's words, "an entirely new book". Unfortunately, Dr. Jacobs died suddenly in 1965. The book was completed by his daughter. The chapters include : Industrial Hygiene and Industrial Poisons ; Sampling ; Measurement of Gas Volume, Velocity and Quantity ; Absorbers, etc.; Sampling of Dust ; Methods of Dust evaluation ; Estimation of Silica, Lead, Mercury and Arsenic ; Other Harmful metals ; Radiocllemical Determinations ; Sulphur compounds ; Phosphorus and Phosphorus compounds ; Nitrogen compounds ; Oxygen and Ozone ; Poisonous Halogens ; Carbon Monoxide, Dioxide, Cyanides and Nitriles ; Detector Tubes and Clinical Chemistry. I t is difficult to do justice to a review of a book which has been published a considerable time after the author's death. The methodology is somewhat dated and the references are not as recent as one might like, many of them, indeed, antedate 1930. There are one or two rather puzzling features, for example, in the preface (which was not completed) it is mentioned that the chapter on war gases which had been deleted from the second edition had been revised and expanded in the light of current knowledge. The book, however, shows no sign of this as a separate chapter and one is driven to the conclusion that it was either omitted from this edition also or else it has been included under the poisonous halogens like chlorine and phosgene. No mention of war gases appears in the index and no mention of any of the other compounds which were developed after 1918 appears in the text. This confusion is unfortunate but is probably the result of the completion of the book under these difficult circumstances. Despite any shortcomings j t still provides an exhaustive treatise on the well established methods of analysis for toxic inorganic substances. Henry Leach
Mental Health Book Review Index (Compiled by the Editorial Committee and Contributing Librarians. 1968. Council on Research i n Bibliography, New York, pp. 85)
Volume 13,
This large paper back book is rather unusual in construction, being a collection of reviews of books in the field of mental health and behavioural sciences. I t is an annual list of books in these disciplines which have been reviewed by specialists and which have appeared in 255 journals. The reviews have been selected for inclusion in this index by a panel of librarians and this work forms a useful bibliography of the books which have appeared or have been reviewed in the last few years.
A Guide to recent Criminal Legislation C. F. Shoolbred (Oxford,Pergamon Press, 1968, $9. 154, 27s. 6d. (Soft Cover, 17s. 6d) The changes in the criminal law which came into force between 1948 and 1967 were, apart from the Criminal Evidence Act of 1898, radically to alter legislation which had been in operation for over 100 years. Those who work in the courts will use the relevant statutes to guide them but there are many workers in the peripheral professions who will welcome a pilot through the more important landmarks of the new legislation. 98
A valuable guide to lawyers and doctors, its chief merit lies in the fact that i t is a superb study of the social history of the last three decades and as such will find a place on the bookshelves of a bibliophil or in a Public Health Library. M. P. McHugh
BRIEF NOTES
Bibliography of Pharmaceutical Reference Literature Magda Pasztor and Jenny Hopkins (The Pharmaceutical Press, London, 1968, $9. 167) This paper back book provides a list of sources of information in pharmacy, pharmacology, biological sciences and chemical engineering. I t includes material published from 1960 to the end of March, 1968, and is almost entirely restricted to works in the English language. I t is divided into types of source and subdivided by subject. The authors, of the School of Pharmacy of the University of London, are to be commended for compiling this very useful book. Table of Isotopes, 6th Edn. C. M . Lederer, J . M . Hollander and I . Perlman (John Wiley and Sons Inc., London, New York and Sydney, 1967, pp. 594) Since 1940, when the first edition was produced, a large amount of information has been collected as new isotopes have been discovered. The book has gone through four other editions since then and this latest work has been compiled to a rather different format. I t is divided into two principal sections. The first lists both stable and unstable isotopes according to element or atomic number but the spectroscopic information given in earlier editions has been omitted and is given in the second part as decay-scheme and energy level diagrams. These diagrams are extremely comprehensive and the work is completed by a substantial bibliography of over 100 pages. 97
The Analytical Toxicology of Industrial Inorganic Poisons Morris R, Jacobs (Interscience, New York, Logzdon and Sydney, 1967, pp. 943 £11 14s.) This book was started as a revision of the second edition of "The Analytical Chemistry of Industrial Poisons, Hazards and Solvents" which had formed Volume One of the "Chemical Analysis" series twelve years before. The revision ultimately became this book-Volume 22, and, in the author's words, "an entirely new book". Unfortunately, Dr. Jacobs died suddenly in 1965. The book was completed by his daughter. The chapters include : Industrial Hygiene and Industrial Poisons ; Sampling ; Measurement of Gas Volume, Velocity and Quantity ; Absorbers, etc.; Sampling of Dust ; Methods of Dust evaluation ; Estimation of Silica, Lead, Mercury and Arsenic ; Other Harmful metals ; Radiocllemical Determinations ; Sulphur compounds ; Phosphorus and Phosphorus compounds ; Nitrogen compounds ; Oxygen and Ozone ; Poisonous Halogens ; Carbon Monoxide, Dioxide, Cyanides and Nitriles ; Detector Tubes and Clinical Chemistry. I t is difficult to do justice to a review of a book which has been published a considerable time after the author's death. The methodology is somewhat dated and the references are not as recent as one might like, many of them, indeed, antedate 1930. There are one or two rather puzzling features, for example, in the preface (which was not completed) it is mentioned that the chapter on war gases which had been deleted from the second edition had been revised and expanded in the light of current knowledge. The book, however, shows no sign of this as a separate chapter and one is driven to the conclusion that it was either omitted from this edition also or else it has been included under the poisonous halogens like chlorine and phosgene. No mention of war gases appears in the index and no mention of any of the other compounds which were developed after 1918 appears in the text. This confusion is unfortunate but is probably the result of the completion of the book under these difficult circumstances. Despite any shortcomings j t still provides an exhaustive treatise on the well established methods of analysis for toxic inorganic substances. Henry Leach
Mental Health Book Review Index (Compiled by the Editorial Committee and Contributing Librarians. 1968. Council on Research i n Bibliography, New York, pp. 85)
Volume 13,
This large paper back book is rather unusual in construction, being a collection of reviews of books in the field of mental health and behavioural sciences. I t is an annual list of books in these disciplines which have been reviewed by specialists and which have appeared in 255 journals. The reviews have been selected for inclusion in this index by a panel of librarians and this work forms a useful bibliography of the books which have appeared or have been reviewed in the last few years.
A Guide to recent Criminal Legislation C. F. Shoolbred (Oxford,Pergamon Press, 1968, $9. 154, 27s. 6d. (Soft Cover, 17s. 6d) The changes in the criminal law which came into force between 1948 and 1967 were, apart from the Criminal Evidence Act of 1898, radically to alter legislation which had been in operation for over 100 years. Those who work in the courts will use the relevant statutes to guide them but there are many workers in the peripheral professions who will welcome a pilot through the more important landmarks of the new legislation. 98