- Email: [email protected]
Ossa reperta
more recent forensic cases are cited, often little or no supporting toxicological or biochemical data are included to increase the value of the anecdotal material. In addition, it is surely irrelevant and inappropriate, for example, to present the clinical course of a case of salicylate poisoning (case no. 1) treated "before the advent of forced alkaline diuresis, peritoneal or haemodialysis". The practising clinician would be better served by a case history which demonstrated what might be achieved if the pathophysiology of salicylate poisoning was understood and appropriate treatment implemented. Despite the above criticisms I am sure that 'Polson' will remain an important reference work for the practising pathologist or physician when faced by an unusual case of poisoning. The book is attractively produced and well referenced and is remarkably comprehensive though not always detailed. However, in the reviewer's opinion this text will not meet the needs of the junior doctor or casualty officer, for whom it is both too expensive and insufficiently detailed regarding the poisons most commonly encountered in everyday clinical practice in the 1980s. J A VALE
OSSA REPERTA
Found: Human Remains: a Field Manual for the Recovery of the Recent Human Skeleton Mark Skinner and Richard Lazenby (Archaeology Press, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia; 1983, 192 pp., ISBN 0 86491 035 5, No price stated) This rather unusual book is the product of the excursions of two professional archeologists into the field of forensic pathology. The book is unusual both for its format and content: it is a large A4 size with a plastic gripper binding. Its 192 pages are justified typewritten litho but are quite acceptable to the eye as are the sixty or so diagrams and photographs. The content is meant more for the field officer than the scientist, being mainly concerned with methods of recovery of the remains rather than with the anatomical minutiae of the identification process. As the authors themselves say in their Preface, they are trying to fill the gap between the police and the academic. They endeavour to describe how bones should be recovered and transported to the laboratory and then explain what a forensic anthropologist hopes to learn from them, rather than offer an exhaustive account of how he does it. With these ends in view, the text and illustrations go on to show how recovery is performed, with a detailed account of excavation, grid mapping, removal, cataloguing and transportation. This is a most valuable section, based on established archaeological procedures. The often haphazard--one might even say "smash and grabv-methods used in forensic situations, are
exposed as a poor substitute for a properly planned and executed removal. The rest of the book is devoted to a wide-ranging, though necessarily rather superficial, account of identification factors, the hardy old annuals of race, sex, age, stature etc. being given the treatment. However, on p 55, a novel approach is offered, in that a new strategy for identification is proposed in which a type of statistical matching is made between the gathered data from the bones and the possible matches with known missing persons in the area. Though this is the object of any identification process, the authors have put it on a more systematic basis and those forensic scientists with a bent towards "joint probability theory" will enjoy these manoeuvres. There are many peripheral matters discussed, such as etymology of bony remains, some botanical considerations and some practical appendices about the personnel, equipment, and documentation needed during bone hunting. A good book for SOCOs, detectives, and any interested policemen, but one which forensic scientists themselves need not feel is too elementary for them: indeed, to paraphrase the authors again, they hope that the law officer and the academic will share in the recovery process, to their mutual benefit. BERNARD KNIGHT ECCE THESAURUS
Exotica W St Clair Symmers (Oxford University Press, 1984, 226 pp., ISBN 0 19 261225 5 , £8-95) Exotica is the sequel to Curiosa and to the unfamiliar is a further collection of unique, unusual, and always instructive cases collected by Professor Symmers. As the title implies, the cases recorded in this book concentrate upon those with an exotic background which at first usually escaped the patients' medical attendants. It also includes cases which go far to show that nothing is impossible in medicine. Exotica is essentially for pathologists, although physicians and surgeons would also benefit from perusing the pages. Much is written in a light and amusing vein which caused the reviewer much uncontrolled mirth. However, each case, or group of cases, however amusingly presented, carries a lesson and also important pathological teaching. Those of us who have been delighted by hearing the author at first hand describe some of his Curiosa et Exotica will be grateful to him for producing the "camera-ready" copy himself to enable its publication at a price which can be afforded by the pathologist. They will be delighted by his slating of neologisms which have become part and parcel of modern medical terminology and never more than the less accurate and sometimes misleading modern synonyms for pseudotuberculoma silicoticum. Exotica is a must for all pathologists, especially those who appreciate
OSSA REPERTA
Found: Human Remains: a Field Manual for the Recovery of the Recent Human Skeleton Mark Skinner and Richard Lazenby (Archaeology Press, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia; 1983, 192 pp., ISBN 0 86491 035 5, No price stated) This rather unusual book is the product of the excursions of two professional archeologists into the field of forensic pathology. The book is unusual both for its format and content: it is a large A4 size with a plastic gripper binding. Its 192 pages are justified typewritten litho but are quite acceptable to the eye as are the sixty or so diagrams and photographs. The content is meant more for the field officer than the scientist, being mainly concerned with methods of recovery of the remains rather than with the anatomical minutiae of the identification process. As the authors themselves say in their Preface, they are trying to fill the gap between the police and the academic. They endeavour to describe how bones should be recovered and transported to the laboratory and then explain what a forensic anthropologist hopes to learn from them, rather than offer an exhaustive account of how he does it. With these ends in view, the text and illustrations go on to show how recovery is performed, with a detailed account of excavation, grid mapping, removal, cataloguing and transportation. This is a most valuable section, based on established archaeological procedures. The often haphazard--one might even say "smash and grabv-methods used in forensic situations, are
exposed as a poor substitute for a properly planned and executed removal. The rest of the book is devoted to a wide-ranging, though necessarily rather superficial, account of identification factors, the hardy old annuals of race, sex, age, stature etc. being given the treatment. However, on p 55, a novel approach is offered, in that a new strategy for identification is proposed in which a type of statistical matching is made between the gathered data from the bones and the possible matches with known missing persons in the area. Though this is the object of any identification process, the authors have put it on a more systematic basis and those forensic scientists with a bent towards "joint probability theory" will enjoy these manoeuvres. There are many peripheral matters discussed, such as etymology of bony remains, some botanical considerations and some practical appendices about the personnel, equipment, and documentation needed during bone hunting. A good book for SOCOs, detectives, and any interested policemen, but one which forensic scientists themselves need not feel is too elementary for them: indeed, to paraphrase the authors again, they hope that the law officer and the academic will share in the recovery process, to their mutual benefit. BERNARD KNIGHT ECCE THESAURUS
Exotica W St Clair Symmers (Oxford University Press, 1984, 226 pp., ISBN 0 19 261225 5 , £8-95) Exotica is the sequel to Curiosa and to the unfamiliar is a further collection of unique, unusual, and always instructive cases collected by Professor Symmers. As the title implies, the cases recorded in this book concentrate upon those with an exotic background which at first usually escaped the patients' medical attendants. It also includes cases which go far to show that nothing is impossible in medicine. Exotica is essentially for pathologists, although physicians and surgeons would also benefit from perusing the pages. Much is written in a light and amusing vein which caused the reviewer much uncontrolled mirth. However, each case, or group of cases, however amusingly presented, carries a lesson and also important pathological teaching. Those of us who have been delighted by hearing the author at first hand describe some of his Curiosa et Exotica will be grateful to him for producing the "camera-ready" copy himself to enable its publication at a price which can be afforded by the pathologist. They will be delighted by his slating of neologisms which have become part and parcel of modern medical terminology and never more than the less accurate and sometimes misleading modern synonyms for pseudotuberculoma silicoticum. Exotica is a must for all pathologists, especially those who appreciate