Respiratory Function: Management in Disease

A summary of the seven fatal cases is given. THIs small monograph has three sections, the first devoted to elementary principles of anatomy and physiology of the lungs. The second gives a very brief description of four of the commonest medical conditions of the chest-emphysema, bronchiectasis, bronchopsasm and upper respiratory infections. In the third surgical chest conditions and their treatment is dismissed in three pages. A major criticism of this booklet is that for breathing exercises in pneumonectomy the reader is asked to see "thoracoplasty" and, wvhen this is found, the reader is again referred to "emphysema, " althouglh different technics and the rationale for their use apply to each of these conditions. It is a great pity the author did not elaborate more fully on the techniques employed, including those for the correction of bad posture. Few physiotherapists have easy access to the larger volumes on Physical Medicine and fewer have a training school for reference. THIS excellent little pocket prescriber has been brought up to date in this, the fifteenth edition. It now includes all the modern drugs whose use and dosage has been proved by therapeutic trials. The author has only omitted those not yet standardised or whose use is still confined to hospitals. The various diseases and their therapeutic remedies are extremely wvell correlated and there is an extremely wide range of practical illustrations. A very worthy edition to an already popuLlar and wvidely used book, it should be a requisite of every practitioner.