REVIEWS.

Cancer: Its Cause, Treatment, and Prevention. By Alex. Theo­dore Brand, M.D., C.M., V.D., Physician, Driffield Poor Law Infirmary, late Major RA.M.C. London: John Bale, Sons, & Danielsson, Ltd. 1922. Price 8s. 6d. net.

This book consists of a series of addresses which the author delivered on various occasions at meetings of branches of the British Medical Association between 1902 and 1910. He thinks that so little advance has been made in the elucidation of the disease that they might have been written quite recently. The opinion of the instructed reader will probably be that they might have been written much earlier.

Dr Brand himself condenses his views regarding the origin of cancer into the following sentences :-" 1. All diseases which are infectious to the individual are transmissible to others. Cancer is infectious to the in­dividual. Therefore cancer is transmissible to others. 2. All diseases which are infectious to the individual have an external origin. Cancer is infectious to the individual. Therefore cancer has an external origin."

His opinion with regard to the prevention of cancer is that the keynote is scrupulous cleanliness, best attained by the frequent use of the Turkish bath. Other important points are that food should never be taken with unwashed hands, that vegetables which are to be eaten raw should be most thoroughly cleansed by scrubbing, and that earth burial" with all its hideous possibilities" should be superseded by cremation.

The Physiolo~y of Reproduction. By Francis H. A. Marshall, Sc.D. (Camb.), D.Sc. (Edin.), F.RS., Fellow of Christ's College, and Reader in Agricultural Physiology in the University of Cambridge. With contributions by William Cramer, Ph.D., D.Sc., M.RC.S., L.RC.P.; James Lochhead, O.B.E., M.A., M.D., F.RC.S.E.; and Cresswell Shearer, M.D., Sc.D., F.RS. Second and Revised Edition. London: Longmans, Green, & Co. Price 36s. net.

The new edition of this text-book is larger than the first by about 40 pages owing to the addition of the new matter necessary to bring it up to date and a fuller discussion of certain branches of the subject. It is a valuable work in respect of its range and the fulness with which everything connected with the physiology of reproduction is described and reviewed. Although it is admittedly designed mainly for trained biologists and teachers, and surveys reproduction throughout the entire animal kingdom from the protozoa to the mammalia, it contains a good deal of information that doctors and veterinary surgeons will find of interest and even directly useful in actual practice. The chapters that are of greatest interest to members of these professions and to breeders of the domesticated animals are those that deal with restrum, fertilisation, fretal nutrition, parturition, lactation, and sex determination. The figures which illustrate the text are numerous and of high quality, and copious references are given to the literature on nearly every branch of the subject.

The weakest parts of the book are those that deal with sterility and abortion. These, of course, are not subjects usually included in books on physiology, and the manner in which they are dealt with here makes one wonder why Dr Marshall broke the rule. At this date it is curious to find quoted at considerable length, and apparently with approval, Mr Heape's speculations regarding dietetic errors as a cause of abortion in sheep, while only three sentences (and one of these inaccurate) are devoted to epizootic abortion in that species. There also appears to be an error

REVIEWS.

in the chapter dealing with the cestrus cycle and the changes in the non­pregnant uterus. Reference is there made to the occasional occurrence of pigment in the mucosa of the sheep's uterus, and the author adopts the view, originally put forward by Bonnet more than forty years ago, that it is derived from red corpuscles extravasated into the mucous membrane. The pigment, however, as Bonnet himself recognised, has all the characters of melanin, and both pathologists and physiologists are now generally agreed that the formation of that substance is quite unconnected with blood extravasation or the liberation of hremoglobin in the tissues.

Encyc10predia of Veterinary Medicine, Surgery, and Obstetrics. Edited by George H. Wooldridge, F.R.C.V.S., M.R.1.A., F.Z.S., Professor of Medicine and Hygiene and in Joint Charge of the Hospital at the Royal Veterinary College, London. In two volumes. London: Henry Frowde and Hodder & Stoughton. 1923. Price Six Guineas.

The appearance of an entirely new work on the subjects which occupy nearly the whole of the practising veterinary surgeon's time is an event of considerable interest, which is intensified by the fact that the best of the books on the same subjects formerly in use are now either out of date or out of print. The two parts that make up the present work are im­posing volumes, each comprising over 500 crown 4to pages. The whole has been produced under the editorship of Professor Wooldridge, and he has himself written the majority of the articles in the first volume. The remaining s)1bjects in both volumes have been dealt with by over thirty authors, the list including such well-known names as Macqueen, O'Connor, Craig, Woodruff, and Hobday. .

Although termed an encyclopredia, the work is in reality the equivalent of three separate text-books, the first of which deals with Veterinary Medicine and is represented by Volume 1., while the other two deal respectively with Surgery and Obstetrics and are bound together to form Volume II. Each of these sections in a sense challenges comparison with previous works on the same subject, and it may confidently be said that, from the standpoint of the practitioner, the encyclopredia will be found superior to any previous work of the kind in the English language. It goes without saying that when so many authors collaborate to produce a book the different articles must vary in merit, but the average standard is good with regard to the matter and the manner in which it is presented. In general the amount of space devoted to each disease is in proportion to its importance, but the articles on glanders, abortion, and anthrax are conspicuous exceptions to the rule. Perhaps because of delay in printing, some of the articles contain statements that are now inaccurate, but that is one of the disadvantages inseparable from works of this size.

Both volumes are well illustrated and the paper and print are good. The work is one that veterinary practitioners will hardly be able to do without, and it is to be hoped that it will have a good sale and that the publishers will thereby obtain an adequate reward for their enterprise.