Geriatrics: The Diseases of Old Age and Their Treatment.

The subject discussed in this book is nowhere defined except by antithesis. Old age is compared and contrasted with childhood, but the essential characters that mark off the senile organism are only vaguely outlined. Still Dr. Nascher insists that we cannot deal understandingly with senile diseases if we do not understand the senile organism, and that we cannot understand the senile organism unless we study it as a physiologic entity entirely apart from maturity. He then proceeds to show that "the irregularity in the order and the wide variations in time and extent of the senile changes in different individuals make it impossible to establish a norm or standard for these changes." What then becomes of the entity entirely apart from maturity? The size of the book precludes an exhaustive analysis. There is much vague statement of hypotheses that produces a sense of confusion in the mind of the reader.