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Patients with backache often present a difficult challenge for the physician, who often experiences feelings of helplessness in treating the pain. Reported here are discussions centering around different backache cases met in general practice, focusing particularly on the therapeutic difficulties encountered and the resistance to establishing a deep doctor-patient relationship. Recommendations are made for modifying certain medical attitudes, and reconciling physicians to their inevitable therapeutic limitations in such cases.

Allan W. Eister, ed. Changing Perspectives in the Scientific Study of Religion. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1974. xxii + 370 pp. Tables, figures, chapter notes, references, and index. $14.50.J. Stillson Judah. Hare Krishna and the Counterculture. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1974. xviii + 301 pp. Tables, figures, references, selected bibliography, glossary, appendix, and index. $14.95.B. Z. Sobel. Hebrew Christianity: The Thirteenth Tribe. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1974. xi + 413 pp. Chapter notes, bibliography, appendix, notes, references, and index. $12.50.Edward A. Tiryakian, ed. On the Margin of the Visible: Sociology, the Esoteric, and the Occult. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1974. xv + 364 pp. Notes, bibliography, and author index. $9.95.

The author presents the results of his innovative experience with a group of unique medical practitioners-industrial physicians-who appeared in some ways ideally suited to the Balint method of psychological instruction. Because the “work doctor” was, by definition, limited in his use of the traditional medical techniques available to his general practitioner colleagues, he would seem most potentially receptive to an opportunity to acquire new skills in the psychological “use of himself.”Some participants enthusiastically endorsed the experience, others felt dissatisfied with the “lack of structure and theoretical teaching” and still others, exhibiting some resistance to and denial of the relevance of psychological factors in their work, dropped out early.Detailed accounts and specific experiences of group members are described, and the author proffers his comments and conclusions.

The effect of nalidixic acid on the growth of various deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) bacteriophages has been investigated by one-step growth experiments. The Escherichia colibacteriophages T5, ?, T7 and fR are strongly inhibited by nalidixic acid, whereas T4 and T2 are only partially inhibited. The Bacillus subtilisbacteriophages SP82, SP50, and f29 are relatively unaffected by nalidixic acid. There is no correlation between those bacteriophages which can grow in the presence of nalidixic acid and the presence of an unusual base in the phage DNA.

With three independent techniques (absorption spectrophotometry, measurement of the deoxyribonucleic acid [DNA] melting temperature, and equilibrium dialysis), no evidence has been found for the binding of nalidixic acid to purified DNA. Also, no evidence has been found to support the hypothesis that nalidixic acid is permanently modified to a new, active compound by the bacterial cell. By using an in vitro DNA replication system developed by Bonhoeffer and colleagues, soluble extracts from nalidixic acid-sensitive cells have been shown to confer nalidixic acid sensitivity on the DNA synthesis of lysates from nalidixic acid-resistant cells. The activity in the extracts is only present in sensitive cells and is nondialyzable and heat sensitive. Finally, two known nalidixic acid-resistant mutants of Escherichia coli, mapping at nal Aand nal B, respectively, have been tested to determine whether either of them is a transport mutant. It has been shown that nal Bris a transport mutant whereas nal Aris not.

Presents the poem 'October 1.'