You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Five of the chapters of this book are written by the editor, whose interest in this field of medicine is well known. Forty-six other well-known physicians have written a chapter or collaborated on one. Like other books so arranged, it has the advantage of being
the best material an outstanding authority has to offer on his subject in a chapter, but it lacks some of the cohesiveness and condensation which a single author can give. The first section is on general considerations, and the others follow the textbook pattern of dealing with disorders of various body systems.
Those interested in the psychosomatic approach to the disabilities and illnesses of old age will look hard to find it in most of the chapters of this book. Under general considerations, there is a chapter on Mental Changes With Normal Ageing. This is largely an evaluation of the ageing individual from the standpoint of the psychology laboratory. In the chapter on Medical Care of Normal Senescents, there are four pages devoted to mental hygiene, the best example in the book of the geriatric patient as a person. There is a particularly good chapter on Medicolegal Aspects of Senility, and a well-written chapter on Mental Disease.
The references at the end of each chapter, which in some instances are quite extensive, make practically no mention of any work on the application of emotional factors to organic illness. There is need for a book on geriatrics by an author who takes into account that emotions still influence the physiological functioning of later life even though the incidence of organic disease is high and tissue changes are undeniably present.