The Story of the Brain
By E. M. FitzAdam-Ormiston. With an Introduction by R. G. Gordon, M.D., D.Sc., F.R.C.P. Heinemann, 7/6.
In this bird’s eye view of the Brain, its form, functions and disorders, the author gives a merry, vivid and simple account of an extremely difficult subject. Throughout, she has made free use of analogy to translate erudite matters into terms comprehensible to any thinking man or woman. The chapters on the Anatomy and Physiology of the Central Nervous System give a description which is as simple as is compatible with the complexity of the subject, though perhaps these chapters would have been enriched by the addition of a few homely pen and ink sketches that would assist the mind unskilled in technical nomenclature to visualize the features of the brain structure.
The chapter on Mental Deficiency puts this problem in a practical way and makes no attempt to minimise the difficulties or to offer ready-made solutions on matters for which, as yet, no easy remedy has been found.
In certain parts of the book dealing with such manifestations as anasthesia, hypnosis, stammering and the psychoses, the author does not completely avoid the dangers inherent in excessive simplification and partial statement, as, for example, in the description of behaviour-forms which, though they may be present during phases of insanity, are not of themselves indications of its presence.
In so far as such matters can be dealt with in the confined space of some 200 pages, they have been dealt with suggestively and interestingly, and perhaps the most salutary story in the book is that of the lobster who, should he become afflicted with the vice of intellectual pride and seek to develop his central nervous system unduly, does so at the cost of blocking his only channel of nourishment! Even so with man?not by the development of intellect alone does he thrive, but by the recognition, delicate adjustment and balance of all his potentialities.
Mary K. Ruddy.
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