The Case of the Midwife Toad By Arthur Koestler (review)

BOOK REVIEWS Without Prescription. By Erwin DiCyan and Lawrence Hessman. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1972. Pp. 321. $7.95. People generally want to be healthy. Toward this end, different peoples use drugs differently. In Japan, almost all drugs are openly available for purchase without prescription. Japanese druggists are well trained and the drugs are well packaged with all essential information regarding them on the label or in the package insert. In Russia, however, no one can purchase a drug. There, drugs are dispensed only at the ubiquitous clinics in accordance widi the judgment of the attendants. Only those drugs are available in Russia which have been approved by a central committee. The people of both Japan and Russia are generally healthy. In the United States, we follow a middle course with drugs; most, however, are prescribed by attending physicians. Many, if reasonably safe and effective (according to the judgment of bureaucrats of the Food and Drug Administration), are available for over-the-counter sale. Advertising for some of these drugs is often annoying and confusing, so that it is difficult to make a rational choice of what to use to alleviate some minor pain or discomfort. A really useful guide to the selection and use of medicines available over the counter for self-medication is now offered by Erwin DiCyan, long a respected pharmaceutical consultant, and Lawrence Hessman, a competent internist. This is a helpful reference work. The format is clear and convenient, the discussion is comprehensive, and the information is accurate. The various drugs are classified simply into those commonly used for common disorders. There are helpful comments on various aspects of health and disease, including biological rhythms, fever, anxiety, and side effects of drugs. Various products are clearly described, and the index is comprehensive . This is a useful and accurate guide to self-medication. Chauncey D. Leake University of California, San Francisco The Case of the Midwife Toad. By Arthur Koestler. New York: Random House, 1972. Pp. 187. $5.95. Like families, scientific communities sometime have skeletons hidden in their closets. The unmasking of the Piltdown "man" hoax is memorable. Numerous forgeries were perpetrated by the henchmen of the notorious Lysenko, though apparently not by the "master" himself. The discovery in 1926 of a forged specimen of an allegedly modified midwife toad agitated biologists of that time, but mercifully sank into oblivion since. Mr. Koestler has seen fit in the book under Perspectives in Biology and Medicine · Autumn 1972 [ 161 review to renew the polemics about this forgery and related topics. His writing is excellent, and the book has the allurement of a first-rate detective story. Unfortunately , the author is a strong partisan of an obsolete biological theory, and he is apt to mislead readers unfamiliar with modern biology. The gist of the story is as follows. One of the issues debated by evolutionists during approximately the first quarter of the current century was whether modifications of the body acquired by individuals during their lifetime can be inherited by the progeny. Lamarckians believed that inheritance of acquired traits is the propellant of evolutionary change. Darwinians denied such inheritance, and regarded mutation and natural selection as the chief causative factors of evolution. Ascribing to Lamarck the theory of evolution by inheritance of acquired traits happens to be historically inaccurate. Lamarck did believe, together with most nineteendi-century biologists (Darwin included!), that such inheritance takes place, but he attributed evolution, rather, to some drive toward improvement , allegedly inherent in all life. Be that as it may, many experiments were being made in the early years of the current century testing the possibility of inheritance of acquired traits. A few of diese experiments were claimed to give positive results. By far the most active experimenter and writer advancing such claims was Paul Kammerer of Vienna, Austria. By changing the environment, he induced modifications in animals as diverse as sea squirts (Ciona), newts (Salamandra), lizards, a cave-dwelling amphibian (Proteus) , and midwife toad (Alytes). The induced modifications were allegedly inherited. Kammerer's experiments aroused doubts and disbelief in many biologists. Some attempted repetitions did not confirm his results. This was ascribed to failures of the other experimenters to follow exactly Kammerer...