The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene - Volume 15, Issue 6, November 1966

This excellent volume is “intended for the advanced student or professional worker in the plant sciences.” It should serve, however, as a useful reference to many workers in other fields such as microbiology, protozoology and nutrition.

The book is well outlined, and indexed. Each chapter contains a number of reasonably current general and specific references to material under discussion.

The organisms referred to include bacteria and protozoa (in addition to the higher plants). In this sense therefore it serves as an additional source of information on comparative biochemistry. The chapters on Protein Metabolism, Synthesis of the Amino Acids and Biosynthesis of Coenzymes (Vitamins) could be read with profit by specialists in nutrition. These chapters present many aspects of plant metabolism not generally covered in the usual biochemistry texts.

One part of the book (Part III) should prove of particular interest to those interested in drugs derived from plants.

In protein-starved Africa, any disease that prevents the raising of livestock is a serious threat to man. Trypanosomosis is without doubt the most serious of these. It has been studied extensively in ruminants, but much less in the pig. L. E. Stephen, formerly Officer-in-Charge of the West African Institute for Trypanosomiasis Research, Vom, Northern Nigeria, has performed a real service by bringing together the scattered literature on porcine trypanosome infections.

The native African village pig is a poor specimen, but it does manage to survive and it has some value as a scavenger. When European breeds are introduced into tsetse areas, they quickly die of trypanosomosis. Native pigs are relatively resistant, but they, too, often succumb.

By far the most important cause of porcine trypanosomosis is Trypanosoma simiae. Bruce et al. (1913) first described it from monkeys and goats, but Montgomery and Kinghorn (1909) had previously seen it in a pig, and this is its most important host.

This is a review of statistics relating to the cost of pharmaceuticals to the consumer in the United States. Its existence can be attributed to the rapidly rising expenditures for drugs, a rise which has accelerated with governmental subsidy of medical care and which may be expected to continue to accelerate with additional subsidy. The Welfare Administration, naturally concerned over the draining off of welfare funds to pay for drugs which could perhaps be purchased at a lower cost, instigated the study resulting in the present report.

Although the large amount of statistical information will be of interest to some of the readers of the Journal, especially those engaged in clinical medicine or work with pharmaceuticals, it cannot be said that the problem has been fully presented nor has a reasonable solution been proposed.

The first edition of this book was published in 1958 under the title “Hygiène Tropicale.” It was directed primarily to nurses, midwives, sanitarians, medical assistants, pharmacists and others preparing themselves for a career in the Central African health services; it comprised a synopsis of Professor van Riel's lecture notes and was designed to be complemented by illustrated slides and other demonstration materials. The present (2nd) edition differs in several ways. In the first place there is a general expansion of the text and an increase in the number of tables, which, together with the addition of 44 line drawings, an index and biliographical references, represent 174 added pages. The format and general plan remain the same but the second edition is altogether a more attractive and probably more useful volume.

In the second place it is implied in the preface that the book is addressed to a larger readership, post-graduate students of tropical medicine including physicians and public health administrators.

In the prologue to this enlightening, moving historical document, entitled “The Gift of Life,” it is stated that “The particular casualty whose treatment and evacuation we are discussing will be one of these (more severely wounded). Had he been less severely wounded his injuries would have been dressed and rebandaged at the clearing station and he would have been moved to an evacuation hospital for surgery. As it is, he will be a transient at the evac (uation hospital) on his way to the communications zone. When he moves from the field hospital unit to the evacuation hospital he will pass from division to army control, at the same time entering the third echelon in the chain of evacuation. He will be brought to the evac(uation hospital) by an ambulance of a collecting company, but this time it will be a company of a medical battalion (separate)—not organic to any formation but in this case assigned to army and under control of the army surgeon.”

In the summer of 1853 New Orleans suffered its worst yellow fever epidemic. There were about 40,000 cases in a population of about 100,000, an incidence rate of 40 percent, and nearly 9,000 deaths, a case fatality rate of about 22 percent. This book contains an almost daily chronicle of the epidemic, told largely by quotations and paraphrases from the daily newspapers, minutes of meetings, records of organizations and the two local medical journals. In addition, the author, who is Professor of the History of Medicine at the Tulane University School of Medicine, draws a vivid picture of the physical, political, social, commercial and medical setting in which the epidemic occurred, and the official and voluntary measures taken to combat it.

As in many similar situations, the newspapers, city officials and many business men refused to admit that an epidemic was in progress until it was full blown early in July, although the first cases had been reported early in June.