Progressive medicine

Progressive medicine

I 108 Americsn JournaI of Surgery Book The medica student of today has our sympathy if he is expected to read a book on al1 the phases of diagnoses...

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I 108

Americsn JournaI of Surgery

Book

The medica student of today has our sympathy if he is expected to read a book on al1 the phases of diagnoses and treatment on which we older men needed onIy to read paragraphs or chapters. THE NERVOL~SCHILD. By Hector CharIes Cameron, M.A., M.D. (Cantab.), F.R.C.P. (Lond.). Ed. 4. 256 Pages, 8 PIates. Humphrey Milford, Oxford Univ. Press, 1929.

The nervous child is one of the probIems of the day and every physician, be he famiIy doctor or surgeon, faces this problem at one time or another. Therefore, the first chapter alone on “Doctors, Mothers and Children” is recommended to the attention of every medical man. This chapter in itself is well worth the price of this book. PROGRESSIVEMEDICINE. Vol. I, March, Lea & Febiger, 1930.

MAY, ~930

Reviews

rg3o. Phila.,

The quarterly digests of the “advances, discoveries and improvements in the medical and surgica1 sciences,” known to many of the profession under the genera1 title, “Progressive Medicine,” are too we11 known and worth whiIe to need more than a casua1 introduction. The latest number (March 1930) continues the high standard of previous issues. Surgery of the head, spinal cord and peripheral nerves is covered by Francis C. Grant; surgery of the thorax, including the breast and goiter, by. George P. MuIIer; infectious diseases, including acute rheumatism, croupous pneumonia and inffuenza, by H. E. MacDermot; diseases of children, by John P. Caffey; rhinoIogy, IaryngoIogy and otoIogy, by John A. Bather. There is an index. We do not intend to be hypercritica and discuss every misprint or clouded statement. However, on page 63 occurs a statement which needs correction. It reads, “No discussion of anaesthesia in cranial surgery can be considered compIete without reference to the recent work of Koster on the use of spinal of Koster is anaesthesia . . . the statement important that in the last 200 Iaparotomies

which he performed, the entire head and face were rendered insensitive to pain . . . ” This probablv is a mis-statement. We have Iooked through Koster’s writings and fail to hnd this statement. But we did read, “In our cIinica1 study of complete body anaesthesia which now number over 730 cases, we have not met with serious cardiac or respiratory embarrassment.” L

BIOGRAPHISCHESLEXIKON der hervorragenden Arzte aIIer Zeiten und Volker. Unter Spezial-Redaktion von Dr. E. GurIt und Dr. A. Wernich herausgegeben von Dr. August Hirsch. Zweite Auflage durchgesehen und er&inzt von Prof. F. Hiibotter. Berlin. und Prof. H. Viirordt, Tiibingen. Zweite Bd.’ Chavet-GyuIay. Mit 64 BiIdnissen, 932 Teite. BerIin, Urban & Schwarzenberg, 1930.

The second volume of the new edit’ion of “Hirsch’s Biographisches Lexikon” is now before us and runs from “Chavet to GyuIay.” Like the Hurst voIume it contains much interesting materia1 splendidly arranged. There are 64 illustrations on 16 pIates. We fee1 it would be better for these portraits to be put right in with the individual biographies, even at the expense of having to use a coated paper for the whoIe book. If the present method is continued, however, it wouId seem that it would be we11 to have a notation at the end of the biography, stating on what page the portrait wiI1 be found. As it is now, there is no way of teIIing from reading the biography whether there is a portrait pubIished and one has to turn to the list of iIIustrations at the beginning of the volume. This is not a serious matter, but it would seem to be very simpIe to put in brackets an indication that a portrait has been published. It is to be hoped that before this set is completed, there wiI1 be a geographical Iist of names. It wouId be interesting to check up how many men from any specia1 country have done work in medicine worthy of being incIuded in such a work. We Iook forward impatiently to the cornpIetion of this unique work which is invaIuable for historical references.