72
PUBLIC HEALTH, March, 1943
BOOK REVIEWS War Injuries 0f the Chest. Edited by H. MORRISTON DAVIES, M.CH., F.R.C.S., and ROBERT COOPE, M.D., F.R.C.P. Edinburgh : E. and S. Livingstone. 1942. Pp. 131, 36 illustrations. Price 6s. net., postage 6d. T h e medicsd officer receiving casualties, whether in the field or from civilian bombing, may have to deal with chest injuries presenting unfamiliar problems and requiring special treatment. This little book has been compiled for his guidance and it is attractively produced in a handy pocket size. T h e general plan, starting with a useful account of the anatomy, physiology and pathology of the chest, is good. T h e chapters devoted to special types of injury, however, leave much to be desired. T o o much space is given to the description of lesions and too little to their treatment. T h e doctor for whom this book is intended is faced with an urgent problem and wants to be told what he must d ~ Here the book fails in its purpose because there is a lack of definite directions and an unfortunate tendency to present a number of alternatives. Also, no attempt is made to differentiate between the treatment which would be given at a specially equipped chest centre and that which the general surgeon should adopt in order to render the patient fit for transfer to such a centre and to avoid subsequent complications. Ideally the main lines of treatment and their indications should be set out in tabular form so as to be visible at a glance, and if this could be done in subsequent editions the book might fulfil a very useful purpose.
Sex Guidance in Family Life Education.
By FRANCES BRUCE STRAIN. New Y o r k : T h e Macmillan Company. 1942. Pp. 339. Price 10s. 6d. This book of more than 300 pages has been written in response to the request of American teachers for a guide to sex education in the schools. It describes a carefully thoughtout long-range programme from the unobtrusive teaching in the nursery school to the skilled technique involved in the discussions with the adolescent. It is written with extraordinarily good taste by an author with a well-balanced outlook on sex who understands both children and adults. There is no suggestion of skating on thin ice and nothing that can shock or embarrass; the tone is frank, matter-of-fact and impersonal. As Mrs. Strain says, " sex education is not sexy and has nothing for the seeker of thrills." Sex education, as she views it, is a compendium in which viewpoints on life as it should be lived are contributed by the doctor, the psychologist, the naturalist, the biologist, the domestic science teacher, and the games master. I n fact, sex is regarded as the framework of the essential structure of life and not as a thing apart. In no other subject is the saying more true that " it isn't what you say but how you say it." T h e chapter dealing with the personality of the teacher is full of wisdom. One might quote at length but, as space forbids, readers are advised to get hold of this book. They will not be disappointed.
Health for the Young. By LINDSEY W. BATTEN, M.B., M.R.C.P. London : George Allen and Unwin, Ltd. 1942. Pp. 176. Price 6s. net. This book, intended primarily for parents, teachers and those concerned with youth, should be read by all interested in child health. T h e author has a well-balanced outlook, and his views regarding the development of mental and physical health are refreshingly sane. He weighs modern shibboleths dispassionately and is not afraid to dismiss them if they are not proved by the evidence. Dr. Batten submits that a cl~ild should be brought up to regard life in terms of action, and ought not to be handicapped by feelings of self-pity or selfdepreciation. T o label him as " gastric " or as suffering from " malnutrition " or " acidosis " may serve to perpetuate his s~aptoms and to favour the development of an individual who enjoys bad heahh through a long and useless life. This is a wise and stimulating book, written by a general practitioner with a wide experience of children in health and disease, which can be thoroughly recommended.
Principles of Medical Statistics.
3rd edition. By A. Bradford Hill, v.sc., PH.D. 1 9 4 2 . London. Lancet. Pp. 189. Price 7s. 6d. net. A third edition of Bradford Hill's well-known book on medicaL' statistics has now appeared, the first edition having been published in 1937. When the editor of the Lancet arranged for the publication of the contents of the book, he performed a very useful service to the medical profession. It cannot be said that medical men irt general take kindly to subjecting their experiences to statistical analysis or to planning their investigations along statistical lines. From the nature of their training and their work, medical men in the public health service are more fully aware of the essential discipline of the statistical method. For all alike there are few more suitable introductions to the subject than Bradford Hill's concise and informative volume.
Front Line, t940-41.
T h e Official Story of the Civil Defence of Britain. Issued for the Ministry of Home Security by the Ministry of Information. London: H.M. Stationery Office, 1942. Pp. 159. Illustrated. Price 2s. net. Now that bomb damage hides shyly behind hoardings, coats of paint, and other cosmetic devices, the bare realism of the text and illustrations in this book are a reminder of what we have suffered and may suffer again. There is little about the medical and hospital services, which will be the subject of a special publication later o n ; but a photograph of a poster urging the inhabitants of Coventry to " Boil all Drinking W a t e r " is a reminder that the public health services did their work so well that, through all the herding of people, bombing of water mains, and disruption of food supplies, there was not a single epidemic. Another picture, showing one of the Ministry of Food vans, recalls how opportunities of educating the public in some aspects of good health were seized at a time when many more pressing 10roblems might have absorbed the attention of medical men. For the rest the book is a vivid and often moving tribute to the work of the " Civil Defence," from firemen to messenger boys, and to the courage of ordinary people.
OBITUARY DR. A. ADAMS, M.D., D.P.H. We regret to record the sudden death on January 29th of Dr. Alfred Adams, recently district tuberculosis officer under the Cheshire C.C. and for two years president of the North-~restem Tuberculosis Society. Alfred Adams took up medicine at a comparatively late age. He qualified M.B., Ch.B. with honours in 1910, proceeding to the M.D. of his university--Liverpool--in 1912, and taking the D.P.H. in the same year. He held for a year the Johnston Colonial Fellowship in Pathology and Bacteriology at Liverpool, and was then appointed medical superintendent of the Liverpool Sanatorium, Delamere Forest, a post from which he retired in 1988. A pioneer in the early institutional treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis, Dr. Adams showed much foresight and energy in his work, and even in 1913 was writing on artificial pneumothorax. In the war 1914-18 he saw service in Gallipoli, and also in Salonika, where he was in charge of No. 2 Mobile Bacteriological Laboratory. He held the rank of Captain. His post as District Tuberculosis Officer under the Cumberland C.C. was taken up at the outbreak of the present war. A. M. WATTS, M.D., D.P.H. We regret to record the death at the age of 71 of Dr. A. M. Watts, for over twenty years Medical Officer of Health for East Kent (No. 1) United Districts. Alexander Minter Watts was educated at the Royal Academy, Gosport, Hunts, and received his medical education at University College and University College Hospital, London. In 1894 he qualified M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., and during the next three years held hospital appointments at University College Hospital and at the General Infirmary, Hereford. He then became surgeon on the P. and O. steamer Socotra. In 1898 he settled in general practice at Wye, Kent, but a year later went to Newcastle-on-Tyne, taking the M.B. and B.S. degrees of Durham University, and proceeding to the M.D. in 1902, in which year he went into practice at Minster. In 1908 the Kent County Council secured the services of Dr. Watts as part-time school medical inspector, and three years later he gave up general practice in favour of public health work. He took the