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Histological Typing of Odontogenic Tumours, Jaw Cysts and Allied Lesions
BOOK REVIEWS
261
essentially of chapters devoted to these subjects. There is no obvious advantage in ignoring the well-accepted and simpler Coombs and Gel1 classification in which clinical manifestations of hypersensitivity are divided into four types according to the mechanisms producing the responses. Surprisingly, there is no mention of thyroid disease in the book, and where auto-immunity is discussed, the examples chosen are ulcerative colitis and idiopathic Addison’s disease. I n these latter conditions the role of auto-immunity is disputed. ‘Haptenic Hypersensitivity’ is dealt with in a manner more superficial, vague and speculative than available knowledge warrants. Allowance must be made for an author writing in a foreign language. However, the editor should have attended to sentences such as ‘The pathogenetic effects of antigen-antibody complexes have recently become increasingly recognised in experiments and observations which confirm that circulating and extravascularly localised complexes are of decisive importance to structural and functional tissue damage in several clinical disorders’. The information which the book attempts to convey is already available in more lucid and thorough texts and so the present work cannot be recommended. A. E. Cronin
Histological Typing of Odontogenic Turnours, Jaw Cysts, and Allied Lesions,
J. J. Pindborg, I. R. H. Kramer & H. Torloni. 1971. World Health Organization, Geneva. 43 pp., 150 colour plates & 150 colour transparencies. Book and slides: El5, US $50.00. Book only: E3.60, US $12.00. Available through United Nations Association of Australia, Melbourne. The purpose of the volumes in this series is to ‘promote the adoption of a uniform terminology of tumours that will facilitate and improve communication among cancer workers’. A uniform terminology in the field of odontogenic tumours is greatly needed since nomenclature has probably given rise to more difficulty and confusion in this branch of tumour pathology than in any other. The system the authors put forward is more complex than those previously used; this is partly due to the introduction of new categories, but it seems to this reviewer that some simplifications could have been made with little danger of burying important distinctions. While it is commendable that the term ‘malignant’ should be confined to those tumours which experience has shown to be capable of metastasis, the commonest important question which arises in the diagnosis of odontogenic tumours is whether the lesion carries the danger of extensive local invasion. Hence it would seem desirable to segregate in a separate category ‘benign but invasive neoplasms’, rather than to leave them in a group which includes entirely benign and non-neoplastic lesions. The volume is generously illustrated with both excellent colour photomicrographs and wellreproduced radiographs. These, in addition to their intrinsic value, serve as a constant reminder that the diagnosis of lesions involving bone demands the collaboration of pathologist, radiologist and surgeon.
262
BOOK REVIEWS
Pathology (1973), 5, July
This is a valuable addition to the series and should have a place in every medical library and surgical pathology department. One can only echo the hope expressed in the preface that ‘in the interests of international co-operation all pathologists will try to use the classification as put forward’. A. A. Palmer
A Manual for Surgical Pathologists, Eugene Fazzini, Dudley Weber i 3 Elaine Waldo. 1972. Charles C Thomas, Springfield, Illinois. 99 pp. US $8.50. This small book describes the methods that are currently employed at the Bellevue Medical Center, New York in the preparation and processing of surgical specimens up to the stage of histological examination. After dealing briefly with aspects of the organization of a surgical pathology service, it is principally concerned with the ways in which various types of surgical specimens are described macroscopically and prepared for sectioning. Some procedures are new to this reviewer, such as the clearing of tissue containing lymph nodes prior to taking blocks, but the majority are not unusual. My main criticism of this book is that it is too concise to be of great value. Some chapters, such as those on the testes, say little more than that they may be received and should have sections made from several areas. Others, such as that on the prostate, might have been made clearer by the use of diagrams like those in the chapter on the skin. In addition, the book tends to use pathological jargon as in ‘. . . a radical neck dissection should be grossed as described . . .’, and is interspersed with many spelling mistakes. Despite these faults, the registrar starting histopathology might profit by reading this book. However, it is unlikely that he will later have much occasion to use it for reference. Ernest Finckh The Planning and Organization of a Health Laboratory Service. Fifth Report of the W H O Expert Committee on Health Laboratory Services. World Health Organization Technical Report Series No. 491. World Health Organization, Geneva. 36 pp. us $1 .oo. Available through Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra. This WHO Technical Report, devoted to health laboratory services, represents the views of an expert international committee on the laying down of guidelines for authorities in developing countries who might be faced with the problem of establishing such a service. Most members of the panel are directors of central laboratories in their own countries and the views advanced are sensible and authoritative. Their comment that serious errors in planning health laboratory services have been perpetrated in some quite highly developed countries is not without point. Indeed, one can only lament the fact that guidance of the sort offered in this little pamphlet was not available when some of our own health laboratory services were being developed.
