Montyon; his 'tatist programme for population expansion involved a strong preference for the rural life (1778): In the cities man produces less, he is more inclined to debauchery, he is more exposed to luxury, and consequently he fears having a large family. Experience has shown that the focus of these vices which destroy a population is located in the great cities and that from the cities they expand into the countryside. An unusual paper, far more interesting that its title promises, is by

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... nley Joel Reiser: 'Creating form out of mass: the development of the medical record' [in the USA]. In question are hospital records, the period is c.1900-25. At stake is the sincerity and efficacy of treatment. Everett Mendelsohn comes within the present decade in his account of the public politics of recombinant DNA research, an account necessarily inconclusive, deliberately parochial, and pervasively depressing. The high-minded appear not very sensible and the sensible not very high-minded. Finally, I would draw attention to the very last essay in the volume, by Nathan Sivin, on the non-occurrence of the Scientific Revolution in Chinaan essay possessing real interest, historiographical depth, and not a little wit. These qualities are not evenly distributed throughout the book. Sivin's piece even has some relation to the history of medicine: it points to the significance of Japanese medical men in the westernization of their country, absent in China. With astronomy the case was reversed. A. Rupert Hall