The British have a well-deserved reputation for impeccable workmanship, and when perfection is their goal, they often seem to get closer to it than most others whether it be in a film, an automobile, or a learned scientific work. On the other hand, when they deliberately set out to do less than their best the result is usually a disaster, whether it be a cheap film, a cheap car, or a book on medicine written down.
Unfortunately, Drugs in the Treatment of Disease is an achievement of the latter sort. It is, however, clearly to be distinguished from the British Medical Bulletin series which is a performance of the first type.
Drugs in the Treatment of Disease is a collection of below-par short articles which appeared from time to time in the British Medical Journal from 1958 to 1960. Although they were revised before publication, they are no better than