Audrey B. Davis

Laboratory instruments in the history of psychology

The importance of laboratory instruments as sources for the writing of the history of psychology is stressed, and illustrated through the use of examples where their study has been profitable. Most importantly, the role of the Hipp chronoscope in the reaction-time experiment is discussed, and the importance of various changes introduced into its design by James McKeen Cattell is shown. A photograph, first exhibited by the Department of Psychology of Clark University at the 1893 Worlds Columbian Exposition in Chicago is included, and further illustrates the importance of these instruments to historians.

KENNETH E. STUDER and DARYL E. CHUBIN. The Cancer Mission: Social Contexts of Biomedical Research. Pp. 319. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications, 1980.

Kenneth Studer and Daryl Chubin have documented well their thesis that scientific ideas play a vital role in the explanation and predictions of scientific development. They further state and show &dquo;that only when contact is maintained with the cognitive domain of science does the sociology of science become relevant to science policy research.&dquo; This rationale apparently has eluded social scientists until recently, although it is self-evident to scientists and historians of science, tecnology, and medicine. It appears preposterous to think that a special effort must be made to prove the value of scientific ideas to

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to a precedent, and additional legal principles which will contribute to an interpretation of the law. Moral actions are related to personal values and define an action as right or wrong. Carlton specifically observed that &dquo;Medical students are being socialized into using the clinical perspective to resolve clinical problems with little or no regard for the ethical aspects of their professional behavior&dquo; (p. 171). The consequences of this practice have been noted for some time; however, it is important to have the &dquo;dehumanizing&dquo; process documented and its important ramifications explored. As students advance through medical school they learn to abandon the perspective of the lay person and patient in order to carry out their assignments and receive the approval of their teachers and senior physicians. Fully scheduled and hectically involved in self arranged chores, the student finds little or no time to reflect on all of the consequences of his scientifically and technologically determined procedures for treating patients with a variety of illnesses including the acute, chronic, serious, and trivial.

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The value, progress, cost and direction of the various medical systems which care for large populations are best discussed by comparing each system with all the others. Few individuals are as well prepared as the author of this volume, who has extensively studied the British health care system, to undertake this essential study. Michael Ryan has recently assembled the scarce accessible data on the Soviet medical system between 1950 and 1974. In coming to terms with the severe factual restrictions placed on western readers of both the English and Russian languages he has provided a concise statement of the organization, growth, and effectiveness of modern Soviet medical care. Although centrally organized, Soviet medicine is primarily distributed under national and local sponsorship in city, factory, and rural hospitals. Hospitals are the preferred institution for treating all illnesses because in the home both space and individuals are inadequate to care . for the ill. Motivated by a desire to keep the large work-force healthy and functioning at a high level, the medical community, including physicians, nurses, and paramedical staff must enforce government regulations which curtail the chances of feigning illness in order to stay away from a job and collect financial compensation. As a part of one of the most technologically focused societies, current Soviet medicine projects two contrasting effects of technology. These are a complete acceptance of medical specialization which demands special equipments, and

Wendy Carlton. "In Our Professional Opinion": The Primacy of Clinical Judgment Over Moral Choice. Pp. 214. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1978.

concerns primarily varied aspects of the reparations issue-before Potsdam; reaction of the American taxpayer; Soviet economic claims; at Potsdam. In the next-to-last chapter the author finally turns to political matters, only to revert almost instantly to reparations again. Even the five appendices are concerned exclusively with reparations and economic problems. These economic motivations are basic, of course, to any treatment of the decision for partition. Overemphasis, however, does not give the full picture in a maze of pluralistic and complex factors. At the same time, let us be grateful for

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the myth of racial justice and the reality were obvious to anyone caring to look. Yet, for over half a century the New South myth was accepted as existential reality by a considerable number of Southerners and Northerners, despite the attacks on facets of the myth by black critics, southern scholars and intellectuals, southern white liberals, and the designation of the region as the nation’s number one economic problem by Franklin D. Roosevelt. The black rebellion of the late 1950’s and 1960’s was the principal development,