The social context of dentistry

socio-historical and demographic studies noted in the references, including the work of Bremner, Demos, Greven, Handlin, and Vinovskis. The references for chapters 3 to 10 demonstrate the author's interest in technical developments and the lack of a historical framework. Indeed, I think it is fair to say that this book is basically a chronology of technical medical advances. It is not a book about the medical care of children within a changing historical context, nor does it deal with the professionaliza-tion process of a medical speciality. A book which attempts to cover the history of American paediatrics must, of course, be selective. However, some omissions deserve to be mentioned. Dr. Annie Sturgis Daniel (1858-1944), of the New York Infirmary for Women and Children (established in 1857), gave reputedly the first course on the normal child (in the early 1890s) to the students of the Women's Medical College of the Infirmary (established 1865). More important, the complex relationship between the entrance of women into the medical profession, and the medical care of women and children certainly deserves some attention in any history of paediatrics. Perhaps, however, the most glaring omission is that "psychiatry" does not even appear in the subject index. Cone writes that his second reason for writing this book is that it "may perhaps stimulate interest in the historical development of this branch of medicine". This motive is admirable, and perhaps now that we have a chronology of events, future research can be more analytic and historical. Priority for prevention is the theme of this book. The author spent sabbatical leave in London from his post in the University of Auckland to study historical and sociological factors which have moulded the dental profession in its attitudes towards oral diseases. He starts from the premiss that both caries and periodontal disease can be controlled but that the effects of the latter cannot be repaired and so require "something more than the reparative and treatment philosophy that has been the hallmark of the orthodox approach to dental care". He points to the limited use which is made of dental auxiliaries in Europe where thirty per cent of the countries permit the use only of laboratory technicians and dental chairside assistants. Chapters on 'The emergence of organised dentistry' and 'The social organisation of dental care' give a clear account of the development of dentistry in the U.K. and the U.S.A. The new …