iQii] Columbia Biochemical Association 359 



reaction, the Much-Holtzman cobra venom reaction in nervous dis- 

 eases, the Weil venom test in syphilis and the antitrypsin determina- 

 tion. One small error may be pointed out. In discussing Weil's cobra 

 venom test in syphilis, the author says " The reaction is possible in 

 cases of jaundice whereas the Wassermann is not." The announce- 

 ment a few years ago that jaundice interferes with the Wassermann 

 reaction has not been confirmed, and in fact experience in thousands 

 of jaundice cases has shown that jaundice only very rarely, if ever, 

 interferes. 



The discussionof all these new subjects is properly quite brief, be- 

 cause the chief value of the book is its lucid discussion of antitoxins, 

 agglutinins, precipitins, bacteriolysins and hemolysins. 



Education and Preventive Medicine. By Norman Edward 

 Ditman, Ph.D., M.D. Octavo, 68 pp. Two appendices. Paper. 



The continued demand for Dr. Ditman's paper, which orig- 

 inally appeared as a Supplement to Volume X, No. 3, of the Colum- 

 bia University Quarterly (June, 1908), has led to its second printing 

 in separate form. The study takes up successively the economic 

 loss from preventable diseases, as shown by data from ancient and 

 modern records of epidemics and contagious sicknesses; the relief 

 of suffering and the economic gain through preventive measures of 

 established efficacy; the chief types of diseases still prevalent, but 

 preventable, with some measure of their destructive effects ; and the 

 fundamental principles and institutions of preventive medicine. 

 Specific methods are, of course, beyond the scope contemplated in 

 the paper. It is Dr. Ditman's conclusion that not only has the appli- 

 cation of beneficial methods of medicine been very slow, but often 

 the application of scientific discoveries has been difficult to secure 

 on account of populär ignorance and legislative bias and inertia. 

 The extent of Information now available for improving the con- 

 ditions defined in his essay will be sufficient, if properly applied, to 

 cause the effacement of a large proportion of the miseries of man- 

 kind. The purpose ably furthered by his paper is to increase not 

 only the knowledge of the subject, but energy of application. In 

 his belief the institution of a national board of health and of a 

 school of preventive medicine, established in a great city, would be 

 of great Utility. {Columbia Alumni News, 191 1, iü, p. 117.) 



