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The Causes and Prevention of Deafness
1913.
PUBLIC
REVIE\VS. I-lOUSE, I~[EALTH AND DOMESTIC
HYGIENE.
By
Sir John Collie, Kt., M.D., C.M., and C F. \Vightman, F.1R.C.S. Price 9 d. THIS is a small handbook written in a very simple language, intended for students attending home health and hygiene classes. It is written in a clear, readable manner, the authors having had experience in preparing similar works on ,, First Aid in Accidents," " H o m e Nursing," etc., this forming number four of the series. The arrangement of the sections is good, and the questions at the end of each chapter are valuable. The practical illustrations of each point are simple, and being interspersed with the reading matter help to lighten the subject. I n Chapter I I I., dealing with water, the authors have adopted a classification on water: (1) Fresh, (2) Salt, (3) Mineral, which is not to be commended. In chapter IX,' on the dwelling house, in describing a sanitary dust-bin, a rather curious slip has occurred ; it is stated to b e " A small metal box of' corrugated' iron with an air-tight lid." In the same chapter the authors show they are not quite familiar with the details of the sanitary fittings of a house, as on page 47, with the illustration on page 48 , the authors do not seem to grasp the idea of the antisyphonage pipe ; in the description it is described as being a small pipe leading from the soil pipe into the soilpipe side of the water-closet trap, and in the illustration is shewn an antisyphonage pipe from what is apparently the highest water-closet on the soil pipe. Pages 49-53, dealing with the requirements of a healthy home, are good, and it is unfortunate this was not amplified and such subjects dealt with as the presence in every home of a ventilated food cupboard, a sink, a copper, water supply, and the importanceofpaving around the house. The chapter on the cooking, preparation and serving of food are worth reading. The chapters on clothing and personal hygiene are very sensible, and the former is quite up to d a t e - - t h e e v i l s of thehobble skirt being mentioned. On page 157 , in the table of infectious diseases, it would appear that the authors do not think enteric fever should be isolated. In a book of this kind, which will mainly reach the hands of school teachers, it seems desirable that scabies and pediculosis should have been dealt with. T h e book will no doubt be, as it deserves to be, very popular among students at evening schools, teachers and others. THE CAUSES AND PREVENTION OF DEAFNESS. By James Kerr Love, M.D. This little volume contains the four important lectures delivered by Dr. Kerr Love under the auspices of the National Bureau for promoting the General Welfare of the Deaf and is published by that body. Both the author and the Bureau are to be congratulated upon their appearance in book form.
H E A LTH.
61
It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that the book, in its modest and unassuming green cover, is really one of the most valuable and epochmaking works that has appeared for some time. Its author's name is already something like a household word as the advocate of the deaf child, and the lectures under review may be said to be the crowning point of that advocacy. They contain much food for reflection, not merely for the medical practitioner in general but for the specialist, both in otology and in public health, the sociologist, the educationist and the legislator. Each and every one of these should read the lectures in full, it is only by so doing that he can appreciate their full significance and value. T h e book contains material of the most important kind as to the causation of deafness, congenital and acquired, in children, inchlding much original research, especially on congenital syphilitic deafness, together with sound and common-sense suggestions for prevention. The prevention of deafness is one of the great movements that the National Bureau is organising and which cannot fail, if adequately supported by the authorities, to be of great and lasting future benefit to the community. W e recommend the perusal of the 127 pages that this little book contains to every medical officer of health and school doctor. THE ]~RADSHAW LECTURE ON THE TREATMENT OF INCIPIENT PULMONARY TUBERCULOSIS. By D. B. Lees, M.D., F . R . C . P . Pp. viii. and 116. D e m y 8re. Price 5 s. net. H . K . Lewis, London, 1913 . Tuberculosis is one of the leading problems of the day, and there is an increasing tendency to believe that the diagnosis and treatment of the pulmonary forms of this malady involve complicated procedures and costly appliances, and that reliance should be placed on the findings of the radiographer or bacteriologist rather than on the art of the physician. In relation to diagnosis Dr. Lees points out the loss of available evidence which results from attention to auscultation and a neglect of careful percussion of the chest walls, the latter method yielding results which fully equal those obtained by complex radiographic methods, providing suitable precautions are taken as to method and position. T h e progress of a case can be followed by the periodical measurement of dull areas. The treatment advocated is that of antiseptic inhalations similar to those employed by Sir Win. Roberts, Drs. Coghill and Pinneyged in the early eighties of the last century, but differing in that the inhalation should be continuous and not occasional. Many illustrative cases are quoted, and in view of the results obtained and the simplicity of the CI
PUBLIC
REVIE\VS. I-lOUSE, I~[EALTH AND DOMESTIC
HYGIENE.
