Exp. Geront. Vol. 9, p. 95. Pergamon Press 1974. Printed in Great Britain.

BOOK REVIEW

Textlmok of Geriatrics and Gerontology: (Edited by J. C. Brocklehurs0, Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh. pp. 760. £16.

Tins is the most comprehensive and modern textbook of the clinical aspect of ageing yet to appear. It consists of 38 articles by leading English and European authorities, covering the demographic, ecological, biological, clinical and social aspects of ageing in general and of individual organ systems, with therapeutic and diagnostic discussion. Besides the more conventional system sections, topics such as hypothermia and the causes of falls in old age are the subject of separate and very informative essays. The only important topic not adequately covered is sexual function (rating one paragraph, including the assertion that most males are impotent by the age of 75). There are, however, very few such blemishes, and the book will be of immense value not only to geriatricians in training but to the generality of practitioners for whom geriatric cases have come to occupy large tracts of their clinical work. In this context the essay by Davison on drug treatment in old age is specially important. Each separate essay is followed by a bibliography, and there is a subject index but no author index to references. The text is followed by a glossary of British and American pharmacopoeal names, and illustrated by numerous clear line diagrams readily reproducible as slides for teaching purposes. Sections on gerontological psychiatric diagnosis, organic brain syndromes and the detailed analysis and management of stroke are also specially commendable.

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