NEURAL ORGANIZATION AND ITS RELEVANCE TO PROSTHETICS

NEURAL ORGANIZATION AND ITS RELEVANCE TO PROSTHETICS Edited by W. S. Fields. (Pp. 390; illustrated; $1795.) International Medical Book Corporation: London. 1973. This volume, which is based on an undated Houston Neurological Symposium, covers a much wider field than its title would suggest, and includes neuromuscular stimulation, alleviation of pain, and the control of the urinary bladder. In spite of the statements in the first paper that 'the future holds no limits-the blind will see, the deaf will hear, the paralysed will walk and use their arms', one is rather depressed by the lack of impressive results. The strong impression which is gained is that most of the hardware described seems to take advantage of only one particular aspect or manifestation of neural arrangement or activity, rather than attempting to match the organization of the neural system. Electromyographic control of prostheses, for example, without the normal afferent is, after more than 25 years, still far from satisfactory and yet, as one of the contributors said, 'we are moving toward more and more complex types of myo-electric control without really solving the problems of multiple types of motor control, which are needed'. The book is nevertheless a very useful collection of material and does reflect the state of the art, and although the references mostly relate to the individual papers rather than to the general aspects of each section, they would form a good basis for a literature search. In general, the book is well produced but it is a pity that poor type is sometimes used, even in the preface, that the last 13 lines on page 387 have been transposed to the top of the page, making the panel discussion more difficult to follow, and that little editorial attempt seems to have been made to standardize the units used, with pps and pulses per second, with cps, cycles per second, Hz and Hertz, and with decimals and fractions all appearing. And I am sure Dr Pierre Rabishon (p. 27) spells his name Rabischong.