Aids to Theatre Technique

THIS book introduces the reader to those methods of physical therapy which have been employed in psychiatry during the past ten years and of which the authors have practical experience. Concise and clear expression is used in the description of each technique and after-treatment. The authors stress the importance of the close individual investigation of each case, in order to evaluate the importance of the primary and secondary symptoms, and therefrom select the appropriate therapeutic measure, whether insulin or convulsion, continuous, sleep or narco-analysis or prefrontal leucotomy. The views expressed in the last chapter on the relationship of psychological to somatic treatment may not be acceptable to the proponents of deep analysis, but will be approved by the profession in general. This book can be recommended with confidence to students and to the general practitioner. IN this book Dr. Coope sets out to write an essay on medical education with a description of the first principles of the diagnosis and treatment of respiratory diseases. He has succeeded in his object, and has produced a book in which these principles are described lucidly 'and concisely, though the reader who desires more detailed information will have to go elsewhere. Dr. Coope leaves us in no doubt that the patient is at least as important as his disease, and his reinstatement of general. principles is very helpful, particularly in chronic chest diseases, in which a balanced judgment is so necessary in deciding wvhether any proposed treatment may not be worse than the disease. The author holds the view that too much reliance is placed on radiological examination, and lays great stress on physical signs, the chapter on which is excellent, is well worth careful study, and, should be particularly valuable to the student. While he rightly condemns the use of radiology to the exclusion of other methods of examination, he perhaps allows the pendulum to swing too much in the opposite direction and places a disproportionate emphasis on the value of physical signs. Illustrations of radiogra7ms are placed at the end of the book, and it is regrettable, especially in a book which lays great emphasis on the distinction between the normal and the abnormal, that the only two radiograms-those of the normal chest-which appear in the section on radiology are not well reproduced. In a book of this kind there must of necessity be many omissions, but it is surprising to find …