Modern Medical Treatment

Books on medical treatment are of two kinds; one is a dictionary in which the different methods of treating specific diseases are enumerated and which are little more than a collection of prescriptions: the other is a treatise on various morbid conditions, in which the subject of treatment is given a prominent place, but in which there is sufficient reference to aetiology and diagnosis to make the rationale of the treatment clear. The former should never be allowed to get into the hands of an undergraduate student, whereas the latter will form an excellent, complement to his standard medical textbooks in which the subject of treatment is usually, and often quite rightly, given a minor place. Bellingham-Smith and Feiling have written a book on medical treatment which is quite definitely of the second variety. The introduction by Sir Humphry Rolleston is not the usual laudatory effusion written by the great man in order to ensure the satisfactory launching of the work of his junior, but it forms an important and integral part of the whole book. In a few words he gives us a summary of the origin and aims of our present-day prevention and treatment of disease, and indicates the lines along which advance may be expected. In the arrangement of the book the ' system' method has been more or less observed, but the order of the subjects is somewhat unusual; ' Diseases of the Nervous System' being the first section. In the apportioning of space to the various subjects the interests of the general practitioner have been kept well in view; for example eleven pages are given to the