400

interesting to read. There are 23 of them, and it isdifficult to single out any for especial praise, but thosewhich appear to be the most valuable are on tuber-culosis, cancer, diphtheria, pneumonia, and heartdisease, all maladies in which the death-rate offersample scope for preventive measures. Dr. Warrenquotes freely from recent work, interpreting scientificpapers for his lay-readers in a sensible way, andsteering a very good middle course in such troubledwaters as " auto-intoxication."

Dr. Barton’s book sets out with the same high idealswhich have so successfully stimulated Dr. Warren,but he has attempted too much, and the result lackscontinuity, while it is not altogether free from errors.For example, in a section on " fits," the author ignoresthe necessity for the proper treatment of epilepsy bysedative drugs, and instead gives the impression thatdiet and exercise are of greatest importance inlessening the number and severity of fits. Certainsections of the book are very good, particularly thoseon the feet and those in which the body is likenedto a motor-car. As from the preceding books, thepublic will derive sound counsel here upon much thatmatters. ___________

PERSONAL HEALTH.

By Prof. EMERY R. HAYHURST. London:McGraw-Hill Publishing Co., Ltd. 1927. Pp. 279.15s.On Middle Age and Keeping Young. By Dr. E. L.IE[opEwELL-A-,3ii. London : Mills and Boon.1927. Pp. 121. 3s. 6d.

IT has been estimated that 75 per cent. of illnesscould be warded off or controlled if everyone appliedthe hygienic and medical knowledge now available.This may seem too optimistic an estimate, but thereis little doubt that the great increase in good bookson personal health and hygiene should eventuallyshow a harvest of better physique among people whotake the trouble to read them. Prof. Hayhurst,of Ohio, has written an excellent manual for " thebusy person in shop or office." He discusses in somedetail the purposes of the principal organs and partsof the body which should be the common knowledgeof all intelligent persons, and he deals with theprincipal diseases, their causes, symptoms, prevention,.and early treatmext. The book is attractivelywritten and well produced, and although its price ishigh for the type of individual to whom it shouldappeal it is well worth the money.

Dr. E. L. Hopewell-Ash’s little book deals withthe personal health and hygiene of the middle-

aged, but we do not find the subject matter suffi-ciently well presented to appeal to the more intelli-gent class of reader. It does not help the womanat the time of the menopause to be told to

" hold onwhilst this natural crisis of life affects you," and thestudent of dietetics will wonder what the author

means when he writes, " Nothing is digestible if itis mixed with too much of other things at the sametime." Moreover, although the author doubts it,Sir Archibald Garrod is (happily) still alive. Of course,most of the advice given will be found serviceable.

JOURNALS.A GERMAN JOURNAL OF ANESTHESIA.——A new

journal, Narkose und Anaesthesie, has appeared inGermany, the first number being published in Berlinon Jan. 15th. This is a novel production, for it isthe first time that a periodical has been issued inGermany, or, indeed, on the continent at all, whichis devoted solely to the study of anaesthetics. Infact, the publisher, in his foreword, comments onthe comparative backwardness of German medicine,contrasted with that of England and America, wherethe study and practice of anaesthetics are concerned,and he alludes to the British Journal of Ancesthesiaand the Current Researches in Anaesthesia and

Analgesia as worthy of imitation. This numberof Narkose und Anaesthesie comprises a long articleon new routes for the anaesthesia of the jaw and facewhich is entirely occupied with local measures.

The other important original article deals withavertin. The nature of these two contributions is ’

significant of the relative importance of inhalationanaesthetics and other methods in Germany. Thereis no mention of the former in either of the twooriginal articles in a new journal devoted solely toanaesthetics. We welcome Narkose und Anaesthesieas a valuable addition to current literature and onewhich will enable our readers to be kept in touchwith the latest developments of anaesthetic study inGermany.THE GLASGOW MEDICAL JOURNAL : CENTENARY

NUMBER.-The February issue of the Journal appearson the hundredth birthday of this valuable periodical,and its history and progress are well set out in anarticle, charmingly illustrated, which deals with thepersonalities of a long line of interesting editors,commencing with William Mackenzie, at that timeAndersonian professor of anatomy and surgery in theUniversity. The opposition to the journal in its earlydays was conducted on very similar lines to thosewhich were adopted by some of the early rivals toTHE LANCET, and the use of nicknames was similarlyemployed. The short-lived Glasgow Medical Examiner,which had a yellow cover, was particularly severeupon the G.M.J., but the " Mustard Plaster," as itwas dubbed, proved unlucky in its criticisms, forone of the principal sources of grievance against theG.M.J. was its support of Lister and Lister’s doc-trines. We note here, with complacency, that THELANCET is adduced, under a very dignified sobriquet,as being on the side of the angels, its pages havingbeen " open to the insertion of every communicationof the Professor on the extraordinary facts of theantiseptic and atmospheric germ killer." We do notattempt here to do more than note the appearanceof this extraordinarily interesting centenary issue ;the articles form not only a domestic history of realimportance, but in many respects a valuable reviewof our science throughout the period. The editor andhis collaborators deserve hearty thanks and no lesshearty congratulations.JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE.-January, 1928 :

Attention is directed by C. K. Drinker to the baro-spirator of Prof. T. Thunberg, a new apparatusfor artificial respiration, planned on entirely originallines. The air is introduced into the chest, andremoved, by altering the pressure of the atmosphere ofthe chamber in which the body is placed. When anordinary person is placed in the chamber and theapparatus for rhythmically increasing and decreasingthe pressure of the air is set working, he soon losesany need for using his own respiratory muscles andcontinues carrying on quite happily without anyvisible signs of breathing; nor, indeed, are theordinary movements of inspiration and expirationtaking place. Barospiratorsmust. always be rathercumbersome affairs, but they offer a possibility oftreating cases of respiratory failure hitherto unap-proachable. One such an appliance centrally situatedcould serve a large area for cases where a long struggleis evidently at hand, in cases of electric shock, gaspoisoning, or drowning. The author considers thatthe undoubted efficiency of the barospirator makes itcertain to come into use.-The last article, which iscontributed by P. Drinker, R. M. Thomson, and J. L.Finn, describes experiments carried out for ascertainingthe amount of inhaled dust which is retained. Theparticles used varied in size from about 0-4 micron inone series of experiments to 0.15 micron in another,and up to 6 microns in a third. Details are given of41 experiments in tables and graphs, showing theamounts inhaled, exhaled, and retained. Thepercentage retentions in all three suspensions averaged55. The importance of this piece of research work isconsiderable as standards of dust contamination ofatmospheres cannot be fixed for administrativepurposes unless it is known how much of the dustinhaled is retained. Curiously the amount retaineddoes not seem to depend on the size of the particlessince the same proportion was retained in each of theseries of experiments reported.