Essentials of Pathology

"Technics for the Investigation of Psychological Phenomena in the Rat" is particularly extensive with its summary of problem boxes, mazes, and related pieces of apparatus and technics. The list of references to literature at the end of this particular chapter totals 678. Another chapter worthy of mention in this connection is that entitled "Dosage of Drugs." Here one finds an extensive table covering 35 pages followed by a list of 447 citations of litera.-ture. The introductory discussion very properly mentions the difficulty involved in preparing such a table and the need for circumspection when using it. In writing a book of this sort each contributor must necessarily select what he believes to be most useful for a given situation, and in so doing he will have to omit mention of some matters that specialists in the field will desire. When so many persons collaborate, it is doubtless to be expected that the chapters will show a certain amount of unevenness with respect to adequacy of discussion and of material presented. This is well illustrated by the chapter on "Dietary Requirements." It presents a good general review and summary of the literature bearing on this topic, but nowhere in it did this reviewer find any reference to such practical matters as official USP and governmental methods for vitamin assay. Omission of this from a book devoted to practical technics for which rats are used seems unfortunate because many laboratory workers will expect to find these food assay methods covered here, or at least mentioned, but they will be disappointed. Everything considered, however, such shortcomings are relatively minor. This should prove to be a most useful volume in every research laboratory that uses the rat. Four years have elapsed since the publication of the fifth edition of this popular textbook of pathology. Frequent, though minor, revisions in text have necessitated resetting the book and this provided the opportunity to change the format. The pages of the present edition are printed in two columns, presumably as an aid in reading. One familiar with the previous edition will be thoroughly at home with this one, there being no changes in chapter sequence or in the number of chapters. Only that part of the book dealing with tumors has been extensively revised and has new material. This text still remains the only one which utilizes the case history method of presenting pathology. The first edition …