Electrolyte Metabolism in Severe Infantile Malnutrition

This outstanding new British book of systemic pathology is bound to make a profound impact on the pathologists and medical students of our generation.It combines the classic approach to pathology with a very modern outlook and presentation which makes both reading and reference work easy and pleasurable.Because of the size of the work it is produced in two volumes.Tragically, the senior author died while the book was in its earliest stages and his contributions are, therefore, limited to an opening chapter on the heart and a chapter written jointly with Dr B. E. Heard on the lungs.The second author had to bear the heavy load of responsibility of editing the massive work but found time to write excellent chapters on the lymphoreticular system of the thymus gland and the breast, as well as being part author of the sections on gynaecological pathology.These carry the usual very high standards of illustration which we have come to expect from Professor Symmers.The stamp of the editors is, however, also clearly imprinted on all the contributions.These are of varying degrees of excellence and one or two chapters will need revision and rewriting perhaps more quickly than others.How- ever, this is in a sense a minor criticism because, as we understand it, the aim of the editors was to present the overall picture of pathology as practised today.While pathology and laboratory medicine in general are under- going such rapid advances, a critic could always find something in his own particular field which he would have written differently or with a slightly varied orien- tation.The book is as up to date as is possible in such volumes, in spite of the time it has taken to put it together.Occasionally minor subjects are mentioned in more than one chapter; these discussions do not always agree in detail and different terminology may be used.The value and importance of this book will be assessed, however, by pathologists who take a broad view of the