5/9) 
RECENT MEDICAL BOOKS. 
(1) Recent Methods in the Diagnosis and Treat- 
ment of Syphilis. The \Wassermann Serum 
Reaction and Ehrlich’s Salvarsan. By Dr. Carl 
H. Browning and Ivy Mackenzie. In collabora- 
tion with J. Cruickshank, C. G. A. Chislett, W. 
Gilmour, and H. Morton. With an introduction 
by Profaek. Muir, F.R.S: Pp: xxvi-+ 303. 
(London: Constable and Co., Ltd., 1911.) Price 
Ss. 6d. net. 
(2) Scientific Features of Modern Medicine. By 
Prof. Frederic S. Lee. (Columbia University 
Lectures.) Pp. vii+183. (New York: The 
Columbia University Press; London: Henry 
Frowde, 1911.) Price 6s. 6d. net (1.50 dollars). 
(3) On the Physiology of the Semi-circular Canals 
and their Relation to Sea-Sickness. By Dr. 
Joseph Byrne. Pp. ix+569. (New York: J. T. 
Dougherty ; London: H. K. Lewis, 1912.) Price 
12s. 6d. net. 
(4) The Prevention and Treatment of Disease in 
the Tropics. A Handbook for Officials and 
Travellers, compiled chiefly for the use of 
Officials in the Sudan. By Edward S. Crispin. 
Pp. 95. (London: Charles Griffin and Co., Ltd., 
1912.) Price rs. net. 
(5) ine Doctor and the People. 
Woodcock. Pp. xli+ 312. 
and Co., Ltd., 1912.) Price 6s. net. 
(6) The Nervous System. An Elementary Hand- 
book of the Anatomy and Physiology of the 
Nervous System. For the use of Students of 
Psychology and Neurology. Byer i. D: 
Lickley. Pp. xii+130. (London: Longmans, 
Green and Co., 1912.) Price 6s. net. 
(1) 
By H. de Carle 
(London: Methuen 
F all modern work in pathology, none 
has received more public attention than 
the work of the last seven years on syphilis; and 
this not only from the universal evil of the disease, 
but from the profound significance of the dis- 
covery of its actual cause, the Spirocheta pallida. 
By this discovery, it was brought into line with 
other infective diseases—malaria, yellow fever, 
sleeping sickness. New methods of study, new 
tests for diagnosis, new lines of treatment, came 
into use. The mere literature on the subject, from 
1905 to 1912, would take years to read. Among a 
legion of novelties, two are especially notable : the 
Wassermann serum reaction and Ehrlich’s 
The logic of the Wassermann test is one 
of the most complex of all the reasoning processes 
in bacteriology; but it hangs on to that simpler 
test, Widal’s reaction, which is familiar to all 
doctors; and, in spite of the profundity of its logic, 
NO. 2232, VOL. 8g| 
sal- 
varsan. 
it is practicable over a very wide and important 
field of work. The results of treatment with 
salvarsan, though it is not a drug to be played 
with, nor free from all possibility of risk, .are 
amazing. None of doubt that, in sal- 
varsan, we have a drug which acts directly on 
us Can 
| syphilis, as quinine acts directly on malaria. 
Dr. Browning and Dr. Ivy Mackenzie give us 
a-complete, authoritative, and wise exposition of 
this great subject. They weigh carefully all the 
questions and half-certainties which have come of 
the wide use of the Wassermann test, and estimate 
with admirable judgment the bearings of this test 
on our knowledge of certain diseases of the central 
nervous system. Part 1., 150 pages, is occupied 
with this exhaustive study of the Wassermann 
test; and part ii., of equal length, is occupied 
with a no less thorough and valuable study of 
salvarsan. Nothing is left out, nor slurred over. 
The whole book is a monument of patient, 
elaborate investigation; and, though it is very 
closely written and closely argued, yet it is so well 
arranged that the’ essential facts stand out in clear 
light. We congratulate the writers, and their 
collaborators, on the completion of a piece of 
really first-hand and first-rate work. 
(2) Dr. Frederic Lee, Professor of Physiology 
in the Columbia University, is already known over 
kere as an excellent writer and teacher. His 
present bock contains his Jesup Memorial Lec- 
tures, given last year in New York. They are 
written in a very pleasant style, quiet and thought- 
ful; and they are concerned with. the principal 
factors of modern medicine, and with the spirit 
which has guided the advance of the last half- 
century. Dr. Lee has been entirely successful 
in his “endeavour to present the subject-matter 
clear-cut and in language that is not too technical 
for the intelligent layman”; and it would be hard 
to find a better book, for general reading, on the 
present methods, objects, results, and prospects 
of the medical sciences. Of course, the field is 
too vast to be covered by a course of lectures; 
but Dr. Lee has selected his instances carefully, 
and has arranged them in good order. One of the 
best lectures is that on ‘““The Réle of Experiment 
_in Medicine.” But the whole book is good. 
(3) With Dr. Byrne’s book on the semicircular 
canals, we come back to one of the deepest of all 
physiological studies, the mystery of the instinc- 
tive habit of equilibration. Dr. Byrne writes with 
almost excessive care to omit nothing. Pages 1 
to 124 are given to general anatomical and physio- 
logical considerations; this part of the book is 
written with the utmost concentration of facts: 
it is admirably complete, but very hard reading, 
and Pages 125 to 336 
AA 
rather too long. 
