-ARMY MEDICAL BOOKS.*
FaerreE, " in all -great arts famed," understands better than any country of the world how to write books of medicine and surgery. Our country comes next in Order of merit : but our writers, mostly, have a rather heavy and unwieldy style. America -is too fond of colossal text-books : and Germany is worst of all. France alone has the secret of a clear, concise, pleasant way of writing, when it comes to the. things of medicine and surgery. And- now we have France to thank:for, a set of manuals on military medicine, surgery, and preventive medicine. The war found us without any good and adequate books on these subjects. , A few little books, were rushed out, but they were rather ephemeral: and many hundreds of papers and reports of cases and miscellaneous essays -were- pub: fished: in the:medical journals, and took their chance of influencing practice : but we had;no little library, no series of short up-to-date authoritative books for the young Army .surgeon brought face to face, of a sudden, with the problems and thaexigencies of military practice in the present War.
. -France, and the University of London Press, have come to his relief. Here, for relieve, are thirteen " Military Medical Manuals," translated from the French, and published by the University of London. Each of them-has.an English editpr, and Sir Alfred Keogh is.general editor of the series. It would be hard to imagine a better see ef books : they are well written, well translated, well illustrated, moderate -in length and moderate in .price. Not many of our physicians and surgeons, on active service -abroad, or in -military hospitals at -home, have any time for reading : they are worked to the -bone : still, 'here are the very books for them, to. dip -into, if not to read through. The names of some of the authors—Vincent, Thibierge, Babinski, Broca—are well known over here: so are the names of the 'English editors, men of authority, all of them. And we are glad to note that two books of the series—Clinical Forms of Nerve Lesions and Treatment and Repair of Nerve LOtricrias—are written by a woman, Mme. Benisty, house-physician and assistant of. Professor Pierre Marie at la Salpetriere.
It is not often that.non-medical people gain much by the reading of medical books : indeed, they stand to lose more than they gain. But there are exceptions to this rule : and more than one of this series of books may be studied by the " general reader " to -his edification, and to the increase of his usefulness to-other men. For example, we have here Typhoid Fevers and Paratyphoid Fevers, by Vincent and Muratet ; Syphilis and the Army, by Thibierge ; and Artificial Limbs, by Broca and Ducroquet.
The first of these is very pleasant -reading. Truth, they say, is
• Military-Mediae Manuals. The-French "-Horizon "Series. Edited‘by Eegllst Physicians and Surgeons, under the general editorship -0 SirAlfred;keogh, thus- Crated. 13 vols. University of London Press. i5s."or'Ea. esek-1.
Itranger than fiction : it is also happier. To read how these fevers nave been fought and beaten on the Western Front is a great happi- ness : and the happiness includes the knowledge that one of our awn countrymen, Sir Almroth Wright, takes precedence of all men in the discovery of the protective treatment against typhoid fever. The book is further commended by the name of its author : for Professor Vincent is head of the great Institute at Val de Grace, which is a sort of Pasteur Institute for the French Army.
The manual by Thibierge on Syphilis and the Army must be read not for pleasure but for duty. It is concerned, of course, with the French Army only : but that does not make it any the less in- structive to us. He deals with the whole vast subject at the highest level of moderation of judgment, with wide knowledge, and with perfect fairness. He takes into account the incidence of the disease not only on the military but on the civil population, especially its incidence among munition-workers. It is likely enough that the years after the war will be a time of terrible prevalence of the venereal diseases : and we ought to study this very valuable book carefully, and think what each of us can do—and most of us can do something by reasoned and well-instructed method—to mitigate the evil of that time. We must make up our minds, now, what to believe, what to say, what to advise.
Lastly, comes a book of great distinction. The English editor is Mr. Elmslie, of that Hospital at Roehampton which has done such fine work for the designing and making and fitting of artificial limbs. The war has taught our surgeons to pay proper attention to this art : and this French manual, with its two hundred and eight illustrations, and its excellent practicality, will teach them even more. The present writer is old enough to remember the off-hand way in which, some forty years ago, patients after an amputation were sent to the instrument-makers, and the surgeons left the matter there. Not one surgeon in a hundred really studied the making of artificial limbs. That unsatisfactory way of dismissing these cases is not good enough. And indeed, surgeon or not surgeon, a man will read this manual with interest, and will be sur- prised to learn what ingenious devices and what careful thinking are now exercised over this mechanical art of surgery, so that it is no longer a mechanical business but a fine art.
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