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Pathologic Physiology: Mechanisms of Disease
Pathology (1977), 9, pp. 361-70
BOOK REVIEWS The Excretory Function of Bile, R. L. SMITH. 1973. Chapman & Hall, London. A$14.00.
In Section I, the factors governing biliary excretion of endogenous and foreign compounds are reviewed. There is a short historical introduction and a brief coverage of liver anatomy and bile production. With extensive use of examples and illustrations, the author has considered influences of various physio-chemical proprieties of compounds on their excretion in the bile, and the various metabolic processes involved in biliary excretion. There are further short sections covering species variation in biliary elimination of differing compounds, several theories of the mechanisms involved in biliary excretion, and the implications of biliary excretion and enterohepatic circulation on the pharmacological effects and toxicity of foreign compounds. Section I1 reviews a large body of information on a wide variety ofcompounds, principally exogenous, which are subject to biliary excretion. The compounds are grouped broadly according to their chemical structures and, again with extensive use of illustrations, the metabolic and excretory fates of these compounds are discussed. This book covers many aspects of the excreting function of bile in a clear and concise fashion, as well as bringing together between one set of covers a useful collection of information on the hepatic metabolism and biliary excretion of a wide range of compounds of biological interest. G. T. Benness Pathologic Physiology: Mechanisms of Disease, 5th Edition, eds WILLIAM A. JR & WILLIAM A. SODEMAN. 1974. SODEMAN, W. B. Saunders, Philadelphia, London, Toronto. 1013 pp., illustrated. A$25.00.
This fifth edition of Pathologic Physiology has been completely revised in an attempt to encompass the numerous recent advances in medical science. The outcome is a volume contributed to by 43 authors. But even with allowance for the inevitable variation in quality of text and illustration when so many authors are involved, the revised edition is disappointing. Of the five sections the best are I and 11. Section I deals with fundamental aspects of metabolic biochemistry, molecular biology, medical genetics, and immunobiology, concluding with a chapter on immunodeficiency diseases and tumour immunobiology. Section I1 deals with the cardiorenal and respiratory systems and there is a noticeable variation in the treatment of the various anatomical systems; eight chapters are devoted to the cardiovascular system, but only a single short chapter to renal disease, one chapter to pulmonary ventilation and blood gas exchange, and one (22 pages, without diagrams) to
362
BOOK REVIEWS
Pathology (1077). 9, October
protective mechanisms of the lungs, and pulmonary and pleural diseases. The reason for the editorial arrangement of the topics in Section 111 eludes me. The section deals in order with rheumatology (38 pages), allergy ( 12 pages), microbial infection (three chapters, 64 pages), haematological disorders (a comprehensive chapter of 154 pages), and spleen and reticuloendothelial system (29 pages). Section IV does not make up for what has preceded it, despite its two quite interesting chapters on the small and large intestine. The oesophagus rates 12 pages, whereas the stomach is dismissed in 25; and neither organ is considered to warrant even a single explanatory diagram. The chapters on gallbladder and pancreas are also inadequate. Section IV concludes with chapters on nutrition and endocrinology; Section V deals with the effects of physical and chemical agents. It is hard to understand why a textbook so large as this, gives such summary coverage, e.g. to glomerulonephritis, and makes no reference at all to the APUD system of cells. There is a very real need for textbooks that do achieve what the preface indicates to be the goal of the present book--viz., the interpretation of the clinical picture of disease in terms of the pathogenesis of the associated physiological dysfunction. The task is probably too large for a single volume of reasonable size, and is achieved in this textbook for only two of the anatomical systems. D. L. Wilhefni
Electronic Biology and Cancer: A New Theory qf‘ Cancer, ALBERTSZENTGYORGYI.1976. Marcel Dekker Inc., New York. 128 pp., illustrated. US$13.50. This book reactivated the view that to understand cancer we must understand the mechanisms of the regulation of cell division and what makes a cancer cell continue to divide when no proliferation is needed. The author proposes that the essential feature of living matter is the organization of molecules into structures and that there are reversible reactions involving transfer of electrons from proteins to establish a state in which cell division cannot occur. For cell division to occur this situation must be reversed. The author suggests that dicarbonyls provide a suitable electron acceptor for this change and that the glyoxalase enzyme system, present in all living cells but the function of which is not known, is concerned with the regulation of this change. The hypothesis is proposed that in cancer cells this electron transport system is absent and that damage to the glyoxalase system may be a factor in its causation. The basis for this electronic theory as the basis for the control of cell division is not discussed in depth and is too vague for the average biologist. The author provides little experimental evidence and the discussion is philosophical rather than critical so that lines of future research are not clearly indicated. Theories ofcancer come and go and it is probable that each of them contains a grain of truth. Only progress will sort out the grains. The statement that research into the nature of cancer is in a state of ‘complete stagnation’ surely cannot be maintained today. The author does not discuss the vast amount of work currently in progress in many places on the control of cell division, and one wonders if the involvement of DNA in electronic changes of the type discussed has been considered. A . W. Pound
BOOK REVIEWS The Excretory Function of Bile, R. L. SMITH. 1973. Chapman & Hall, London. A$14.00.
