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Reviews of Books

ThiopentoneAnd Other Thiobarbiturates. JOHN W. DUNDEE, M.D.,F.F.A.R.C.S., lecturer in anæsthesia, University of Liver-pool. Edinburgh : E. & S. Livingstone. 1956. Pp. 312.22s. 6d.

IN the past ten years a vast amount of work has beendone on thiobarbiturate anæsthesia. Now, for the firsttime, the accumulated knowledge has been set out inone volume. Dr. Dundee has woven into a comprehensiveand readable monograph the detailed pharmacology andpractical application of these drugs.He starts with the early history of intravenous anæsthesia

and the physical and chemical properties of the thiobar-biturates. Then come three excellent chapters on phar-macology, which will be of continuing interest to workers inthe basic sciences as well as to anæsthetists. The rest of thebook deals primarily with the clinical use of thiopentone ;there are appendices on the practical aspects of administration,with accounts of methods of detection and estimation.

Dr. Dundee has a high standard, which he maintainsthroughout this book.

Progress in HematologyEditor: LEANDRO M. TOCANTINS, M.D. Vol. I. NewYork and London : Grune & Stratton. 1956. Pp. 336.46s.

THIS volume, hopefully labelled number I, is the firstof a series intended to give " a periodic survey of theprogress of ... hematologic task forces...." For thissurvey Dr. Tocantins has enlisted the assistance of27 contributors, and their contributions range from along survey covering many pages to a short note recordingthe results of one treatment in a few cases.The best article is that by W. W. Zuelzer, J. V. Neel,

and A. R. Robinson on the abnormal hæmoglobins ; in47 pages they give a first-class account of the charactersof abnormal hæmoglobins so far distinguished, the methodsfor separating them, their genetics, and the diseases they cause.The article is written in a critical and not an encyclopædicmanner, and this is very welcome. Other articles speciallyworth reading include those by C. C. Ungley and R. B.Thompson on the isolation of the gastric " intrinsic factor

"

and its relations with vitamin B12, by the late L. A. Erfon a long-term study of polycythæmia vera and its treatmentwith radioactive phosphorus, by W. J. Harrington, V.Minnich, and G. Arimura, who defend the importance ofplatelet agglutinins in idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura,and by T. Bodi, C. Wirts, and L. M. Tocantins whodescribe an interesting experimental approach to the factorsaffecting hæmostasis in bleeding from the upper gastro-intestinal tract.

This useful volume is largely complementary to theBritish Modern Trends in Blood Diseases, edited byJ. F. Wilkinson, and the fact that only two articles areduplicated—and then not completely—in the two worksreflects the multiplicity of topics now covered underthe title of hæmatology. Anyone owning these twobooks will have indeed an up-to-date survey of the field.

Angiocardiographic Interpretation in Congenital HeartDisease

HERBERT L. ABRAMS, M.D., assistant professor of

radiology, Stanford University School of Medicine;HENRY S. KAPLAN, M.D., professor of radiology at theschool. Springfield, Ill. : Charles C. Thomas. Oxford :Blackwell Scientific Publications. 1956. Pp. 233. 95s.

THE authors have divided their book into two mainsections.The first covers general considerations, and includes an

historical introduction and chapters on technique and equip-ment, opaque media and reactions, deaths due to angio-cardiography, general principles of interpretation, and aorto-graphy. This section is concise and clear. Each chapter isfollowed by an excellent bibliography. All the general informa-tion pertinent to angiocardiography will be found in it.The second section is concerned with the diagnosis of

specific anomalies, a chapter being devoted to each. Theangiocardiographic appearances are described in detail and

illustrated by angiocardiograms of admirable clarity supporteby excellent line drawings to aid interpretation. The pathological anatomy, clinical picture, and radiographic featureof each condition are briefly mentioned at the beginning oeach chapter, which is followed, as in the first section, byan extensive and valuable bibliography.The authors have produced a concise, accurate, up

to-date, and beautifully illustrated work, which shouldprove of value to all interested in angiocardiography,both the experienced and the tyro.Parasites and Parasitism

THOMAS W. M. CAMERON, professor of parasitologyMcGill University. New York : John Wiley. LondonMethuen. 1956. Pp. 322. 35s.

THIS is not a textbook of medical or veterinaryparasitology. The author deals with parasitism as a wayof living comparable to terrestrial, aquatic, or othermodes. The text is written for people with a workingknowledge of biology but no special knowledge oparasitology.

It deals successively with the bacteria, fungi, spirochsetes, pro-tozoa, viruses, and rickettsias, and the cœlenterates, helminths,ringed worms (annelida), arthropods, molluscs, and vertebrates.The rest of the book discusses the host’s reactions againstthe parasite, parasitism, infectious disease, and the distribu-tion, control, host-specificity, and evolution of parasites.Readers who are not parasitologists will welcome the biblio-graphy, glossary, and outline of the classification of parasites.Emotional Problems of Early Childhood

Editor: GERALD CAPLAN, M.D. London: TavistockPublications. 1956. Pp. 544. 42s.

THIS book is based upon the papers read at theInternational Institute of Child Psychiatry in Torontoin 1954.

Section I, on preventive aspects of child psychiatry, includesan interesting chapter on mother-child relationship; andDr. Caplan contributes a chapter on recent trends. Section II,on

" the relation of physical and emotional factors, andproblems of hospitalisation," includes a study of the relationbetween maternal deprivation, psychogenic deafness, and

pseudo -retardation by Marie-Cécile Gelinier-Ortigues and JennyAubry, of Paris, and a chapter on " the methods of studyingchildren aged one to three years, placed in institutions," byJenny Aubry. Section III is concerned with the problems ofpsychosis in early childhood.

Hutchison’s Clinical Methods (13th ed. London;Cassell. 1956. Pp. 452. 18s. 6d.).—For nearly sixty years" Hutchison and Rainy " or, as it later became, " Hutchisonand Hunter " has been the trusted friend of all from novicestudent to gnarled consultant. Now Sir Robert Hutchison,who initiated this evergreen enterprise, has withdrawn, andthe latest revision has been undertaken by Dr. Donald Hunter.who has long been a joint author, and by Dr. R. R. Bomford.Together the duumvirate have got off to a good start bymaking the new edition nearly twenty pages shorter than thelast—a feat of zealous editorship that others might take toheart. This work, combining the vigour of youth with theexperience of maturity, seems to be assured of at least afurther three score years of useful life.

Sigmund Freud (New York: Basic Books. London:Tavistock Publications. 1956. Pp. 150. 18s.).—During thecelebration of the centenary of Freud’s birth, Dr. Ernest Jonesdelivered three commemorative addresses in the UnitedStates. The first of these—on the nature of genius—wassummarised in our columns 1 soon after it was given. Thethree addresses, and a broadcast delivered in London, havenow been published as a small book which is aptly rounded offby Dr. Jones’s elegiac tribute in the International Journal ofPsycho-A nalysis at the time of Freud’s death.New and Nonofficial Remedies, 1956 (Philadelphia:

J. B. Lippincott. London: Pitman Medical Publishing Co. 1956.Pp. 540. 30s.).—This valuable annual contains monographson drugs, evaluated by the American Medical Association’s council on pharmacy and chemistry, which are not dealt within the Pharmacopeia of the United States or the U.S. NationalFormulary. Formerly only drugs with established uses wereincluded ; but this year all available new drugs are described.

1. See Lancet, 1956, i, 698.