The Poisoned Patient: The Role of the Laboratory by Associated Scientific Publishers, and: Psychotropic Drugs: A Manual for Emergency Management of Overdosage by Nathan S. Kline with S. F. Alexander and A. Chamberlain, and: Anatomisch-mikrochemishche Drogenanalyse by Leitfaden von D. Frohne, and: Essentials of Toxicology by T. A. Loomis (review)

mental nature of life and reflect much from the golden age of French physiology . The translators have carefully preserved the style of the text, and the reader can feel the presence of Claude Bernard almost as clearly as with the original French. Passing from page to page, there is so often a brief remark which presages a whole field of work in the future. This is a book to own and to treasure. J. F. Nunn Clinical Research Centre Middlesex, England The Poisoned Patient: The Role of the Laboratory. Amsterdam and New York: Associated Scientific Publishers, 1974. Pp. 335. $21.20. Psychotropic Drugs: A Manualfor Emergency Management ofOverdosage. By Nathan S. Kline with S. F. Alexander and A. Chamberlain. Oradell, N.J.: Medical Economics Co, 1975. Pp. 197. $10.00. Anatomisch-mikrochemhche Drogenanalyse. By Leitfaden von D. Frohne. 2d ed. Stuttgart: Georg Thieme Verlag, 1974. Pp. 182. DM 16.80 (cloth). Essentials of Toxicology. By T. A. Loomis. 2d ed. Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger, 1974. Pp. vii+223. $18.00. In America and Western Europe the teaching of toxicology is usually limited to pharmacology syllabuses; it may or, as likely, may not include chemical methodology related to treatment of poisoning and use of antidotal procedures. Yet, there are now more than 5,000 fatal accidental poisonings each year in this country. One per 200 of the population suffers nonfatal poisoning each year. Admittedly, there are hundreds of poison control centers across the country available to aid physicians and pharmacists on a 24-hour basis, but proliferation of new products on the market, rapid changes in the patterns of drug use and abuse, and the high level ofsophistication reached today in the identification and quantification of drugs in biologic fluids have combined to render these books indispensable to all those responsible for the care of the poisoned. Anyone with experience in this field will agree that the greatest need is better communication between clinicians and laboratory workers. The Poisoned Patient is ajewel in bridging this gap most elegantly. It is a CIBA Foundation symposium which is certain to satisfy the most demanding expert toxicologist in his duty to promote prompt application of present technology in the everyday practice of medicine. Nathan S. Kline's book is, as one would expect from this excellent writer, terse but practical, and it provides much useful detail for pharmacist, physician, nurse, and patient in the actual clinical setting of therapy but, of course, confined to psychotropic drugs. Frohne's German book is beautifully illustrated, and the text takes nothing for granted; all the details of technique are rigorously described so that the second edition of this well-known primer is exceptionally well suited to the needs of both 152 I Book Reviews medical and pharmaceutical students. Perhaps one of these will translate it because , in spite of Nathan Kline's book, there is still a need for a truly basic manual. EssentiaL· of Toxicology by Loomis is the best available text on the principles of toxicology. This second edition firmly consolidates it as the standard and most authoritative classic description of principles of drug action required for an understanding of present-day toxicology. Jacobus W. Mostert, M.D. University of Chicago Valvular Heart Duease. Edited by Edmund H. Sonnenblick and Michael Lesch. New York: Grune & Stratton, 1975. Pp. 400. $24.75. Cardiovascular surgery has made great and important strides over the last decade. This is particularly so within realms of acquired and congenital valvular heart disease and its management by various forms of surgical approaches. A progress report documenting recent advances and presenting a balanced view of the choice of patients for operation, types of operations to be done, valves to be inserted when valve replacement is decided on, and results of such treatment both in the short and long term would indeed be timely. This book represents an attempt at such a survey, but suffers since the book consists mainly of chapters which originally appeared in Progress in Cardiovascular Dueases during 1973 not written with the goals of a single volume surveying the total field. Much of the information is not quite up-to-date, and since most articles were published in 1973 the literature...