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Edited by the prolific Roy Porter and Mikulas Teich, the more accessible Drugs and Narcotics in History (Cambridge University Press, £30, ISBN 0 52143 163 8) looks at our drugged past and present in essays that examine the contested role of drugs – to heal or to give pleasure. They reveal a curious conservatism: the pharmacapoeia of the 13th and 18th centuries were recognisably the same. The pattern broke this century: 80 per cent of the medical drugs now used have appeared since the 1960s. But morality and medicine are still confused, begging us to question exactly what we mean by the word “proper” when we refer to the use of drugs. Replete with references, the book is a snapshot of modern historical concerns.