261
essentially of chapters devoted to these subjects. There is no obvious advantage in ignoring the well-accepted and simpler Coombs and Gel1 classification in which clinical manifestations of hypersensitivity are divided into four types according to the mechanisms producing the responses. Surprisingly, there is no mention of thyroid disease in the book, and where auto-immunity is discussed, the examples chosen are ulcerative colitis and idiopathic Addison’s disease. I n these latter conditions the role of auto-immunity is disputed. ‘Haptenic Hypersensitivity’ is dealt with in a manner more superficial, vague and speculative than available knowledge warrants. Allowance must be made for an author writing in a foreign language. However, the editor should have attended to sentences such as ‘The pathogenetic effects of antigen-antibody complexes have recently become increasingly recognised in experiments and observations which confirm that circulating and extravascularly localised complexes are of decisive importance to structural and functional tissue damage in several clinical disorders’. The information which the book attempts to convey is already available in more lucid and thorough texts and so the present work cannot be recommended. A. E. Cronin
Histological Typing of Odontogenic Turnours, Jaw Cysts, and Allied Lesions,
J. J. Pindborg, I. R. H. Kramer & H. Torloni. 1971. World Health Organization, Geneva. 43 pp., 150 colour plates & 150 colour transparencies. Book and slides: El5, US $50.00. Book only: E3.60, US $12.00. Available through United Nations Association of Australia, Melbourne. The purpose of the volumes in this series is to ‘promote the adoption of a uniform terminology of tumours that will facilitate and improve communication among cancer workers’. A uniform terminology in the field of odontogenic tumours is greatly needed since nomenclature has probably given rise to more difficulty and confusion in this branch of tumour pathology than in any other. The system the authors put forward is more complex than those previously used; this is partly due to the introduction of new categories, but it seems to this reviewer that some simplifications could have been made with little danger of burying important distinctions. While it is commendable that the term ‘malignant’ should be confined to those tumours which experience has shown to be capable of metastasis, the commonest important question which arises in the diagnosis of odontogenic tumours is whether the lesion carries the danger of extensive local invasion. Hence it would seem desirable to segregate in a separate category ‘benign but invasive neoplasms’, rather than to leave them in a group which includes entirely benign and non-neoplastic lesions. The volume is generously illustrated with both excellent colour photomicrographs and wellreproduced radiographs. These, in addition to their intrinsic value, serve as a constant reminder that the diagnosis of lesions involving bone demands the collaboration of pathologist, radiologist and surgeon.
262
BOOK REVIEWS
Pathology (1973), 5, July
This is a valuable addition to the series and should have a place in every medical library and surgical pathology department. One can only echo the hope expressed in the preface that ‘in the interests of international co-operation all pathologists will try to use the classification as put forward’. A. A. Palmer
A Manual for Surgical Pathologists, Eugene Fazzini, Dudley Weber i 3 Elaine Waldo. 1972. Charles C Thomas, Springfield, Illinois. 99 pp. US $8.50. This small book describes the methods that are currently employed at the Bellevue Medical Center, New York in the preparation and processing of surgical specimens up to the stage of histological examination. After dealing briefly with aspects of the organization of a surgical pathology service, it is principally concerned with the ways in which various types of surgical specimens are described macroscopically and prepared for sectioning. Some procedures are new to this reviewer, such as the clearing of tissue containing lymph nodes prior to taking blocks, but the majority are not unusual. My main criticism of this book is that it is too concise to be of great value. Some chapters, such as those on the testes, say little more than that they may be received and should have sections made from several areas. Others, such as that on the prostate, might have been made clearer by the use of diagrams like those in the chapter on the skin. In addition, the book tends to use pathological jargon as in ‘. . . a radical neck dissection should be grossed as described . . .’, and is interspersed with many spelling mistakes. Despite these faults, the registrar starting histopathology might profit by reading this book. However, it is unlikely that he will later have much occasion to use it for reference. Ernest Finckh The Planning and Organization of a Health Laboratory Service. Fifth Report of the W H O Expert Committee on Health Laboratory Services. World Health Organization Technical Report Series No. 491. World Health Organization, Geneva. 36 pp. us $1 .oo. Available through Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra. This WHO Technical Report, devoted to health laboratory services, represents the views of an expert international committee on the laying down of guidelines for authorities in developing countries who might be faced with the problem of establishing such a service. Most members of the panel are directors of central laboratories in their own countries and the views advanced are sensible and authoritative. Their comment that serious errors in planning health laboratory services have been perpetrated in some quite highly developed countries is not without point. Indeed, one can only lament the fact that guidance of the sort offered in this little pamphlet was not available when some of our own health laboratory services were being developed.