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This book on the whole is an exceedingly readable, sane and interesting discussion of the supject, and so far as the reviewer knows it is the only book that deals with this subject alone, and with the exception of certain very highly specialized treatises the only work that deals with the subject in its various ramifications as thoroughly. Of course it must be said that the author does not bring anything new or startling to the consideration of his subject, but his quotations and references show that he has acquainted himself very thoroughly with the literature and has brought forward the opinion of various authors and investigators very admirably.
Although the author states that he is dealing with the subject in a popular way, so that the book may appeal to the layman, because he is essentially a psychiatrist, he naturally drops into the expressions of his group, and the reviewer feels, therefore, that despite his expressed purpose and the introduction of certain simplified definitions for popular consumption, that he is really discussing the matter in a way that the layman will find it very difficult to follow. The book, therefore, it would seem, would appeal primarily to psychiatrists, to eugenists, to hereditarians, and to various types of social workers, particularly psychiatric social workers, and the social workers in hereditary problems. It may easily, also, have a certain usefulness for medico—legal purposes, as the question of the heredity of mental abnormalities is not infrequently raised in criminal trials and will contests.
White.