Verapamil, a potent calcium antagonist, possesses varied systemic effects, including smooth muscle relaxation leading to both peripheral and coronary artery vasodilation, slowed atrioventricular nodal conduction and decreased insulin release from the pancreatic B cells. Reports concerning the effects of acute intoxication with verapamil are scarce. A case is presented of a 22 year old woman who developed profound hyperglycemia and metabolic acidosis after the inadvertent overdose of thirty 80 mg tablets (2,400 mg) of verapamil. This case illustrates the need for physicians to be aware of verapamil's inhibitory effects on insulin release and to exercise special care when prescribing verapamil in patients with preexisting diabetes mellitus.

Just as multi-disciplinary studies are generally to be welcomed, so are studies in one discipline or subject undertaken by someone who specialises in another. Of course, it is a risky business for the writer, but more often than not brings dividends for the reader. Keith Ewing successfully brings a lawyer's eye to political funding in Britain, which might seem surprising given, as he points out, that the law in Britain has little to say on political parties or their financing.After presenting the available data on party income and existing controls over electoral expenditure, Ewing outlines the extent to which the state already subsidises parties through the compilation of the electoral register, the provision of free postal facilities, meetings in schools and election broadcasts, plus the grants to the opposition parties in Parliament and tax relief. The proposals for more extensive subsidies in the Houghton Report of 1976 and the Hansard Society study of 1981 are also outlined. Where appropriate useful comparative information from the experience of Canada, the Federal German Republic, New Zealand, the United States, and, more importantly, Sweden is provided.Ewing concludes that British political funding exhibits two major problems: first, a dependence on institutional money, and, second, financial inequality. This leads him to advocate that there should be greater accountability involving in particular more effective disclosure of party income and expenditure, the introduction of state funding on the Houghton model, and the extension of expenditure controls to national election campaigns. Political parties would need to be legally-defined and Ewing proposes the establishment of an Electoral Commission to gather relevant information, but not to enforce the law, which would be the responsibility of the normal law-enforcement agencies. No doubt political scientists and others would welcome the information gathered, but how effective controls would be remains open to question; Ewing's discussion of his proposed commission does not probe its efficacy at all deeply. Even so, political scientists should welcome this book not only for the wealth of information it contains, but of the opportunity of looking at an old subject through legal eyes.

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