principles and practice of surgery in civil life which brings us up to the present day.

In chapter 34 we have before us an exhaustive study of Craniocerebral War Wounds by Dr. Herold Neuhof of New York, and in chapter 35 the Surgery of the Fifth (Trigimimal) nerve by that master of this branch of surgery, Dr. Frazier. Chapter 37, War Wounds of the Face and Jaws, by Dr. Richard H. Hart and Dr. Walter E. Lee. These chapters are of particular interest and entitled to much consideration.

THE PRINCIPLES OF THERAPEUTICS

By Oliver T. Osborn, M.D., Professor of Therapeutics, Department of Medicine, Yale University. Octavo of 881 Pages. W. B. Saunders. Company, 1921. Cloth $7.00 Net. The most difficult branch of medicine today is therapeutics. The commercial supply houses have to such an extent made up popular prescriptions that a large percentage of physicians rely on the commercial representative of such houses for information as to popular preparations, much in the line of the "best sellers." However, medicine has not altogether dropped to the level of a trade, and there is probably a larger proportion than we suppose who are seeking for reliable information as to agents in the treatment of disease. Our medical schools are maintaining departments of therapeutics and are diligently impressing on the minds of students the importance of treating disease by medical agents.

Dr. Osborn has written an attractive book for physicians and students. The first three parts are devoted to prescription writing and to a list of valuable drugs. Part four to the endocrine glands and organotherapy. Part five to practical therapeutic measures. Part six, vaccines and serums. Part seven, foods and diets. Part eighth, general physical measures. Part nine and ten to poisons, and part eleven to the treatment of emergencies.

The ground occupied by therapeutics is being extended so rapidly, particularly in the direction of organotherapy and serums and vaccines, that new books are demanded if we are to keep in close touch with the means of scientific treatment and to accurately evaluate remedies placed on the market. THE ASSESSMENT OF PHYSICAL FITNESS By Correlation of Vital Capacity and Certain Measurements of the Body. By Georges Dreyer, C.B.E., M.A., M.D., Fellow of Lincoln College, Professor of Pathology in the University of Oxford. In Collaboration with George Fulford Hanson. With a Foreword by Charles H. Mayo, M.D., Rochester, Minn. Cloth, Pp. 128, with XXIV Tables. Price $3.50 Net, New York: Paul B. Hoeber. This is a book that should command the attention of all physicians who are interested in industrial medicine, actuaries of insurance companies, public health nurses and settlement workers, for the reason that unlike most books on the same lines, the author

contends that the occupation of the individual plays a large part in his physical dimensions.

In the past, insurance companies have had hardand-fast rules as to what the physical dimensions should be to make the applicant acceptable irrespective of his occupation, and the same remark applies to all those investigators of physical fitness who have followed the matter with more or less interest. Dr. Dreyer divides all workers into three classes and shows the differences in the physical measurements between Class A and Class B-men who have undergone prolonged physical training, or have an occupation which leads to muscular development, and men of the professional and business classes. Class C contains those who lead an extremely sedentary life, which it can readily be understood makes for a greater degree of under-development than would obtain among those of Class A or B. Hence the new note in a book on physical fitness and one that is inclusive of matters which have been overlooked by other authors, and on account of their neglect have given a one-sided account of the matter.

ROENTGEN INTERPRETATION

A Manual for Students and Practitioners, by George W. Holmes, M.D., Roentgenologist to the Massachusetts General Hospital and Instructor in Roentgenology, Harvard Medical School and Howard E. Ruggles, M. D., Roentgenologist to the University of California Medical School. Second Edition, Thoroughly Revised, Illustrated with 184 Engravings. Lea and Febiger, Philadelphia, New York, 1921. Price $3.25.

We doubt the wisdom of the physician and surgeon becoming his own roentgenologist unless circumstances demand it. Roentgenology is a highly developed specialty and requires a high degree of special training if we are to escape the dangers which lie in the way. Furthermore, the plates to be of value, must be executed with great skill. While we believe that x-ray work should be in the hands of trained specialists, the physician or surgeon should to a certain extent study interpretation and be qualified to determine with a considerable degree of certainty what the plate reveals, otherwise he is liable to fall into serious error. The book presented, is one that should be in the possession of every practitioner who proposes to be guided by x-ray revelation in his practice. In the study of fracture and dislocations not only do we consider the relations of the bones but also the condition of the bone itself, that is, bone pathology as in osteomyelitis, necrosis, tuberculosis, syphilis, sarcoma, etc. Also diseases of nutrition of bone and trophic changes. There is to be found many cases of calcified deposits, hypotrophic spurs, and other bone changes to be considered. These bone changes are well illustrated and should be recognized by the surgeon who will before rendering an opinion, plan his own interpretation on the plates. The authors also consider the chest includ

ing lung fields, heart and blood-vessels, stomach, intestines and kidneys.

