Contrary to Nature By Michael B. Shimkin (review)

However, the fault lay not in science (would a president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science denounce science?) but in human nature itself. Not everything about a primitive society would appeal to humanitarians: "Severely retarded children rarely survive in primitive societies . . . When an infant cannot respond to normal care, the energy to rear it is likely to be withdrawn." On "Our Quirks and Crotchets": "Games are a favorite way for boys and men to create a world of their own . . . from which girls . . . can be excluded. . . . Spending endless hours playing baseball, talking about baseball, reading about baseball, watching baseball, and memorizing items about baseball is one way for American boys to convince themselves that they are boys." On why young girls like horses: "Throughout history . . . the strongest and swiftest means of transportation have belonged to men . . . the slower and smaller ones were relegated to women. . . ." Today, boys "have abandoned horses for cars—big cars, small cars, old cars, racing cars, rebuilt cars." On women's colleges: "Large universities have gobbled up women's colleges out of a desire for their hard-won assets. . . . Ever since World War II, there has been a steady increase in the number of men teaching in women's colleges. . . . the chief advantage of the women's college is that it can provide girls with models of women scholars and scientists who reassure them about their own potentialities." The human condition: "Happiness might be defined as getting those good things in life that one has been led to expect. Then a happy society would be one like Samoa, where children grow up wanting very simple things—enough food, water, sleep, sex, and mild amusement—and usually obtain them. . . . Societies whose members have very high aspirations would inevitably produce more 'unhappy' people. It is on such societies, however, that the growth and change of civilization depend. For it is only when people are unhappy about the discrepancy between their situation and their aspirations that they seek something that is different, better and more desirable." Like Faust, Mead is not ready to admit that she has yet known one perfect moment. James S. Sweet Office ofPublic Information University ofChicago Contrary to Nature. By Michael B. Shimkin. HEW No. 017-042-00128-5. Washington , D.C: Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, 1977. Pp. 498. $14.75. Dr. Shimkin, now Professor of Community Medicine and Oncology at the University of California, San Diego, is the former editor of Cancer Research, the official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. In 1964, Shimkin introduced the use of illustrations depicting historical events in cancer research as covers for thisjournal. This collection ofcancer research covers is the core of this intriguing book regarding the history ofcancer. With the liberal use of photographs and tide page facsimiles from works of antiquity, Shimkin leads us through a minihistory ofcancer research from the Ebers Papyrus to contemporary organizations which support cancer research. 672 J BookReviews The style is terse but never harsh, brief but never teasing. This was just the right dose ofhistorical cancer lore that I was interested in. Major events in cancer discovery are integrated with the general rise of science since the Renaissance. I was not surprised to learn that surgery occupies the bulk of early cancer strategies . I was, however, surprised to learn that as early as 1740, hospitals such as the French Cancer Charity facility at Rheims were devoted exclusively to patients with malignant disorders. Shimkin informs us that the motivation for this and other special facilities related to cancer did not arise exclusively out ofcharity but out of fear that cancer somehow was contagious and, therefore, should be an isolated disease. The bulk of the book describes the interactions of the various sciences and their applications to cancers in diis century. The book ends with a few words about cancer chemotherapy and statistics; much of what has happened regarding the advances in cancer research in the last decade, however, is not discussed. The text is easy to read, and I was glad to see that each of the chapters had a few key references for those readers interested in additional background. The text, however, is...