This is the first in a series of five or six consecutive volumes (to appear at intervals) intended to cover the subject of pain. No attempt was made to standardize the 11 presentations. Overlap is apparent, especially in chapters on drug therapy by Williams and on psychiatric therapy by Mersky. The latter is particularly lucid and worthwhile in contrast to the unsatisfying chapter on acupuncture by Mann.
I would mention the informative and useful chapter by Mumford that clarifies some of the mysteries of dental and oral pain, ignored by most physicians except when they themselves are the sufferers. Maher and Mehta give detailed instructions on the use of alcohol and phenol as neurolytic agents in producing spinal and extradural analgesia. Peripheral nerve (and sympathetic) blocking is well illustrated by Swerdlow. Treatment of pain by percutaneous cordotomy is expounded by the two American authors, Ganz and Mullan.
Although the chapters