Handbook of Medical Sociology.

Contributions by 25 authors purportedly draw together "a wealth of fresh material important to the work of physicians, nurses, social workers, community organizers and social scientists interested in health." However, the volume lacks purposeful integration of its parts and uniformity in presentation. Some chapters are intelligible and interesting to all toward whom the book is oriented, others are written in such sociologically technical language that they hold the interest of only the relatively few familiar with this vocabulary. The practicing physician probably will find only the chapter on "The Addictive Diseases as Socio-Environmental Health Problems" of real worth. The physician interested in the profession's status and problems will find the chapters "Medical Education," "Nursing and Other Health Professions," "The Organization of Medical Practice," and "The Utilization of Health Services" informative but not especially "fresh" or new. This book may well serve as a source book (bibliographies are extensive) for sociologists,