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From the title alone and the well earned reputation of the author, the average physician might expect that here is the discussion he has been waiting for and has sorely needed—a final summation of the value of folic acid, the new and dramatic antianemic preparation that has been so well ballyhoo'd by detail men, written up in usual extravagant and inaccurate fashion by deKruif, and popularized in medical as well as in lay publications. Unfortunately, the present small volume fails to clear up several important questions.
Dr. Spies's attitude toward folic acid seems to lack objectivity. There is a bit too much of the missionary spirit of pushing on others one's own faith in a new mode of treatment. Some case reports suggest such dramatic and prompt response to folic acid as to smack of everyday testimonials for a patent medicine. These cases are insufficiently documented by details of clinical