Organisation industrielle, medecine sociale et education civique en Angleterre et aux Etats-Unis by Sand, ReneReview by: George SartonIsis, Vol. 4, No. 1 (May, 1921), pp. 122-123Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/224123 .

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ISIS. IV. 1921 ISIS. IV. 1921

The non-English reader should remember that the author uses the words billion, trillion, etc., according to English usage. In England a billion is 1012, in France and America, 109. This confusion is very annoying. The author acknowledges his special debt to the late Lord RAYLEIGH, ( whose invaluable help was most ungrudgingly given for many years. )

WESTAWAY'S second book is very good indeed. GEORGE SARTON.

Sand, Rene. Organisation industrielle, m6decine sociale et education civique en Angleterre et aux Etats-Unis, 896 p. Bruxelles, LAMER- TIN et Paris, BAILLIERE, 1920. [30 fr.]

This report which contains the results of Dr SAND'S investigations in England and in the United States during the war is a fundamental con- tribution to the organization of social medicine and of positive polity and as such it deserves to be reviewed in Isis. It is really an ency- clopsedic survey, the more so that the author has added the essen- tial bibliography of each topic to the record of his personal observa- tions. Dr SAND is especially interested in the subject of social medi- cine, but it is of course impossible to draw the line on one side between social medicine and the organization of industry, and on the other, between social medicine and civic education. This determined the three main divisions of this book : Industry, Medicine, Education.

The very comprehensiveness of this survey makes it impossible even to quote the many topics which are dealtJ with. I think that more importance should have been given to the two following problems. In the first place, the sterilization of born criminals and other disgenic people should have been discussed more fully. In the second place, con- sidering the primordial value of milk in human diet, it would have been worth while to explain with more detail the production and distribu- tion of good milk in the great American cities. A paragraph should have been devoted to a discussion of the use of condensed and powder- ed milk. In the chapter dealing with orphans and abandoned children, I should have liked to find at least some reference to the growing practice among Americans to adopt children even when they already have many of their own. This trait of civic idealism is very characteristic. In the Latin countries adoption is considerably restric- ted by the Code Napoleon, whose chief object is the protection of personal property.

From the historical point of view, I have only two remarks to make. The statement on p. 548: I'introduction de la syphilis en Europe par les matelots de CHRISTOPHE CO,OMB is unwarranted; as it is also irrele-

The non-English reader should remember that the author uses the words billion, trillion, etc., according to English usage. In England a billion is 1012, in France and America, 109. This confusion is very annoying. The author acknowledges his special debt to the late Lord RAYLEIGH, ( whose invaluable help was most ungrudgingly given for many years. )

WESTAWAY'S second book is very good indeed. GEORGE SARTON.

Sand, Rene. Organisation industrielle, m6decine sociale et education civique en Angleterre et aux Etats-Unis, 896 p. Bruxelles, LAMER- TIN et Paris, BAILLIERE, 1920. [30 fr.]

This report which contains the results of Dr SAND'S investigations in England and in the United States during the war is a fundamental con- tribution to the organization of social medicine and of positive polity and as such it deserves to be reviewed in Isis. It is really an ency- clopsedic survey, the more so that the author has added the essen- tial bibliography of each topic to the record of his personal observa- tions. Dr SAND is especially interested in the subject of social medi- cine, but it is of course impossible to draw the line on one side between social medicine and the organization of industry, and on the other, between social medicine and civic education. This determined the three main divisions of this book : Industry, Medicine, Education.

The very comprehensiveness of this survey makes it impossible even to quote the many topics which are dealtJ with. I think that more importance should have been given to the two following problems. In the first place, the sterilization of born criminals and other disgenic people should have been discussed more fully. In the second place, con- sidering the primordial value of milk in human diet, it would have been worth while to explain with more detail the production and distribu- tion of good milk in the great American cities. A paragraph should have been devoted to a discussion of the use of condensed and powder- ed milk. In the chapter dealing with orphans and abandoned children, I should have liked to find at least some reference to the growing practice among Americans to adopt children even when they already have many of their own. This trait of civic idealism is very characteristic. In the Latin countries adoption is considerably restric- ted by the Code Napoleon, whose chief object is the protection of personal property.

From the historical point of view, I have only two remarks to make. The statement on p. 548: I'introduction de la syphilis en Europe par les matelots de CHRISTOPHE CO,OMB is unwarranted; as it is also irrele-

122 122

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vant, it would have been wiser to leave it out. RAMAzzINI'S de morbis

artificum diatriba was first published in 1700, not in 1730. - It is a

pity that many of the small diagrams are not more legible. The reading of this book gave me great pleasure. It is gratifying to

contemplate human achievements, but the planning of these achieve- ments is far more gratifying. No field opens a brighter prospect of the future than social medicine. It is tremendously exciting to think of all the great things which could be done if scientific methods were more systematically applied to the solution of social problems and if the traditionnal politicians could be replaced by engineers and

physicians. It is interesting to anticipate the future of medicine along these lines.

The nineteenth century had witnessed an increasing specialization of the medical profession and the gradual driving back of the general practitioner. But we now attend a new development: on the one hand,

specialization becomes more and more necessary and new kinds of spe- cialists are born every day; on the other hand the notion of preventive medicine is constantly gaining ground as civic idealism develops. These two simultaneous tendencies, specialization and prevention, can but lead to an enormous development of the collective (vs. the private) practice of medecine. Only few people will have sufficient means to submit themselves periodically to the various preventive examinations which an increased enlightenment and a deeper sense of social duty will make more and more compulsory. As I see it, this will not decrease but on the contrary upraise the importance of the general practician, who will remain the trusted family adviser on all medical matters and will be the connecting link between the public and the numerous specialists. To be able to give sound advice to his clients and to send them in time to the proper specialist, the practitioner will require a solid medical and scientific training. It will no longer be necessary for him to know the practical details of many tech-

niques, but on the other hand, he will need a more encyclopaedic and

deeper knowledge of the principles of every branch of medicine. One must be thankful to Dr SAND for having written this excellent

book. By doing so he has rendered a great service to the Latin coun-

tries, and also indirectly to the Anglo-Saxon world whose idealism is so often misunderstood. Dr SAND has not lost his time in discussing the reality and the value of their idealism; he has preferred to oblige his reader to witness the immense amount of social service which this idealism has inspired. He has made it clear that poverty and misery will be defeated only by the alliance of civic idealism with scientific

knowledge. GEORGE SARTON.

123 REVIEWS

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