In Section I, the factors governing biliary excretion of endogenous and foreign compounds are reviewed. There is a short historical introduction and a brief coverage of liver anatomy and bile production. With extensive use of examples and illustrations, the author has considered influences of various physio-chemical proprieties of compounds on their excretion in the bile, and the various metabolic processes involved in biliary excretion. There are further short sections covering species variation in biliary elimination of differing compounds, several theories of the mechanisms involved in biliary excretion, and the implications of biliary excretion and enterohepatic circulation on the pharmacological effects and toxicity of foreign compounds. Section I1 reviews a large body of information on a wide variety ofcompounds, principally exogenous, which are subject to biliary excretion. The compounds are grouped broadly according to their chemical structures and, again with extensive use of illustrations, the metabolic and excretory fates of these compounds are discussed. This book covers many aspects of the excreting function of bile in a clear and concise fashion, as well as bringing together between one set of covers a useful collection of information on the hepatic metabolism and biliary excretion of a wide range of compounds of biological interest. G. T. Benness Pathologic Physiology: Mechanisms of Disease, 5th Edition, eds WILLIAM A. JR & WILLIAM A. SODEMAN. 1974. SODEMAN, W. B. Saunders, Philadelphia, London, Toronto. 1013 pp., illustrated. A$25.00.
This fifth edition of Pathologic Physiology has been completely revised in an attempt to encompass the numerous recent advances in medical science. The outcome is a volume contributed to by 43 authors. But even with allowance for the inevitable variation in quality of text and illustration when so many authors are involved, the revised edition is disappointing. Of the five sections the best are I and 11. Section I deals with fundamental aspects of metabolic biochemistry, molecular biology, medical genetics, and immunobiology, concluding with a chapter on immunodeficiency diseases and tumour immunobiology. Section I1 deals with the cardiorenal and respiratory systems and there is a noticeable variation in the treatment of the various anatomical systems; eight chapters are devoted to the cardiovascular system, but only a single short chapter to renal disease, one chapter to pulmonary ventilation and blood gas exchange, and one (22 pages, without diagrams) to
362
BOOK REVIEWS
Pathology (1077). 9, October
protective mechanisms of the lungs, and pulmonary and pleural diseases. The reason for the editorial arrangement of the topics in Section 111 eludes me. The section deals in order with rheumatology (38 pages), allergy ( 12 pages), microbial infection (three chapters, 64 pages), haematological disorders (a comprehensive chapter of 154 pages), and spleen and reticuloendothelial system (29 pages). Section IV does not make up for what has preceded it, despite its two quite interesting chapters on the small and large intestine. The oesophagus rates 12 pages, whereas the stomach is dismissed in 25; and neither organ is considered to warrant even a single explanatory diagram. The chapters on gallbladder and pancreas are also inadequate. Section IV concludes with chapters on nutrition and endocrinology; Section V deals with the effects of physical and chemical agents. It is hard to understand why a textbook so large as this, gives such summary coverage, e.g. to glomerulonephritis, and makes no reference at all to the APUD system of cells. There is a very real need for textbooks that do achieve what the preface indicates to be the goal of the present book--viz., the interpretation of the clinical picture of disease in terms of the pathogenesis of the associated physiological dysfunction. The task is probably too large for a single volume of reasonable size, and is achieved in this textbook for only two of the anatomical systems. D. L. Wilhefni
Electronic Biology and Cancer: A New Theory qf‘ Cancer, ALBERTSZENTGYORGYI.1976. Marcel Dekker Inc., New York. 128 pp., illustrated. US$13.50. This book reactivated the view that to understand cancer we must understand the mechanisms of the regulation of cell division and what makes a cancer cell continue to divide when no proliferation is needed. The author proposes that the essential feature of living matter is the organization of molecules into structures and that there are reversible reactions involving transfer of electrons from proteins to establish a state in which cell division cannot occur. For cell division to occur this situation must be reversed. The author suggests that dicarbonyls provide a suitable electron acceptor for this change and that the glyoxalase enzyme system, present in all living cells but the function of which is not known, is concerned with the regulation of this change. The hypothesis is proposed that in cancer cells this electron transport system is absent and that damage to the glyoxalase system may be a factor in its causation. The basis for this electronic theory as the basis for the control of cell division is not discussed in depth and is too vague for the average biologist. The author provides little experimental evidence and the discussion is philosophical rather than critical so that lines of future research are not clearly indicated. Theories ofcancer come and go and it is probable that each of them contains a grain of truth. Only progress will sort out the grains. The statement that research into the nature of cancer is in a state of ‘complete stagnation’ surely cannot be maintained today. The author does not discuss the vast amount of work currently in progress in many places on the control of cell division, and one wonders if the involvement of DNA in electronic changes of the type discussed has been considered. A . W. Pound