Family Medical Insurance *

This unpretentious but most important book pleads for at reorganizatioil of the relations of the medical professon with their patients, and a reorganization of the medical profession itself. All who arc interested in the well-being of themselves and their fellow-men should read it and consider its proposals carefully. The fundamental postulates which underlie the argument are that the theory of medicine is a social science and the practice of medicine a social service. The causes of sickness are to be found not only in the physical conditions of the individual, but also in his psychological reactions and in his economic and social environment: the doctor must be able to appreciate these facts if his treatment is to be satisfactory. In order to obtain the necessary data, he must be in constanlt touch with the patient, a requirement which is also necessitated by the proposition thiat the function of a doctor is to maintain health rather than to cure sickness. Health includes character-health as well as bodily health; and for its maintenance proper conditions of work are required as well as proper housing and diet and regulation of sexual life and tho use of leisure. EveII the general practitioner is a specialist: from the general body of the social sciences he has selected that of medicine. The realization of this coupled with the generally accepted respect for the privacy of other people's lives, should prevent the doctor from pressing too far the author's statemeint that a doctor "should he actively concerned in the patient's manner of life." Medicin(e being a social service, "'the health of one beinig the concerin of all," it follows that any organized community is called uipon to concern itself with the practical application of all the known law.s of health aind of all remedial practices which help in the restoration of health. Though Dr. Lachlan-Cope regards the state ats somethiing outside the individual-ini fact, the state is oinly the communiity organized for certain purposes at one time it was orthodox theory that the organizatioin of individuals should be only for the purposes of the mainteinance of public or(ler-in other wAords, the functions of the state should be limited to the maintenance of public order. The engine of the state was the double-edged sxvord of war and justice, which protected society from foreign enemies witlhout, and criminals and disturbances of the peace within. This theory never corresponded with …