Volume 80, Number 4, October 1991 245

The authors have sensibly taken the subject in three parts. Part 1 is devoted to Childhood Ill- nesses and their Symptoms. This makes a quick reference book rather on the lines of the famous or infamous original American book by Dr Spock and deals, quite simply, with most of the common situations which arise in childhood. The index for this is well delineated.

Part 2 deals with the Foundations for Healthy Development which covers everything from feeding, through to clothing, social environment and nutrition. The section on nutrition is particularly well done and covers all aspects of breastfeeding, bottle feeding and weaning which would be helpful particularly to inexperienced parents with a first child.

Part 3 on Education and Upbringing Therapy deals much more with the problems of temper- ament and those of child development with reference to modern living. Chapter 18 of this section deals with some of the more sinister effects of television, comics and over stimulation of the senses which are now being looked at in more depth by paediatricians and child psycho- therapists with greater understanding as to the sub-conscious trauma that these can engender.

The Appendix has a simple chapter on home nursing including weight and height tables.

You can say that the book is a comprehensive and sensible study of the sort of questions that parents bring into a consulting room simply because they cannot find the answers either out of their own experience or, indeed in some cir- cumstances, out of their common sense and I would therefore highly recommend it as a most useful book on a family book shelf.

The book is written out of anthroposophical insights and its practical application to the understanding of childhood. The introduction, therefore, outlines the principles out of which the book is written in the hope that the reader begins to understand illness at a deeper level. For some this may well be off putting for it is still extraordinarily difficult to put into simple English an understanding of the human constitu- tion and of body, soul and spirit as given by Rudolf Steiner. Nevertheless, anyone who has ever grappled with young children will know that the questions can indeed be enlightened by these insights without becoming fanatical about them, for nowhere in paediatric literature has the development of a child ever been given so com- prehensively. This is a book which many parents will find enormously helpful and which may, indeed, help them to understand what their own childhood was about.

Acupuncture: Textbook and Atlas. Gabriel Stux and Bruce Pomeranz. Basics of Acupuncture (second revised and enlarged edition). Gabriel Stux and Bruce Pomeranz. Scientific Bases of Acupuncture. Bruce Pomeranz and Gabriel Stux (Eds.) Springer-Verlag (no prices quoted).

Bruce Pomeranz teaches zoology and physi- ology at the University of Toronto and has been interested in acupuncture for many years. Gabriel Stux is Chairman of the German Acu- puncture Society Duesseldorf. The two have col- laborated to produce these books, which purport to combine Western science and medi- cine with traditional Chinese concepts. Unfor- tunately, the forcible juxtaposition of these very disparate intellectual systems can hardly be called successful; perhaps the task is simply impossible.

The Textbook and Atlas has a fairly short sec- tion on scientific research in acupuncture but the bulk of the text is devoted to traditional Chinese acupuncture. The method of presentation used is the one commonly found in Chinese books: each channel ('meridian') is described and illus- trated separately, and the location of the points is given according to the traditional system of cun (the 'Chinese inch'). Ear acupuncture is also included, as is laser acupuncture. There is a 'cookbook section' in which the treatment of various diseases is described using Western diag- nostic categories. As so often happens in acu- puncture textbooks, optimistic claims for effectiveness (for example, in glaucoma and hypertension) are made without any supporting evidence from clinical trials.

The Basics of Acupuncture covers much the same ground as the Textbook and Atlas in a smaller, paperback format; it is thus a true pock- etbook. Although there is a short section on research, the bulk of the book is once again devoted to traditional acupuncture; electroacu- puncture and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) are included.

The Scientific Bases of Acupuncture contains papers by a number of authors who worked on the subject from 1976 to 1988. These are mostly experimental, their relevance to clinical practice being fairly remote. A few useful facts do emerge: the lack of any close correlation between suggestibility, especially hypnotic sus- ceptibility, and acupuncture responsiveness comes out clearly and I was interested to see that patients who respond well to acupuncture tend to have a high pain threshold. On the whole,

246 British Homoeopathic Journal

however, this work in mainly of interest to neurophysiologists.

Taking the three books together, it is difficult to see what market they are aimed at. The scien- tific research on the one hand and the clinical descriptions on the other seem to have very little connection with each other. Doctors practising non-traditional acupuncture will not find the emphasis on traditional Chinese ideas helpful, while devotees of the traditional system are unlikely to be greatly interested in the detailed physiological experimentation. Enthusiasts for the traditional approach may perhaps find the descriptions of treatment useful, although these appear merely to repeat what is already avail- able in a number of Chinese books.

A N T H O N Y C A M P B E L L

Complementary Medicine and the European Community. (Editor) George Lewith and David Aldridge. Pp. 158.

This ambitious book, according to its title, hopes to embrace the present-day activities of comple- mentary medicine in the 12 member states of the European Community. It does not succeed. Per- haps it cannot, and certainly not within the confines of 158 pages. Not all forms of comple- mentary therapies are mentioned but the four big minorities include hom0eopathy and herbal medicine.

Of the legal changes proceeding ever so slowly in the Community--in the Council of Ministers, the European Parliament, the National

Assemblies and Parliaments--there is mention in some detail or two. They concern the licensing to practice and the directives on homeopathic medical products. The first is dealt with in con- siderable detail by Harald Gaier in two chapters at the very beginning and at the end. For those involved in the debate on unregulated lay prac- titioners versus legally registered medical prac- titioners such thoughtful considerations are worth reading. However, the language and terms used are unnecessarily complex and dis- couraging to the reader.

As a whole the book is an interesting snapshot of a small corner of complementary medicine in a group of Community countries round about the autumn of 1990. The hom0eopathic direc- tives are mentioned but now, in the autumn of 1991, homceopathic patients, doctors and pharmacists are not displeased with progress, provided the final reel of this medical motion picture ends on schedule by Christmas, 1991. Perhaps then the authors would consider pro- ducing a more comprehensive book. It could include a history of the struggle to restore homoeopathy in particular to its proper place as the natural partner of allopathic medicine at least in Western Europe; a survey of the chang- ing popular attitudes of the peoples of the 12 and beyond, as well as their national governments and institutions, its need and availability towards complementary medicine in their countries.

A tall order, I agree, but a worthy ambition nevertheless.

J . D I C K S O N M A B O N