Book reviews

Carey Schofield, Inside the Soviet Army. London: Headline Book Publishing, 240 pp., £19.95 hardback.

Karlernst Ziem, Afghanistan: Voraussetzungen und Chancen für eine Nichtmilitarische Losung des Konflikts (Perspectives and Chances for a Non‐military Resolution of the Conflict). Ebenhausen, Germany: Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, 105 pp.     

Post-mortem cooling of the human head: an infrared thermology study

The post-mortem cooling of the human head, over the first fifteen hours after death, was measured by infrared thermology. A detailed temperature map of the head and face was obtained by the use of image processing techniques and the cooling behaviour of twelve preselected facial features was observed. The two main findings of the study were a difference in cooling pattern between the upper and the lower part of the head, and a consistency in the cooling pattern of the lower part of the head in all the cases studied. A comparison of various model fits to the raw data was undertaken and the "best" bodies, models and features were determined on a statistical basis. The formula that best fitted the raw data was a novel double application of Newton's law. The features with the least error in data fitting were the chin and zygoma; that with the most error was the mouth.     

Federal antitrust jurisdiction in peer review cases: the Pinhas decision

In Summit Health Ltd. v. Pinhas, the United States Supreme Court by a narrow majority found that the exclusion of an ophthalmologist from a hospital in Los Angeles had a sufficient effect on interstate commerce to establish federal jurisdiction under the Sherman Act. In resolving a split among the federal circuit courts of appeal, the Court applied the broad jurisdictional test from McLain v. Real Estate Board of New Orleans, Inc. to peer review proceedings. Despite many ambiguities in the majority opinion by Justice Stevens and a scathing dissent by Justice Scalia, the effect of Pinhas will be to increase the suits in federal court on antitrust grounds brought by aggrieved medical staff members and applicants denied appointments or privileges, and to decrease, if not eliminate, the likelihood of preliminary dismissal on jurisdictional grounds. This, in turn, should serve to emphasize the importance of complying with the Health Care Quality Improvement Act in order to obtain immunity from damages under federal antitrust and state laws.