Preventive Medicine

in 1920 stated in regard to the teaching of hygiene and preventive medicine, that these were principles and concepts and not merely 'subjects', and that the teaching of preventive medicine should permeate the whole of medical education. The general practitioner must develop the preventive outlook, and preach and practise it in his profession. In the United Kingdom, the practitioner has already been brought into the _ scope of preventive medicine by his obligatory participation in much of the legislation of state medicine. In this connection one can instance the National Insurance Act, the Notification of Births Act, the Tuberculosis Regulations, the Factories' Acts, the Venereal Diseases Act and Regulations and many others. In the United States of America, legislation in state medicine has not yet included the general medical profession so comprehensively. The application of preventive medicine in every-day life has rather come from the large insurance agencies like the Metropolitan Insurance Company, which now has a large number of medical practitioners on its staff carrying out preventive medical examinations and inculcating principles of health and preventive medicine amongst their clients. This is all lo the good, and one frequently sees the opini?n expressed in the United States, that the physicians there are neglecting their opportunities in preventive medicine, and that if this neglect continues the opportunities will lessen, and the field will he taken away altogether from physicians by a changing public sentiment. The book under review is intended to supply the student of medicine and the general practitioner 0 medicine with the minimum knowledge of the subjec which the3' should be expected to possess. In thi Dr. Boyd has we think succeeded admirably. The salient and important facts of personal and comniuna hygiene are presented interestingly and shortly, and the book is saved from being a mere summary by excellent style of the author, and by the authoritative view ho is entitled to express not only as a malar10" logist, but as a member of the Public States Board o Health. Students of public health in any country find the book very useful as an up-to-date record 0 essentials. There are many excellent illustrations which enhance its value. The printing, paper and binding