families too, in many instances, suft'ered from their long absences and excessive hours of duty.

From a scientist's point of view, the book discloses the fact that laboratory staff were involved almost from the very start when the Julie team wanted to know what equipment would be required by those setting out to manufacture L.S.D. on a commercial scale. Important too, were the precautions necessary for officers to observe for their own safety when an illicit laboratory was eventually found. This did not stop two members of the team "tripping out" however, when searching one of the laboratories and accidentally ingesting minute quantities of the drug.

There are many lessons to be learned from Operation Julie, both the task itself and this highly detailed book on the operation. One is that police bound- aries may sometimes be a positive stumbling block to efficient investigators, whether those boundaries be physical or in the minds of senior people. Further- more, scientists have an early advisory role in cases of this kind which may often be of more importance than merely to identify substances.

DON CAMPBELL

AS YOU WERE

Foul Bills and Dagger Money Dick ha mil to?^ (Cassell, London, 1979, 297pp., index, £6.95)

Dick Hamilton, barrister and a Recorder of the Crown Court, has written a history of the Northern Circuit, and a fascinating history it is. Starting with Alfred the Great, he works through until more recent times taking in some quite intriguing cases and characters associated with the law. In Alfred's time there was a sliding scale of compensation for injury from the loss of a thumbnail or nostril a t 3 shillings, to the life of an Archbishop at 3,600 shillings. (One can visualise an Archbishop's life being lost, but how does one lose a nostril ?)

The massacre of the Jews a t York in 1189 is an event, forgotten in our history by all save the Jews themselves, but, as Hamilton remarks, "it is the worst thing that ever happened on the Northern Circuit". The trial of a coiner is set out verbatim, in a dozen or so pages, illustrating the brevity and speed of a criminal trial in 1696 when such a crime was a capital offence. And one learns that a judge on his assize was quite capable of completing six jury trials in . a single day, whereas today one might spend two days on the most simple shopliiting case.

Later on in this excellent book, one meets characters who are known only on the Northern Circuit and therefore of only minimal interest to those of us who are not so well acquainted. Nevertheless they have taken their place in legal history and in this book. Taken as a whole, the book makes excellent reading and to this reviewer at least, occupies a permanent place among works - . on our system of law past and present.

DON CAMPBELL

TRIED AND TRUSTED

Firearms Investigation, Identification and Evidence J. S. Hatcher, F. J . July and J. Weller (Harrisburg, The Stackpole Company, 1977; 536pp., index, L13.50)

Originally written by Major General Julian S. Hatcher in 1935, this authorit- ative work was revised and updated in 1957 by Lieutenant Colonel Frank J. Jury and Jac Weller a t General Hatcher's suggestion. No revision has taken