1 NOVEMBER 1940, Page 26

WITH the growth of literary ambition among medical men, the

position of a patient becomes more than ever precarious: he is in danger of being a subject in more senses than one. Mr. Sava's talents as a writer are of a certain flamboyance: " Let me cut deep into the body of man and cut away Pain, I prayed. And a part of that prayer was answered." Whether this means that he cut away pain without cutting deep, or cut deep without cutting away pain, remains a mystery all through this highly- coloured record of Caesarean operations, blood transfusions and little problems of the pylorus.