Dutch transatlantic medicine trade in the eighteenth century under the cover of the West Indies Company

Nazi past, and government assistance was often inadequate as a result. Similar uneasiness is still evident in Russia towards veterans of the war in Afghanistan (1979-89), as Ethel Dunn reminds us. Dunn shows that the shift to a market economy led to the virtual collapse of state assistance for all disabled veterans in Russia: retrenchment has left the welfare system unable to pay for benefits established during the Soviet era. The remaining three essays deal with various aspects of the experience of war disability. James Marten focuses on the prevalence of alcohol abuse in the National Homes established for veterans of the US Civil War. He shows that the lack of a traditional masculine role and the experience of living in pain and discomfort led many veterans to alcoholism: a problem that was treated humanely by those who managed the homes. In her essay, Deborah Cohen asks the important question of why German veterans of the Great War turned against the state, despite a generous system of state assistance, whereas British veterans, who received much less from their government, did not. She concludes that German veterans were alienated by the resentment of the public towards their privileges, whereas British veterans, who were forced to rely far more on voluntary aid, were more effectively integrated into society. The final essay, by Mary Tremblay, considers the experiences of Canadian veterans of the Second World War who suffered spinal cord injuries. She shows that Canada was one of the first countries to develop an effective programme for the rehabilitation of veterans suffering from such injuries: the result of more active forms of therapy pioneered immediately before and during the war, and the establishment of organizations run by and for those suffering from spinal cord injuries. The wide thematic and chronological range of this collection, and the thorough introductory essay, make it invaluable to anyone with an interest in the history of war and medicine, the history of social policy, or of disability in general. The individual essays are mostly of high quality and some very high indeed. It is a great shame that such a valuable work has been marred by the lack of an index, the absence of which is becoming regrettably common in collections of essays.