Free and Unequal: The Biological Basis of Individual Liberty. By Roger macerated.

acerated. Since the therapeutic properties of this concoction

J. Williams. Cloth. $3.50.Pp. 177, with illustrations. University of Texas
Press, Austin 12; [Thomas Nelson & Sons, Ltd., Parkside Works, Dal- appear to have established its popularity among curanderos for
keith Rd., Edinburgh 9; 91-93 Wellington St., W., Toronto 1], 1953. 300 years, the author believes it should be investigated. He
points out that, although the mosquito Aedes egypti is abundant
In the 19th century great scientists generally wrote or lec- in the Philippines, yellow fever is not known to have occurred
tured to laymen of their discoveries. This tradition of the there in epidemic form. In the tragic cholera epidemic of 1820,
scientist as a popularizer has almost disappeared; consequently, thousands of deaths occurred. A French physician who wit¬
it is rare for anything written for laymen about science to be nessed it wrote, "At all times of the day and at night, the streets
wholly accurate, and it is still rarer for such a work to be of Manila were full of cars conveying the dead." The cause of
written in a distinctive style. "Free and Unequal" is an excep- cholera not then being known, it was suspected that foreigners
tion to these trends. It is by a great biochemist, it is authentic, had poisoned the wells and rivers, and in Manila and nearby
and it could be read for its style alone. Its subject is one of the Cavité furious crowds killed 28 Europeans and many Chinese.
most interesting imaginable\p=m-\thebiological basis of human in- Beriberi is the commonest form of avitaminosis in the Philip¬
dividuality, the extent of human variability. Dr. Williams starts pines and one of the most important causes of infant mortality.
out with differences in abilities to taste and smell; in metabolic The Philippine congress has passed a law providing for the free
patterns, growth rates, and sleeping patterns; in tolerances for distribution of the extract of tiqui-tiqui, which has diminished
foods and medicaments; and in talents. With these chapters for the mortalty from beriberi; in 1950 it was fourth on the list of
a basis, he demolishes the concept of "the average man." He causes of general mortality.
discusses what the abandonment of the concept could mean in During the Spanish regime many hospitals were erected by
education, medicine, art, religion, race relations, and politics. the government and the missionaries. The Spaniards founded
Most of all, he stresses that, although people are born unequal, the first one in Cebu in 1565 and later transferred it to Manila
they are born to be free, a condition that he believes can be to take care of military patients. From then on institutions of
achieved only in a democracy because no dictator or ruling class health and charity multiplied. The American historian Edward
can understand fully the needs of each subject. "Free and Un¬
Gaylord Borne believed that the Philippines at the beginning
equal" can be recommended to parents worried about their "ab¬ of the 17th century were ahead of all the other European
normal" children, or to patients puzzled by ways in which they colonies in care of the sick and invalids. The author discusses
are "different." It should be in the library of everyone who works the progress of surgery in the Philippines and the development
with or through people. The book is the more valuable because of public health services. The Central Board of Vaccination was
there is so little published for the layman in the field of applied created in 1806, and after the reorganization of the health
biochemistry. services in 1883, caraballa calves were used for the production
of vaccine. The virus was preserved in glycerine on slides sealed
A Short History of Medicine in the Philippines during the Spanish with paraffin, in capillary tubes, or in small bottles, and trans¬
Regime 1565-1898. By Jos\l=e'\P. Bantug, Ph.D., M.D., M.Sc., Associate ported to the various provinces in the islands. Vaccine prepared
Professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of Santo Tomas, Manila. from other domestic and wild animals, the horse, goat, deer,
Cloth. Pp. 182, with illustrations. Colegio m\l=e'\dico-farmac\l=e'\uticode Fili-
pinas, Inc., Manila, 1953. and monkey, was also used. When the Spanish rule ended in
1898, there were 122 regular vaccinators distributed in the
Of the beginnings of medicine in the Philippines Dr. Bantug different provinces besides the vacunadorcillas in each town.
says, "No authentic monuments have come down to us that In 1690 the Dominican Father Juan Feguero provided the
indicate with some certainty early medical practices." In his brief city of Manila with potable water. Part of his original water
chapter on aboriginal superstitions it is related that corpses system still exists. In 1732 the Spanish general Don Francisco
were bathed and rubbed with camphor oil and preserved with de Carriedo bequeathed money to establish in Manila a modern
buyo (beetle) as well as aloes introduced through the mouth. water system, which continued to function for more than 50
This procedure is said to have been so effective that after many years. The Philippine hero Dr. José Rizal built a water system
years the cadavers were still perfectly preserved. The ancient for his native town, Dapitan on Mindanao, of which an Ameri¬
Filipinos believed in signs and augurs. An owl in the neighbor- can engineer said, "I cannot conceive how a man without means
hood of the sick was thought to be a sign that death was near. almost, could have established a water system with only ma¬
A new house in which a snake had been seen was of evil omen terials from a ruined building, his canals made of bricks and
and must not be occupied. broken tiles and making use of the ordinary bamboo for a
In the years preceding the Spanish regime medicinal plants good part of the piping."
were commonly used, and the therapeutic properties of many There are chapters on municipal laboratories, the quarantine
of them, the author says, have been amply corroborated by
modern investigators. The early missionaries recorded their
service, the Philippine spas, health education, Dr. Rizal, and
the faculties of medicine and pharmacy in the University of
observations on these medicinal herbs; for example, Father
Francisco Ignacio Alcina, S.J., and Fray José de Valencia in Santo Tomas and several brief biographies of other men
1669, and Father Pablo Ciain, S.J., who published a special tract prominent in medicine and pharmacy in the Philippines.
on medicinal plants in the Philippines in 1712. The author be¬
The Physiopathology of Cancer: A Treatise for Investigators, Physicians,
lieves that today we are far from exhausting the possibilities of and Students. Edited by Freddy Homburger, M.D., Research Professor
these medicinal plants, and that botanists, chemists, and pharma¬ of Medicine, Tufts College Medical School, Boston, and William H.
cists are needed for research in this field. The first true phar¬ Fishman, Ph.D., Research Professor of Biochemistry, Tufts College Medi-
macies in the country were established in Manila in 1830. After cal School. With 28 contributors. Foreword by C. C. Little. Cloth. $18.
the establishment of the faculty of pharmacy at the University Pp. 1031, with 152 illustrations. Paul B. Hoeber, Inc. (medical book
department of Harper & Brothers), 49 E. 33rd St., New York 16, 1953.
of Santo Tomas in 1871, well-appointed drug stores became
abundant. It is interesting that in the early history, of the islands Cancer has become such an important cause of death that
the old curanderos used the brain of a rabid dog for the treat¬ physicians must maintain constant vigilance in the differential
ment of persons bitten by mad dogs. In discussing the epidemics
diagnosis of noninfectious diseases. Thus, texts on cancer be-
that scourged the Philippines, the author mentions the efficacy come increasingly important in adding to the fund of medical
of oil of monungal against cholera. This is simply coconut oil
in which pieces or scrapings of monungal wood have been
knowledge. In this volume, the origin, nature, and development
of cancer are discussed from both the experimental and the
clinical viewpoint. The text has been divided into sections on
These book reviews have been prepared by competent authorities but
do not represent the opinions of any official bodies unless specifically biology, chemistry and physics, clinical investigation, and prac-
so stated. tical applications. Practicing physicians would be primarily in-

Downloaded From: http://jama.jamanetwork.com/ by a University of Pennsylvania User on 06/18/2015