Choice 评论

A page-by-page comparison of this book with its earlier version, Drugs and People: Medications, Their History and Origins, and the Way They Act (CH, Dec'86), reveals only small changes and a few minor additions and deletions (mainly parts of paragraphs) under a new title. In addition, the original subtitle better described the contents than does the new, which is misleading and appears to be market-directed toward present-day skeptics of consumerism. It cannot be called a revised or updated edition. One must admire the pharmacological knowledge and credentials of the author (founder and former editor of the reference Medicinal Chemistry), but it is difficult to see that his efforts in this book will "satisfy and stimulate the curiosity (about drugs) of educated lay people who, on the whole, lack the biochemical and pharmacological background for the study of medicinal agents." The writing to accomplish that purpose falls short, although the factual content is there. Graduate through professional. R. S. Kowalczyk North Central Michigan College