Alcohol and Alcoholism

Abstract

Bela Schick once observed that after 20 years scientists are no longer quoted in the medical literature. "Every 20 years sees a republication of the same ideas." If the generation gap in scientific communication is unfortunate, so, too, is the geographical gap—ie, the poor flow of information from country to country. International symposia help to bridge the gap, but only for those able to attend. An even more useful device is the book that often results from a symposium. The present volume consists of papers presented at the International Symposium on Alcohol and Alcoholism held in Santiago, Chile, in 1966. Authorities from more than a dozen countries participated. Although, as editor Robert Popham points out in the preface, alcohol studies on the Continent are fairly well known to American investigators, this is less true of similar studies conducted in Central and South America. The book performs a genuine service by