Sokoloff, Boris. Napoleon. A Doctor's Biography. New York:  Prentice Hall, Inc.

There have been more biographies of Napoleon written than of any other human being. At least, it seems so, even if we have no statistics to back up the statement. But none, so far as we know, by a physician, of the training and background of the present author, although medical men have written extensively of Napoleon's last illness. Here a trained physician utilizes his medical knowledge to interpret Napoleon, starting with Michelet's rather striking statement that the reign of Louis XIV might well be divided into two eras, the one before and the other after his development of a rectal fistula, thus bringing into the purview of history the importance that illness, even of so apparently trifling a nature, may have upon a ruler. Rulers with frank psychotic histories we know of: George Ill's manic-depressive psychosis, Lenin's general paralysis, and one might go on at length to the discussion of Wilhelm Ill's birth palsy, or to other afflictions of other great rulers, and the possible effects of such illness on national or international politics.

The author would follow out the medical clue, for Napoleon was far from being a strong man in the sense of freedom from somatic disease.