The Chemical Prevention of Cardiac Necroses by Hans Selye (review)

few decades, self-conscious man has reached a new threshold, at which he is becoming conscious of evolution and his place and role in it. Or we might put the matter the other way round and say that evolution, in the person of man, is becoming self-conscious . AsBerrillemphasizes, increased knowledge and awareness are necessary to provide the possibility of more effective and more appropriate action, so that we may hope eventually to control our own evolution (cultural and eventually genetic) more satisfactorilythan in the past. But we are, evolutionarily speaking, extremely young and must learn patience. We can be hopeful but must be humble, willing and anxious to learn and to apply our knowledge. This is a bare enumeration ofthe points that struck me as especially important in reading Berrill's book; but he gives us insights into many other corners ofreality—the necessity for death; the world before bacteria and decay; the late origin ofphotosynthesis; the interrelations between size, abundance, longevity, and complexity of organization; the constancy ofthe total mass ofliving matter; the mutagenic role ofradioactive carbon in the chromosomes; the fundamental difference between appositional organization, as with the cells ofmost tissues, and integrative or relational organization, as with the neurons ofthe brain. Specialists will doubtless be able to criticize particular aspects ofDr. Berrill's presentation and point to errors ofcommission or omission. As a biologist, I regretted his failure to discuss the evolutionary origin of beauty out of the exigencies of sexual display in higher animals, and I would have liked a fuller treatment of natural selection and its results, including stabilization as well as directional change. But these are details. The book as a whole appears to me admirable. It is beautifully written, withremarkable economy ofwords and abundantvivid, arresting phrases, spiced by occasional humor. I commend it as a valuable contribution to the integrated system ofthought and beliefwhich, in this specialized and disruptive age, is both so badly needed and is being made possible, for the firsttime in human history, bythe immense expansion of our knowledge. Sir Julian Huxley London The Chemical Prevention of Cardiac Necroses. By Hans Selye. New York: Ronald Press Co., 1958. Pp. ix+235. $7.50. The title of the present volume is bound to attract the reader, for very few of the medical profession would be uninterested in obtaining information about the chemical prevention ofcardiac necroses. The problem is not a new one to the author; as early as 1928 he observed calcification and necroses as a result of intoxication with vitamin D sterols. A number ofreports in the literature, some ofthem quite old, have described necrotic changes in the cardiac muscle as a result of various toxic and other influences. It then occurred to Selye that these symptoms may have a common cause, and this fruitful idea has been developed in the present book. 519 The basic point which struck the author was that the described lesions were characterized by focal necrosis and presumably due to some biochemical change in the myocardium . In 1943 he observed that small amounts of NaCl might cause organ lesions when DOC was administered. Other sodium salts produced necrotization which could be partially inhibited by sodium chloride and even prevented by potassium and magnesium chloride. Not less than 49 steroids were tested for their toxicity in rats sensitized with sodium phosphate. The important result noted was that none ofthem produced cardiac necroses without electrolyte conditioning. Similarly, sodium phosphate had no action ofthis kind when administered alone. Moreover, a number of biologically occurring conditioning compounds have been detected, in addition to drugs and other factors ofvarious kinds. The experimental data presented in this volume give evidence to show that cardiac necroses may develop as a result of co-ordinated effects of defined factors. Particularly interesting in this respect is the role ofstress. Thus, in animals conditioned by corticoids and sensitized by sodium salts, a number ofnon-specific stressing factors were found to precipitate the necrotic changes. The findings reported in this highly readable volume will no doubt open up important new avenues ofresearch, and it is a fair assumption that Selye's concept ofbiochemically induced lesions will greatly help to elucidate many hitherto enigmatic phenomena in...