BOOK REVIEWS

tics; in the second half it provides twenty gram involving high school boys with young- the request for a clinical trial for Krebiozen.
case studies with controversy, alternatives, er ones, and the "incentive specialist" pro- The grounds for rejection of Krebiozen were
and the asking of value questions. Examples gram which placed paraprofessionals in se- that, for specific sites of cancer, it was de-
of case study themes are: pesticides, birth lected seventh grade classrooms. The book monstrably less effective than accepted med-
control, noise, nuclear wastes, heavy met- ends with a personal and philosophical over- ical practice and thus prevented patients
als, solid wastes, the automobile, and food view. It contains an amusing glossary. "rev- from receiving the best available mode of
additives. Forty-nine reviewers pored over erent and irreverent," which, like the whole therapy.
small and large segments of the material to approach, is free of pomp and jargon. The author maintains that the missing
assure accuracy and up-to-dateness. More- The book repays careful reading. Al- food nutrient is part of the nitriloside family
over, opposing arguments about con- though clearly written, it is densely packed, which is found particularly in the seeds of
troversial subjects are intentionally includ- and takes time. There are gems of wisdom the fruit family containing bitter almond,
ed. It was designed as a college text-but and refreshing light touches, but the true sto- apricot, etc. It is also contained in grasses,
better than most-and would be useful for ry of eight years of gradual innovation maize, sorghum, millet and other foods gen-
us to assign or have available to discuss with doesn't read like a novel. The authors dis- erally not plentiful in the modern diet.
all undergraduate and graduate students with pute the common shibboleth in mental The theory behind the claimed anti-car-
which we work. It lists 2500 references health "that the expression of feelings under cinogenic activity of vitamin B,7 is as fol-
for even more detailed information on a spe- any and all circumstances is a general men- lows: Cancer is an over-healing process.
cific subject. Certainly it should be in our li- tal health vitamin." Thank goodness! Lay- The body normally produces trophoblast
braries. In fact its greatest weakness is sim- ing another myth to rest: "the paraprofes- cells to overcome specific damage to or to
ply that it is not published in paperback. Yet sional is interested in theory. She is inter- prevent the aging of normal tissues. How-
this monumental interdisciplinary text is ested in the "why" behind behavior.... ever, under certain conditions, the tropho-
well worth the price and the time. The professional who teaches and works blast cells are allowed to undergo uncon-
Paul H. Witt with paraprofessionals had best be ready to trolled proliferation. One condition is when
Occupational Health Section shed his use of jargon for the nakedness of the pancreas is weak; the other is when the
common words. Nakedness is embarassing kinds of foods we eat consume all of the pan-
and liberating at the same time. Making creatic enzymes for their digestion. The role
ourselves vulnerable in any relationship in- of the pancreatic enzymes in cancer control
vites and challenges the same possibility in is to digest away the electronically-charged
another." (p. 163). protein coat covering the trophoblast cell
With this book in hand, no one can say thus exposing it to the white blood cells for
On Behalf of Children, William Hetz- any more that we lack program ideas for chil- disposal. According to the author, the B1,
necker and Marc A. Forman. NY: dren iri mental health centers, or that consul- moleciUle contains four components: two
Grune & Stratton, 1974, 232 pp, $9.75 tation is too vague a concept, or that para- units of glucose, a unit of benzaldehyde and
paperback. professional training is too difficult. The au- orle of cyanide. These last two compounds
thors did what they did the hard way, and act synergistically against the cancer cell
Written by two child psychiatrists they made headway for the rest of us. They and only the cancer cell contains an enzyme
about their hard-won programs in the first watched the social programs of the sixties which breaks down this B17 molecule. Of
decade of Community Mental Health, this shrink away, but their work was always an course, this is only one of several theories of
book is a landmark in the application of pub- uphill struggle and its story will have value the mechanism of carcinogenesis.
lic health principles to child development in for a long, long time. The rest of Part I emphasizes the relative
a high risk community. As such it com- E. James Lieberman, MD, MPH failure of conventional cancer therapy, (radi-
mands the respect of those who work in so- ation, surgery and chemotherapy), to
cial welfare, education, and corrections as achieve significant remission rates and the
well as the obvious audience in health and markedly reduced quality of life which re-
clinical behavioral sciences. sults from such therapy. Part II is devoted to
In the preface the authors declare that the politics of cancer therapy and cancer re-
"an integrated curriculum including the search and of the organizations like the
sweep of social science from history and an-
World Without Cancer; The Story of Vita- Food and Drug Administration, American
thropology to social psychology and public min B17. G. Edward Griffin. American Cancer Society and the American Medical
administration are more important in the for- Media, Thousand Oaks, CA, 1974, Association which are opposed to the nutri-
mation of the mind of a physician than cell Parts I-II, 526 pages. tional concept of the etiology of cancer. The
biology or gross anatomy." They experi- author accepts the "conspiracy" theory,
enced and thought a great deal about com- This book is written as an endorsement of i.e. that policy-rtiakers in the medical, phar-
mon. garden-variety problems of people in a Laetrile, which is also known as Vitamin maceutical, research and fund-raising orga-
part of Philadelphia where there are no gar- B,7, as a possible prophylactic and therapeu- nizations deliberately or unconsciously
dens. Listening hard and talking straight to tic agent against cancer. Laetrile is currently strive not to prevent or cure cancer in order
parents, children, teachers, official and unof- banned by the FDA in the United States for to perpetuate their functions.
ficial helpers, bureaucratic yea-and-nay anti-cancer use. Unfortunately, in evaluating the scientific
sayers these relatively young pioneers dis- The stated hypothesis is that cancer, like quality of the book, one must state that the
play their rosy visions, their almost perfect scurvy or pellagra. is a deficiency disease use of the anecedotal reports of remissions
hindsight, and an occasional black eye. caused by the lack of an essential food ele- makes it virtually impossible to justify a
The book is divided into sections on ment in the modern diet, specifically B1,7. Al- proper clinical trial of Laetrile. Also, there
clinical services, consultation. and new man- though it was not necessary for the purpose is no objective presentation of the results of
power resources. The first part describes the of this exposition. the author also defends valid animal experiments which have dem-
change of a traditional child guidance clinic the unaccepted anti-cancer drug, Krebio- onstrated the efficiency of this compound.
into a child and family program in a commu- zen. (Yet, Krebiozen and Laetrile have noth- Although the book is an emotional plea for
nity mental health center. The second part in in common.) It should be stated that this the unrestricted use of the Laetrile as an an-
explicates the consultation process in reviewer, at the time that Krebiozen was ti-tumor agent, the scientific evidence to jus-
schools, a day diagnostic center. and a de- being evaluated over a decade ago, was tify such a policy does not appear within it.
partment of public welfare. The third sec- Head of the Laboratory and Clinical Trials Emanuel Landau, Ph.D.
tion takes up parent education. mental Section of the National Cancer Institute and APHA Environmental Health Hazards
health assistants. the "'Black Brother" pro- a member of the panel which disapproved Project Director

696 AJPH, July, 1976, Vol. 66, No. 7