The book is limited as we believe it should be, to interpretation for the physician and surgeon while the technic of roentgenology goes to the expert technician.

PRACTICE OF MEDICINE

A Manual for Students and Practitioners. By Hughes Dayton, M.D., New York. Fourth Revised Edition, Lea and Febiger, 1921. This is a convenient manual for ready reference. and may be carried in one's pocket to meet certain exigences of practice when reference to a larger book would be inconvenient or impracticable.

THE HAND-BOOK OF ELECTRO-THERAPY
By Burton Baker Grover, M.D., Published
by the F. A. Davis Company, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania.

This book is a very interesting, comprehensive, and practical treatise on electricity in its application for the relief of disease. While there may be just ground for questioning the efficacy of some of the forms of treatment laid down in this text, it is nevertheless evident that the author has made a sincere effort to place the whole subject of electro-therapy on a physiological and rational basis.

The concise manner in which the author has dealt with the technical construction of the various electrotherapeutic mechanisms makes the work of considerable value, even without its therapeutic hints.

F. A. Ely.

REPORT OF THE WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION SERVICE

For the Biennial Period Ending June 30, 1920. A. B. Funk, Industrial Commissioner. Published by the State of Iowa, Des Moines. The interest of the medical profession in some of the features of workmen's compensation warrants a brief review of this report. The period of operation in the United States of nine years and in Iowa for six years permits the commissioner to entertain definite views of the merit of the commission plan of adjusting claims for personal injuries, only five states have failed to inaugurate the plan and in no state has the workmen's compensation law been repealed. That the plan seems to have operated satisfactorily is shown by the small number of cases of appeal to the courts.

At first the medical profession looked upon workmen's compensation with suspicion, and justly, for the important part that medicine and surgery played in the operation of the law warranted some recognition of the medical profession from the first, but the profession was absolutely ignored and the matter of compensation fixed in a most arbitrary manner, in fact the condition was such that the better class of practitioners could not afford to accept such service

and there was great danger that the injured workman would get inferior service. It was not the generosity of the state that averted the danger but rather the good business sense of liability companies, and the tact of the commissioner together with the generous spirit of the profession. The maximum period of two weeks and the maximum fee of $100, in any case was increased by the Thirty-eighth General Assembly to $200 in extraordinary cases which cannot be considered adequate and is only accepted in the hope of better treatment in the future. A much better plan would be to award a reasonable fee based on the merits of the case and would lessen the tendency to pad bills in minor cases to compensate for loss in the extraordinary cases. The legal compensation is at best much less than the wages of a day laborer. The commissioner makes an important recommendation in reducing the waiting period to one week. In our experience the two weeks waiting period is the greatest cause of complaint and deprives the workman on one week of compensation that he is clearly entitled to.

THE AMERICAN RED CROSS WORK AMONG
THE FRENCH PEOPLE

By Fisher Ames, Jr. Published by the
Macmillan Company, New York City.

The work of the American Red Cross is well known in a general way. But to make the record complete, and to present it to the reading public in an interesting and concise manner, a somewhat detailed outline of the work is published in book form. A similar book has been published on the American Red Cross work in Italy.

These books constitute an important contribution to the history of the war and show the peculiarities of the Italian and French people under the stress of a war which threatened their national identity. The trying conditions under which the Red Cross operated gave an abundant opportunity to study the people of these countries and constitute an important chapter on the history of France and Italy; not only of these people, but also of the American Red Cross itself.

The history of the war, the organization and marching of armies, the fighting of troops, is the one thing with which we are familiar, but the care of non-combatants, wounded and sick soldiers are facts little known to us before this war. The history of France is filled with accounts of conflicts domestic and foreign attended with great distress and suffering, but with little organized attempt to relieve the sufferings incident to war. The most striking fact marking the progress of civilization is th work of the Red Cross and the support given it. The impressive fact in relation to the war was the contributions of science in discovering means of destroying life and we are liable to overlook the contributions of the Red Cross in directing our attention to humanitarian measures and to the history of the more (Continued on Adv. Page xvi)

BOOK REVIEWS

(Continued from Page 492)

silent activities, places us under deep obligations to the writers and publishers of these most interesting and valuable books.

