Atlas and Manual of Dermatology and Venereology

London Hospital has checked the manuscript from the point of view of the British reader. The result is excellent and indeed this is the best, low-priced skin atlas available in the English language today. The photographs are of an extraordinarily high standard and particularly is this true of the colour illustrations, most of which occupy a full page. Some of the illustrations, for example, Fig. 34 ringworm of the scalp, Fig. 45 carbuncle, Fig. 126 infantile eczema, and Fig. 146 lymphatic leukemia, are so good that one can truly say that if a student could memorise these photographs then he would have little difficulty in diagnosing these conditions as they occur in life. The disadvantage of an atlas is, of course, that the student does tend to memorise a photograph which usually has no depth and, when confronted with a patient with the same condition with slight variations, he fails to recognise the condition. In this atlas the excellence of the photography does in many instances compensate for "lack of depth." The black and white illustrations are not quite so good, but, nevertheless, they too are of a high standard. In many instances the histology of common skin diseases is included, and this is increasingly important for the student who wishes to understand the subject. The text is simply and clearly written under standard headings. It would perhaps prove a little-uninteresting to a good student since the conditions are dealt with in a rather stereotyped manner as simple descriptions of one reaction or another, and there is no real effort made to show the importance of regarding dermatology as a part of general medicine and not as a subject "out on a limb." It is mainly on recommendations regarding treatment that one might differ from the views expressed by the authors, but for the most part these differences are of emphasis and essentially indicate the differences in treatment used on the Continent and in this country. One would, perhaps, for example, quibble about the recommended use of vaccines for boils, anti-histamine ointment for flea-bites, X-ray therapy for plantar warts, but one would object strongly to systemic aureomycin for molluscum contagiosum, and the statement that "electro-surgical or surgical removal" is necessary for the treatment of anthrax of the skin is certainly incorrect today. At the end of the book there are several very useful tables giving selected common contact allergens and …