Edward Stevens, Gastric Physiologist, Physician and American Statesman

sons and five daughters-five of whom survived. The youngest girl married a Dozent of Heidelberg, whilst the eldest married Johann Conrad Peyer-who described the 'patches' named after him. Wepfer was a popular man who was consulted from far and wide in Switzerland and Germany-as a map on page 37 shows. The medico-literary memoirs of the Wepfer family were bought by the Medical Faculty of Leyden in 1774 for one hundred and twenty gold ducats-six hundred guilders. The writings show Wepfer's interest in gastro-enterology of which he was an early pioneer. He was also concerned with toxicology, describing a case of ergotism in 1693, and with diseases of the chest. The book is enlivened by pleasing illustrations and a useful bibliography. It can be recommended to those interested in the early Swiss contributions to medicine. No. 28 in this series is a large paperback of ninety-nine pages and deals with the history of haemophilia from the Babylonian Talmud until 1965. After defining haemophilia the author gives an account of the geographical areas where the disorder has been described. In Switzerland it was first mentioned by Felix Platter in 1559. Problems of hereditary transmission are then considered with special reference to the Swiss family trees of von Tenna and von Wald, this latter having been traced back to about 1550. The various theories on the cause of the disorder are then discussed together with a more general account of the major discoveries in the physiology of the blood, naturally with specific reference to Swiss workers-Sahli, Fonio, Feissly, Lenggenhager and Koller. The final chapter concerns itself with questions on clinical matters and prophylaxis. This is a rather specialized monograph which will probably be of most interest to German-speaking haematologists. I. M. LIBRACH