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World War II gave great impetus to the idea that our knowledge of anatomy and physiology might be applied to improve the efficiency of workers at various military and industrial tasks. The present volume is an attempt to apply such knowledge to the improvement of one of the arts of peace, namely violin-playing. After declaring his allegiance to Gestalt psychology and related neurophysiological theories, the principal author enumerates current ideas of "work physiology" which he considers relevant to his thesis; there follows an interesting historical account of the theories of such great masters as Leopold Mozart, Paganini, and Spohr. Finally, he gives his own theories, which include studies of violin performances conducted with simultaneous recording from implanted EMG needles. The collaborating author has added a competent, if unexciting, review of neurophysiology. It is easy to be skeptical about such painstaking work in areas which are usually thought to be the