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The Magpie Tough
sphere covered by this book America shows the way to the lawyers of Great Britain and poses a challenge which ought not to go unheeded. A. R. Brownlie FOR PRACTITIONER NOT PERPETRATOR
The Poisoned Patient: The Riile of the Laboratory Symposium 26 (New Series) CIBA Foundation (Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1974, 314pp., index, $22.95) This volume reports the proceedings of a three-day symposium held in 1974. Twenty-two people participated (including nine from Europe, Scandinavia and U.S.A.) and seventeen contributed papers. The question implicit in the title of the book is a difficult one. For the purposes of the meeting the "patient" could be alive or dead and poisoning was defined as illness resulting from the use, as well as the abusc, of drugs. Working from such a broad base it is perhaps not surprising that no uniformity of opinion regarding the r61e of the laboratory emerges. To some it will be paradoxical that clinicians managing severe, lifethreatening acute poisonings of increasing complexity appear least interested in the urgent measurement of circulating drug levels in the majority of their patients. Conversely, it is clear that forensic toxicologists and clinical pharmacologists feel themselves counting down to a n explosion in the number of analyses and the range of drugs which it will be desirable to measure in blood and other tissues. With the increasing demand being made upon toxicology laboratories by the police, forensic pathologists, clinical pharmacologists and toxicologists and present day financial stringencies, it is unfortunate that some discussion on the organisation and co-ordination of laboratory activities was not possible. Much of the volume is given over to cxccllcnt reviews of methods of analysis. Spectroscopic, luminescence and immunological methods, in addition to those linking chromatographic systems with mass spectrometers, are discussed and evaluated. With the increasing sophistication of such techniques it is re-assuring to find that their limitations are put in perspective and that warnings are sounded about the detection and separation of unstable metabolites and the toxicity of some of them. As in previous CIBA Foundation Symposia, the discussion of each paper or group of papers is also published and adds much to their value. Overall, this book contains much of interest to those intrested in poisoning regardless of their viewpoint. A. T . Proudfoot T H E MAGPIE TOUCH
International Bibliography of the History of Legal Medicine Jaroslav Nemec (U.S. Dept. of Health, Education and Welfare, Bethesda, Maryland, 1973; 200pp. index, $5.50) This blibliography covering the material available in the U.S. National Library of Medicine lists some 1,600 entries recording the history of legal medicine from earliest times to 1972. The work is put together in the belief that without the historical dimension there cannot be a full appreciation of the coherence and organisation of medicine or of science. Hitherto, except for the writings of the late Dr. R. P. Brittain, there was little published detail of the history of legal medicine. The volume is thus a n index of considerable importance. I n his Preface the author refers to the death of Dr. Brittain just before the
question of professional collaboration between them could be taken up, and he draws attention to the mass of detail which Brittain accumulated during the latter years of his life for his projected world history of legal medicine. That massive work will not now be written-at least until another writer of equal stature arises-but Nemec points to the importance of Brittain's materials not being dissipated. This volume should find a place in the more institutional type libraries and amongst the working tools of all those who make a serious study of the origins of forensic medicine and the forensic sciences.
International Bibliography of the Forensic Sciences-1975 Edited by William G. Eckert (Inform Publicatwns, Wichita, Kansas, 1975, 143pp., $9.00) This useful annual compilation emanating from the Inform organisation in Wichita provides a compendium of almost three thousand papers on subjects which fall within the scope of the forensic sciences published in English in 197314. The list can be approached by way of subject and author indexes and in addition lists of practitioners, institutes, laboratories and publications afford helpful information. An essential tool too for all who wish to find their way about the current English literature. A. R. Brownlie
The Poisoned Patient: The Riile of the Laboratory Symposium 26 (New Series) CIBA Foundation (Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1974, 314pp., index, $22.95) This volume reports the proceedings of a three-day symposium held in 1974. Twenty-two people participated (including nine from Europe, Scandinavia and U.S.A.) and seventeen contributed papers. The question implicit in the title of the book is a difficult one. For the purposes of the meeting the "patient" could be alive or dead and poisoning was defined as illness resulting from the use, as well as the abusc, of drugs. Working from such a broad base it is perhaps not surprising that no uniformity of opinion regarding the r61e of the laboratory emerges. To some it will be paradoxical that clinicians managing severe, lifethreatening acute poisonings of increasing complexity appear least interested in the urgent measurement of circulating drug levels in the majority of their patients. Conversely, it is clear that forensic toxicologists and clinical pharmacologists feel themselves counting down to a n explosion in the number of analyses and the range of drugs which it will be desirable to measure in blood and other tissues. With the increasing demand being made upon toxicology laboratories by the police, forensic pathologists, clinical pharmacologists and toxicologists and present day financial stringencies, it is unfortunate that some discussion on the organisation and co-ordination of laboratory activities was not possible. Much of the volume is given over to cxccllcnt reviews of methods of analysis. Spectroscopic, luminescence and immunological methods, in addition to those linking chromatographic systems with mass spectrometers, are discussed and evaluated. With the increasing sophistication of such techniques it is re-assuring to find that their limitations are put in perspective and that warnings are sounded about the detection and separation of unstable metabolites and the toxicity of some of them. As in previous CIBA Foundation Symposia, the discussion of each paper or group of papers is also published and adds much to their value. Overall, this book contains much of interest to those intrested in poisoning regardless of their viewpoint. A. T . Proudfoot T H E MAGPIE TOUCH
International Bibliography of the History of Legal Medicine Jaroslav Nemec (U.S. Dept. of Health, Education and Welfare, Bethesda, Maryland, 1973; 200pp. index, $5.50) This blibliography covering the material available in the U.S. National Library of Medicine lists some 1,600 entries recording the history of legal medicine from earliest times to 1972. The work is put together in the belief that without the historical dimension there cannot be a full appreciation of the coherence and organisation of medicine or of science. Hitherto, except for the writings of the late Dr. R. P. Brittain, there was little published detail of the history of legal medicine. The volume is thus a n index of considerable importance. I n his Preface the author refers to the death of Dr. Brittain just before the
question of professional collaboration between them could be taken up, and he draws attention to the mass of detail which Brittain accumulated during the latter years of his life for his projected world history of legal medicine. That massive work will not now be written-at least until another writer of equal stature arises-but Nemec points to the importance of Brittain's materials not being dissipated. This volume should find a place in the more institutional type libraries and amongst the working tools of all those who make a serious study of the origins of forensic medicine and the forensic sciences.
International Bibliography of the Forensic Sciences-1975 Edited by William G. Eckert (Inform Publicatwns, Wichita, Kansas, 1975, 143pp., $9.00) This useful annual compilation emanating from the Inform organisation in Wichita provides a compendium of almost three thousand papers on subjects which fall within the scope of the forensic sciences published in English in 197314. The list can be approached by way of subject and author indexes and in addition lists of practitioners, institutes, laboratories and publications afford helpful information. An essential tool too for all who wish to find their way about the current English literature. A. R. Brownlie