By
Sir John Collie, Kt., M.D., C.M., and C F. \Vightman, F.1R.C.S. Price 9 d. THIS is a small handbook written in a very simple language, intended for students attending home health and hygiene classes. It is written in a clear, readable manner, the authors having had experience in preparing similar works on ,, First Aid in Accidents," " H o m e Nursing," etc., this forming number four of the series. The arrangement of the sections is good, and the questions at the end of each chapter are valuable. The practical illustrations of each point are simple, and being interspersed with the reading matter help to lighten the subject. I n Chapter I I I., dealing with water, the authors have adopted a classification on water: (1) Fresh, (2) Salt, (3) Mineral, which is not to be commended. In chapter IX,' on the dwelling house, in describing a sanitary dust-bin, a rather curious slip has occurred ; it is stated to b e " A small metal box of' corrugated' iron with an air-tight lid." In the same chapter the authors show they are not quite familiar with the details of the sanitary fittings of a house, as on page 47, with the illustration on page 48 , the authors do not seem to grasp the idea of the antisyphonage pipe ; in the description it is described as being a small pipe leading from the soil pipe into the soilpipe side of the water-closet trap, and in the illustration is shewn an antisyphonage pipe from what is apparently the highest water-closet on the soil pipe. Pages 49-53, dealing with the requirements of a healthy home, are good, and it is unfortunate this was not amplified and such subjects dealt with as the presence in every home of a ventilated food cupboard, a sink, a copper, water supply, and the importanceofpaving around the house. The chapter on the cooking, preparation and serving of food are worth reading. The chapters on clothing and personal hygiene are very sensible, and the former is quite up to d a t e - - t h e e v i l s of thehobble skirt being mentioned. On page 157 , in the table of infectious diseases, it would appear that the authors do not think enteric fever should be isolated. In a book of this kind, which will mainly reach the hands of school teachers, it seems desirable that scabies and pediculosis should have been dealt with. T h e book will no doubt be, as it deserves to be, very popular among students at evening schools, teachers and others. THE CAUSES AND PREVENTION OF DEAFNESS. By James Kerr Love, M.D. This little volume contains the four important lectures delivered by Dr. Kerr Love under the auspices of the National Bureau for promoting the General Welfare of the Deaf and is published by that body. Both the author and the Bureau are to be congratulated upon their appearance in book form.
H E A LTH.
61
It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that the book, in its modest and unassuming green cover, is really one of the most valuable and epochmaking works that has appeared for some time. Its author's name is already something like a household word as the advocate of the deaf child, and the lectures under review may be said to be the crowning point of that advocacy. They contain much food for reflection, not merely for the medical practitioner in general but for the specialist, both in otology and in public health, the sociologist, the educationist and the legislator. Each and every one of these should read the lectures in full, it is only by so doing that he can appreciate their full significance and value. T h e book contains material of the most important kind as to the causation of deafness, congenital and acquired, in children, inchlding much original research, especially on congenital syphilitic deafness, together with sound and common-sense suggestions for prevention. The prevention of deafness is one of the great movements that the National Bureau is organising and which cannot fail, if adequately supported by the authorities, to be of great and lasting future benefit to the community. W e recommend the perusal of the 127 pages that this little book contains to every medical officer of health and school doctor. THE ]~RADSHAW LECTURE ON THE TREATMENT OF INCIPIENT PULMONARY TUBERCULOSIS. By D. B. Lees, M.D., F . R . C . P . Pp. viii. and 116. D e m y 8re. Price 5 s. net. H . K . Lewis, London, 1913 . Tuberculosis is one of the leading problems of the day, and there is an increasing tendency to believe that the diagnosis and treatment of the pulmonary forms of this malady involve complicated procedures and costly appliances, and that reliance should be placed on the findings of the radiographer or bacteriologist rather than on the art of the physician. In relation to diagnosis Dr. Lees points out the loss of available evidence which results from attention to auscultation and a neglect of careful percussion of the chest walls, the latter method yielding results which fully equal those obtained by complex radiographic methods, providing suitable precautions are taken as to method and position. T h e progress of a case can be followed by the periodical measurement of dull areas. The treatment advocated is that of antiseptic inhalations similar to those employed by Sir Win. Roberts, Drs. Coghill and Pinneyged in the early eighties of the last century, but differing in that the inhalation should be continuous and not occasional. Many illustrative cases are quoted, and in view of the results obtained and the simplicity of the CI