Clinical Diagnosis by Laboratory Examinations

This-work may be regarded as a companion volume of Kolmer and Boerner's Applied Laboratory Technique. Hence, details of procedure are for the most part not given, except for an appended section of 140 pages which will undoubtedly prove valuable for those not having ready access to the previous elaborate text. The subject matter is treated from two points of view, mutually complementary. In the first part, the clinical interpretation of laboratory examinations is taken up. These cover virtually the entire armamentarium at the disposal of the physician-blood, urine, and stool analysis , blood chemistry, tolerance and other tests of special function, bacteriological, serological, parasitological, and toxicological examinations, skin tests, hormone and vitamin assays, and many more. In Part II, the emphasis is reversed in that the material is presented by diseases, and the details of the relevant laboratory examinations are discussed. The compilation of this vast amount of diverse material by a single author lends the volume a cohesiveness and unicity of point of view which would have been difficult to achieve had it been the work of many. On the other hand, it is inevitable that not all of the material is presented with equal effect. Thus, in the consideration of amebiasis, it seems that the author has not given emphasis to some laboratory data which would be of considerable practical value to the clinician. There is no mention of the correlation of type of stool and stage of the parasite, no consideration of cyclic excretion of cysts, and no discussion of the importance of methods of concentration, and the significance of a negative examination. Again, in the section on pulmonary tuberculosis, gastric aspiration is dismissed very casually, and nothing is said to draw attention to the singularly important position this procedure has recently attained. Although one may find valid grounds for differing with the author at many points, the volume does give the physician an up-to-date and clear reference source for a vast amount of vital information essential for the practice of medicine. The summary tables may prove particularly useful for rapid reference. It is, to say the least, no small task to prepare a book on microscopic technic which attempts to incorporate the more recent methods and which at the same time is broad enough to satisfy most of the workers who wish to dig out what they want directly and quickly. To accomplish this in a …