A PRIMER FOR DIABETIC PATIENTS

A Brief Outline of the Principles of Diabetic Treatment. Sample Menus, Recipes and Food Tables. By Russell M. Wilder, M.D., May A. Foley and Daisy Ellithorpe, Dietitians. The Mayo Clinic; 12 mo. of 76 Pages. W. B. Saunders Company, 1921. Cloth $1.50 Net.

This book is placed in the hands of the physician that he may cooperate with the patient in the selection of a diet suited to a case of diabetes; certain strict rules must be observed, but certain modifications may be made within limits to be determined by the condition of the patient's urine and blood. The diet menus and recipes, have been worked out with much care and arranged in such a manner that the physician and patient may work out the patient's tolerance and follow the lines in a way helpful to the physician, and absolutely necessary to the welfare of the patient; without cooperation on the part of the patient very little benefit from treatment may be expected.

TUBERCULOSIS OF CHILDREN, ITS DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT

By Professor Dr. Hans Much, Director of the Department of the Science of Immunity and for the Research of Tuberculosis, San Francisco and Belmont, California. The Macmillian Company, New York, 1921. This interesting volume presents certain important facts and theories in relation to tuberculosis, first; that infection of tuberculosis occurs almost always in children, and from human beings and cattle, and develops at varying periods of life. In mature years immunity may be gained. Infection may occur silently and without sickness.

In countries where tuberculosis has existed for many years or centuries, the action of the disease is very different from that seen in the countries where tuberculosis has never, or only for comparatively short time been known, where, when it appears, the people fall an easy prey. This argument is for the purpose of showing the significance of immunity in managing tuberculosis.

The author considers "Development" from the standpoint of immunity. "Immunity has never been entirely sufficient. Immunity is sufficient for a certain length of time and then later becomes undermined."

The second consideration is treatment. The infections occur in the first years of life; a degree of immunity is acquired through generation of expos

ure; and development occurs or not according to the degree or permanence of immunity.

Specific measures of treatment depend on the success of remedies in producing artificial immunity. Serum is discussed by the author who states that "all attempts to influence tuberculosis with derivities of blood, previously prepared or treated, have been without results." Considerable space is given to the argument.

Treatment with vaccines; "Cannot be called a general remedy;" with argument.

We now reach the main purpose for which this book was written.

Treatment of tuberculosis with partigens. The author proposes to increase the antibody-over sensitiveness-by injecting intracutaneously with the aid of the four partigens, one or more, and thus secure immunity aided by non-specific measures, sun, air, climate, hygenic-dietetic measures, x-ray, surgery, pneumothorax, therapy, etc. Friedmann's treatment in comparison with partigens a step backwards. Then follows the argument.

Part second; necessity for the fight against tuberculosis in children opens up with the admirable statement. "Tuberculosis, or the white plague is one of the world's greatest scourges; for this reason there devolved the noble and important duty upon the medical men of the world to fight its origin.

"Tuberculosis of the adult develops from an infection in childhood; consequently any attempt at its eradication must begin by providing effective treatment in childhood, as at that period the disease is easily curable and the resulting immunity insures a lasting protection for the balance of that individual life."

The remainder of the book is devoted to general considerations and diagnosis. Altogether this is a very interesting and suggestive exposition of the facts in the study of tuberculosis.

PRACTICAL TUBERCULOSIS

By Herbert F. Gammons, M.D., Superin-
tendent of Woodlawn Sanatorium, Dallas,
Texas. Published by C. V. Mosby Company,
St. Louis, Mo. Price, $2.00.

As indicated by the title, this book is intended by the author to present points of practical interest to the general practitioner, who may not be inclined to avail himself of the many lengthy and exhaustive treatises upon this subject, which are of more be fit to those specializing in this department of medical work. To this end, the book gives a short and interesting history of the early recognition of a wasting disease of the body, which was generally known as consumption, and of the steps which led to the present knowledge of this condition, its predisposing causes, and the means by which the trouble may be diagnosed in its early stages.

As in all recent works on this subject, stress is laid upon this factor of early diagnosis, following which (Continued on Adv. Page xxviii)