Magic in a Bottle

It is of interest that two such books should have appeared almost simultaneously , and that such should be the case indicates a broadening point of view toward the whole problem. Herein we find a presentation of the pertinent facts relating to man and his disease, with the ecological aspects of the problem brought to the fore; a treatment wherein we find both man and parasite of essentially equal interest. Although the subjects dealt with are treated in simple terms, the text is not of the popular variety. It must hold interest for both the biologist and the man in medicine. This text has two outstanding characteristics; it is indispensable to the laboratory worker and it is precisely what its title says it is,-a vade mecum for anyone whose lot falls within the confines of a laboratory devoted to the medical sciences. Every test, every titration that the laboratory technician may be called upon to make is described, not in the "mix-incubate-read" terms of uncertain meaning, but in precise terms of quantity and time. The book is one of those all-inclusive volumes everyone needs, but never could conceive compiling. This is another attempt to serve up history in capsule form, and as such the attempt is a success. But like all other efforts in this same direction one is left with a degree of uncertainty as to whether the purpose has been to entertain or to instruct. The jacket blurb about a "flair for dialogue," and the expressed satisfaction at having had "the good fortune to have scooped a group of timely stories," together with the author's own caution that "in some cases [the] conversations are necessarily imaginary," leaves the reader in somewhat of a quandary. In any case it is a painless method of getting episodic history, and an intermingling of fact and fiction certainly improves the latter. Nevertheless, whatever may be one's reactions at thus lifting particular events out of their historical background, the fact remains that in this group of tales may be found much concerning the discovery or the development of such things as morphine, quinine, digitalis, cocaine, salvarsan and its relatives, aspirin and the barbitals, the vitamins, the hormones, and the sulfonamide compounds. It is all easy reading.