The Association of Clinical Pathologists

Reviewstopics is wide indeed, with Cori writing on carbohydrate metabolism, Enders on viruses, Castle on physiological advances stimulated by studies on anaemia, Bauer on rheumatic diseases, Aub on cancer and normal cell growth, and many others.The theme of the series of lectures is brilliantly illustrated and it is good to be reminded that medicine is not always the beneficiary in the relationship between itself and the basic sciences.The moral which emerges, however, is that the relation is essentially one of mutual dependence and, as Paul Weiss says, 'The meaning of setting the two apart, as if they were opposites or even separable, escapes me.Clinical investigation and biological research are integral parts of the same endeavour'.In the last chapter, Dubos, in a sombre contribution, points out that medical Utopias, no less than political Utopias, are likely to prove illusory and he warns that unless medical scientists are prepared to take the long view they 'may come to know the anguish that atomic scientists experienced as they watched the tragic effects of their scientific triumphs'.This is a book for every pathologist with a live interest in the relation between his work and the whole body of science.Most of it is easy to read, all of it is stimulating, and many of the contributions have the merit of posing more questions than they answer.F.