New Light on William Harvey by Walter Pagel, and: Galen: On the Affected Parts trans. by Rudolph E. Siegel (review)

to specific stresses. Further work was stimulated by the IBP urging, and this volume contains observations made by 17 scientists, including several anthropologists , who made an integrated effort to obtain information concerning biology of human populations at high altitude. Many features of human existence were examined in this combined effort. Selection was made ofa fairly stable population that had been in existence before the arrival of the Spaniards. The area chosen is geographically nearly independent . Occupation is chiefly agricultural and pastoral and has changed little for generations. Only those people of the community were chosen for study who were racially Quechua Indian, that is, no mestizos were included. After selecting the study group, detailed data were gathered on altitude, geography, climate, temperature, precipitation, social and political systems, economy of the area, religion, the ecosystem, food production and preservation, and evaluation ofthe diet. Migration and gene flow were considered in an ethnohistorical perspective. Activities and customs directly affecting individuals were observed, such as child care and training, mortality in the neonatal period, child growth with attention to development with age. Physiological aspects of the adult Quechua centered on body size, composition, and morphology; pulmonary function and utilization of oxygen; hematology (this factor was not as complete as desired because of native resistance to drawing blood); cold stress and responses to it. Much effort and thought were directed toward analyzing work performance, evaluated in conjunction with measurements of energy requirements and availability , and adaption to limitations involved. The influence of drugs, especially coca, on work and adaption to stress was considered. Two findings of this multidisciplinary survey are worthy of mention here. First, high-altitude natives respond to cold stress with elevated surface temperatures and increased blood flow to hands and feet. Do Tibetans and Eskimos share this characteristic? Second, the system is energetically near its maximum support for the population, and even as presently structured, continuous outmigration is required to balance the system. One wonders, how close is this to being true for our entire earth? This volume will be of interest to those concerned with existence at altitude, whether it be through physiology, economy, drug use, child development, fertility , nutrition, or work performance. Robert W. Virtue, M.D. 727 Birch Street Denver, Colorado 80220 New Light on William Harvey. By Walter Pagel. Basel: S. Karger Verlag, 1976. Pp. viii+ 189. $34.75. Galen: On the Affected Parts. Translated with explanatory notes by Rudolph E. Siegel. Basel: S. Karger Verlag, 1976. Pp. x+233. $34.75. The two volumes here reviewed have several features in common that range Perspectives in Biology and Medicine ¦ Summer 1977 609 from the sublime to the practical. As to the sublime, both deal expertly with the works of medico-historical giants and provide new insights that could scarcely have been obtained elsewhere. As for the features that are practical, they must be attributed to the publisher: both books are what is generally described as "slim" volumes, both are published in soft cover by the same Swiss publisher, and each sells at the astonishing price of $35. As one would gather from the title, Walter Pagel's iV«¿i Light on William Harvey presupposes prior knowledge on William Harvey and his discovery on the part of the reader, who should, in fact, be familiar with the classic De motu cordis so as to derive the maximum benefit from Pagel's deliberation. In fact, Pagel juxtaposes Harvey with other scholars and scientists and above all with the philosophies ofantiquity. We are led to meet Aristotle over and over again in the form of "The Harveian Aristotle and the Aristotelian Harvey" and in considering "The Aristotelian Background of Harvey's Empirical Approach." But it is not only Aristotle with whom Pagel connects his Harvey in this learned volume, it is also physicians and scientists closer to his own time, such as Van Helmont, Glisson, Highmore, Paracelsus, and Robert Fludd. In each of these encounters the reader is expected to be familiar with the period and accomplishments of the respective personality. The reader is furthermore flattered by Pagel's tacit assumption that he can read both Latin and Greek, which may well be the case for those of us who...