The Red Cell

meningococcal and streptococcal infections. It contains some excellent photography and superb clinical descriptions born of extensive experience with rickettsial diseases, cutaneous diphtheria, leptospirosis, and malaria. Proper tribute is paid to the success of mass medical efforts in World War II, but the various authors acknowledge with a collective sigh of relief the numerous instances in which they were aided by a fortuitous turn in the infectious disease pattern. During the critical winter campaign in Western Europe, the United States Army was spared a serious epidemic of European influenza due to a break in its normal two-year epidemic cycle. In Okinawa, during July 1945, an outbreak of the "dread Japaneses brain disease" (Japanese B encephalitis), though extremely demoralizing to the troops, was of far less tactical implication than it might have been had it occurred three months earlier during the critical invasion period. The staggering statistical requirements of this volume have been met throughout, but in some cases such statistics bear the weakness of inadequate field reporting and diagnostic facilities. It is noted that no fewer than 28,000 cases of fever of unknown origin were reported in the Mediterranean Theater alone! The authors have been quite cognizant of this problem and, in general, have been cautious in drawing conclusions from such data. The chapters on tuberculosis and malaria could have been more succinct, and the venereal disease section, at times, sinks to the level of a recitative of War Department Medical Bulletins. In spite of such minor faults, these chapters also contribute useful information to a volume which will prove valuable to World War II medical buffs, and particularly to students of infectious disease at all levels.