148 PUBLIC HEALTH. JANUARY, 1934.

T h e L i t e r a t u r e o f P r e v e n t i v e M e d i c i n e . An Outline of Immunity. By W. W. C. TOPLEY,

M.A., M.D., F.R.C.P., F.R.S., Professor of Bacteriology and Immunology in the Uni- versity of London. London: Edward Arnold and Co., 1933. pp. 413. Price 18s. net.

Professor Topley, as appears from his preface, may be a little uncertain about when to impart such knowledge as exists with regard to immun- ology and the principles upon which it rests : he may not be quite sure that it is easy to teach it at all, since it is so difficult to be dogmatic: he may actually, as he says, have been unwil!ing to add to the long list of medical text-books. In spite of all these reasons for hesitating to teach and to write about the subject, it is impossible to be other than glad that he has done. this'book. There is no one more capable of doing it and of setting out what should be taught and learned in just the way it should be done. He admits, and everybody accepts, that the task he set himself was not an easy one, but he ;has done it and done it admirably. The book he has produced will be the leading

volume on the subject. That may be claimed without hesitation. It deserves to be ; that may

also be claimed because Professor Topley knows his subject ; is a teacher of experience and skill, and has produced a book that anybody anxious to understand, and with a reasonable amount of general knowledge of pathology and bacteriology, will be able to understand. If it is necessary to commend and recommend any work written by Professor Topley, the commendation and recommendation are most strOngly offered.

people of both sexes to walk the straight paths of purity, having learned that " few people are ever lost on a straight road."

THE Poisons Board established by Section 16 of the Pharmacy and Poisons Act, 1933, has appointed Mr. M. D. Perrins, of the Home Office, as Secretary, to whom any communica- tions to the Board should be addressed.

THOSE medical practitioners whose approval for the purpose of signing recommendations under Sections 1 (3) and 5 (3) of the Mental Treatment Act, 1930, expired on December 31st, 1933, are being invited by ' the Board of Control to make application for renewal of the approval, and are being furnished with forms of application for this purpose. Any other practitioner who may desire to seek approval under the Mental Treatment Act can obtain a form of application on writing to the Board of Control, Caxton House West, Tothill Street, Westminster, London, S.W. 1.

THE Medical Research Council have appointed Professor E. P. Cathcart, F.R:S., University of Glasgow, to be Chairman of the Industrial Health Research Board in succession t o Sir Arnold T. Wilson, K.C.I.E., who has resigned on becoming a Member of Parliament: They have also appointed Professor Cyril Burt and Miss Hilda Martindale to be members of the board in succession to Sir John HI.-Parsons, F.R.S., and Miss M. Ritson, who have-retired in rotation.

V.D. The Monster Crime of Humanity. By ~tLBERT tPtOYSE. London: Arthur H. St6ckwelt; Ltd., 1933~ pp. 61. Pi'ice 2s. net.

" There has been enough of quackery and mystery in relation to the topics with which this book deals;" says its author; " now let the blackness of ignorance be dispelled by the brilliant rays Of knowledge illuminating the path that leads to safe, sensibIe and sane living." Mr. Royse, according to the pub- l~she[s, is well known as a lecturer on venereal diseases. His object in presenting the book is, again according to the publishers, that the knowledge gained thro.ugh reading may lead

THE title of Professor of Malarial Studies in the London School of Hygiene andTropica l Medicine ,gas conferred On Sir Samuel i~ickard Christophers, lately Director of the-Central Research Institute of Kasauli, who has been working at the school as Leverhulme Research Fellow with a grant from the Medical Research Council.

SIR FREDERICK MENZIES, Medical Officer of Health for the County of London, was amongst those who received the degree o f LL.D. (ttonoris Gauss) at the recen t celebration of the 350th anniversary of the University of Edin- burgh.