Selected Papers of Charles H. Best (review)

thefuture ofmanremainsshrouded bythe mist offuturetime. Vaguetrends are discerned, obvious dangers recognized, but where man goes no one knows. N. J. Berrill McGiIl University Selected Papers ofCharles H. Best. Toronto: University ofToronto Press, 1963. Pp. xix-(723 . $28.50. Sometimes it happens that the creative works ofa productive person are collected and reprinted while their creator or author b still active. When that occurs, in addition to selecting and organizing (so often done by someone else posthumously), the originator can contribute enormously to the value ofthe collection by inserting personal comments of an interpretative and hbtorical nature. He can also put the contributions ofhb colleagues and associates into proper perspective and deal adequately with related contributions of hb critics and contemporaries. Thb b the case, happily, with the chiefproducts offorty-odd years ofphysiological research and teaching ofProfessor Charles H. Best ofToronto. Hb friends and publishers at the university which has always been hb academic home have helped him make a monumental hbtorical contribution to the medical literature by assembling in one large handsome volume about sixty papers which appeared in various publications from 1921 to 1962. Hb wife Margaret, Professor Lucas, and Dr. Ridout, so closely associated with Dr. Best's career, are the principal editorial associates. Sir Henry Dale and the late Dr. Elliott P. Joslin, both admired lifetime mentors, furnbh appropriate forewords. Quite properly and naturally, fully one-half of the collection concerns insulin. Its epochal discovery while Dr. Best was still a medical student b described authoritatively and with deep feeling. Conflicting stories ofresponsibility and priority are resolved in the author's frank explanatory notes and in a long biographical review ofhb career entitled "A Canadian Trail ofMedical Research," which was delivered before the Britbh Society for Endocrinology in 1959 and which introduces the book's series ofpapers. The story of insulin has always been an intensely dramatic one. As documented here, with a generous supply ofsource material, illustrations, personalnotes, and reminiscences by the one living person best qualified to tell the whole story, the record b complete, fascinating, and immensely valuable. Second onlyin interest and merit to the story ofthat starperformer are thelaterreports by Dr. Best and hb colleagues ofsystematic research on the crucial role of choline and other lipotropic agents in protecting animals from fatty liver and cirrhosb, and on glucagon , heparin, and histamine. Nowhere b Dr. Best's long preoccupation with pharmacophysiological phenomena so well revealed as in thb anthology ofhb scientific career, containing so many pertinent annotations. Finally, a bibliographic appendix of830 literature references gives die student ofinsulin and choline particularly a valuable reference index to important sources ofinformation in these areas. 369 Contemplation ofthe career ofProfessor Best, as reflected in thb volume's prolific collection ofreports, makes one realize how far hb influence has reached. The early hbtory of insulin b fascinating, but almost as much so to thb reviewer b the large number of students and associates trained and inspired by precept and example to carry on in similar fashion. In an epilogue, the author comments courteously on the large number ofpositions in Canadian schools now occupied by former students and colleagues. Following Banting, Macleod, Dale, Hill, Hoet, and others close to him in hb early years, die names ofHabt, Hartcroft, Ridout, Campbell, Sirek, Lucas, Wrenshall, Salter, Logothotopoulos, Chute, and Fraser might be mentioned here. Thb b not presented as a select list, by any means, but only to illustrate how many colleagues, associates, and investigators helped to build and maintain an incredibly fine and strong department in Toronto under Best's benevolent guidance, many ofthem subsequently building strong departments oftheir own. Thb book b an eloquent testimonial to an inspired investigator and an inspiring teacher and leader. Arthur R. Colwell, Sr., M.D. Northwestern University Medical School The Geography ofIntellect. By Nathantbl Wbyl and Stefan Possony. Chicago: Henry Regnery Co., 1963. Pp. xiii+299. $7.95. The subject ofthb book b the distribution ofhuman intellectual ability in space and time. The purpose ofthe authors extends beyond description and compilation ofreferences ; they are concerned with the importance ofunequal endowment with mental resources among races, peoples, and classes. Since I distrust the claims ofboth the egalitarians and the racists, I was especially interested...