This is an attempt to evaluate the results of planned changes on a long-stay rehabilitation ward in a traditional mental hospital in England. The ward was housing a mixture of groups of patients of differing types and needs. The results of our study suggest that it is possible to improve patient care and staff morale on similar wards without extra staff, money or structural changes. Good planning, collaborative teamwork and dedication were the main tools.

The tendency of adult and child psychiatrists to go their separate ways has led to neglect of the common ground which exists between the psychopathology of childhood and that of the psychoses of adult life. The purpose of this paper is to rekindle interest in what once was regarded as an important field for research into the psychoses. In this paper the phenomena which are to be found in children who suffer from neurotic disorders, ‘borderline’ states and psychoses will be compared with the signs and symptoms of adult psychoses and the significance of the similarities assessed. In both children and adults the data to be presented consists of the symptomatology observable at the onset of the illness and the phenomena which appear during the course of the illness and during psychotherapy.

Medical Technology and Society: An interdisciplinary Perspective is published by the MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts (£15,95 (pb), £26.95 (hb), 571 pp., 1990). Its publication is sponsored by the Affred P. Sloan Foundation as part of a New Liberal Arts Program for undergraduates. The authors, Joseph D. Bronzino, Vincent H. Smith and Maurice L Wade, are university teachers-Bronzino and Wade at Trinity College, Hartford Connecticut, and Vincent Smith is Professor at Montana State University.

RECEPTION OF PATIENTS.

Orders.—In the case of a private patient, the order may be dated before or after the medical certificates, or either of them.