Some Books of the Week
PREVENTION is better than cure, as the annals of preventive medicine show. While the physician may cure a few sick patients, preventive methods rightly applied save millions from contracting a disease. Thus Mrs. M. E. M. Walker has done a real service in writing her attractive book on Pioneers of Public Health (Oliver and Boyd. 12s. Gd.), and drawing attention to the supreme importance of the discoveries and work of great men from Sydenham, Pringle and Jenner to Manson, Laveran, Gorgas, Biggs and Leishman in our own day. Her chapters on Chadwick and Simon, who organized our public health service, and on Pasteur and Lister are particularly good. Gorgas, who "cleaned up" Havana and the Panama Canal route, had the advantage of showing what an autocrat could do against "Yellow Jack" and the mos- quito, But the less spectacular triumphs recorded are not less useful to mankind. This excellent book is illustrated
with portraits. * * * *
Previous page
