Mental Healers: Mesmer, Eddy, Freud: The fourth in a series of “master builders”

BOOK REVIEWS THE PRACTITIONER’S LIBRARY OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY, VoI. I (Anatomy and Physiology as AppIied to Practical Medicine) and Vol. II (The Technic of Physical and Laboratory Examination in Clinical Supervising Editor, George Medicine). Blumer, M.A., M.D., and Associate Editors and Contributors. N. Y., D. Appleton & Co., 1932. The Practitioner’s Library of Medicine and Surgery, two voIumes of which are before US,is written by young men and the needs of the generaI practitioner are borne in mind on every page. If the baIance of the ten or tweIve volumes intended to compIete the work Iive up to the standard set by the first two, this wiI1 be one of the most invaIuabIe series of books in the physician’s Iibrary. VoIume I covers both anatomy and physiconcise and up-to-date ology in a concrete, manner and the ilIustrations Ieave IittIe to be desired. Anatomy and physioIogy, so cIoseIy correIated, are here presented in truIy modern fashion. VoIume II covers the technique of cIinica1 medicine. The subjects are we11 and authoritativeIy covered. The Editor in his Preface presents an almost idea1 pIan for this Iibrary and in the first two voIumes, at Ieast, has succeeded in Iiving up to his ideaIs. A spIendid index to each voIume simpIifies ready reference. The weII-seIected bibliography at the end of each chapter makes further reading an easy matter. The physician having only one modern system in his Iibrary wiI1 not go wrong in seIecting this one. MENTAL HEALERS : MESRIER, EDDY, FREUD: The fourth in a series of “Master Builders” by Stefan Zweig. Trans. by Eden and Cedar Paul. N. Y., Viking Press, ‘932. This work, we11 transIated and we11 printed, is of speciaI interest to the medica man as we11 as the Iayman. It is not in any sense a history of menta1 healing, but rather a psychoIogical study of three menta1 heaIers, who, working from the same genera1 theory, have interested thousands of peopIe. The author

gives a clear picture of the centra1 idea of self heIp animating, in turn, Mesmer, Mary Baker Eddy and Freud; Mesmer, by suggestion, Eddy, by “the anesthetic ecstasy of Faith” and Freud, by “unmasking the sub-conscious,” thus freeing the individual, according to the oId command “ Know thyself.” The Iife story of Mary Baker Eddy and her reIation to her background is toId with keenness and justice, and the reader enjoys this etching of the uneducated, magnetic, strongwiIIed mono-maniac who started an avaIanche which she couId not have foreseen. The method introduced by Freud has given us a new individua1, as we11 as group, outIook. He, Iike Mesmer, started from the medica basis, but his work has profoundIy affected a11 phases of Iife. Zweig gives a dynamic study of this strong fighter, now grown oId, whose startIing theories, whether we approve of them or not, have become an accepted part of our modern thought. COMPENDIO DE T~CNICA RADIOL~GICA, RADIODIAGN~STICOY RADIOTERAPIA. (Compendium of RadioIogic Technic, Diagnostics and Therapy). By Doctors Otto Strauss and Otto Mtiller, Berlin. Trans. into Spanish by J. Cabrera of the Faculty of Sciences of Zaragoza, and J. Gay, of the Faculty of Medicine of Madrid. Madrid, Espasa-Calpe, S. A., 193 I. As the name indicates, this is a Spanish transIation of an exceIIent German compendium of radioIogica1 technica1, diagnostic and therapeutic knowIedge, presented with commendabIe brevity, yet with surprising thoroughness. Intended for the genera1 practitioner, this excelIent handbook wiI1 no doubt appea1 to many radioIogists, especiaIIy those who have not yet acquired a Iarge background of experience. Many Iine drawings and diagrams fuIIy iIIustrate the text. SureIy a very usefu1 book for its purpose. A HANDBOOK OF EXPERIMENTALPATHOLOGY. By George Wagoner, M.D., and R. Philip Custer, M.D. SpringfieId, III. Charles C. Thomas, 1932.