GRnTIN, R. D. Principles ofHazardous Materials Management . 207 pp. Chelsea, MI : Lewis Publishers Inc.(1988) .

Tins Boor is a clear and concise introduction to the various disciplines that are concerned with hazardousmaterials. The topics covered are how chemical contaminants affect human health, how they are transported,measured, managed and regulated (with special reference to the United States) . The book thus provides aframework for understanding the multidisciplinary nature of hazardous materials and the involved risks forhuman health. It is of value for people with a general interest as well as for practitioners in hazardous materialsmanagement.

LARsoN, R. A. (ed.) Biohazards of Drinking Water Treatment. 293 pp . Chelsea, MI: Lewis Publishers Inc.(1988).

J. MEIER

IN SEPTE6(BER 1987 a symposium of the Environmental Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Societywas held . There, attention was called to the many problems that remain in trying to provide drinking water ofgood quality. The chapters ofthis book were first presented as papers at this symposium and give an overview ofthe state-of-the-art in this activity field.

PEARN, J. In The Capacity ofa Surgeon. University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, 4029 Australia.

J. MEIER

HAIR,W. Occupational Safety Management and Engineering, 600 pp. Englewood Cliffs, NJ : Prentice Hall(1988).

Tins BOOK covering all the relevant topics of safety management and engineering is now available as the revisedand updated fourth edition. It is both a book of reference and a textbook with exercises for the beginner at theend of each of its 27 chapters .

J. MEIER

IT IS ALWAYS a source of delight to find a renaissance man in the midst ofone's scientific colleagues . Our Societyhas been blessed with at last one such scholar-J. PEARN of the Royal Children's Hospital of Brisbane. His mostrecent contribution to scholarship is In the Capacity of a Surgeon, an intriguing story of the trials andtribulations of one Dr WALTER Scare (1787-1854), first to act "in the capacity of a surgeon" in what is nowQueensland, Australia. Score was also Queensland's first citizen, its first accountant, first doctor, magistrate andan influential squire . In these various pursuits Pearn takes us through his fascinating adventures.

Walter Scott was born of an extended kindered of Scots in 1787 . As was the custom of the times, when therewas no formal medical course in Scotland, and surgeons took their training through apprenticeship, he took hisapprenticist training (possible in Langholm) and then practiced for a while in Dumfriesshire . In 1819, he enrolledin a formal medical course (which hadjust been instituted in Edinburgh) . Pears characterizes these days ofbody-snatching (even-murder) for anatomical specimens, students were still fighting duels, and the older mentors wereoften known more for their ????? than for their surgery. One such famous instructor used to visit his patientsaccompanied by a pet sheep or raven. Surgeons of the day tended to be somewhat more adventurous (with theirpatients?) than subsequently. Indeed, many surgeons of Scott's period turned to adventurous lives abroad, or onships or even expeditions to the more remote comers of the earth.

During his schooling, Scott became proficient in bookkeeping and accounting, aptitudes that came in handyin his life in Australia. Whatever his motives may have been, he left England for Australia, arriving there fivemonths later in 1823 . Although he was granted 600 acres in the Lower Hunter Valley, he became appointedAssistant Storekeeper at the Commissariat in Sydney, and only returned to his settler's task in later years.

Scott's fortunes and misfortunes were closely allied to the Fortieth Regiment of Foot as a civilian in a penalcolony and military outpost, where he served as storekeeper and surgeon. In his capacity as surgeon he treatedmalaria, trachoma, dysentery, all sorts of skin infestations and the varied diseases associated with poor health,sanitation and exposure .

Pears takes us through Scott's experiences in a story that reads like a novel at times. There are good drawings,photos, a valuable reference source and a good index. This is an interesting book of the life of a pioneerphysician and Peam keeps it lively by his personal interest and style. I can recommend this book for the reader ofmedical history, or just for enjoyable reading.

F . E . RUSSELL