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The Story that is Printed in Her Blood
survey for him is one on coronary artery disease entitled the Pathogenesis and the Reversal of Atherosclerosis. Profit would also be had from the chapter on the Intensive Care Unit and the Pathology of Progress, in which is found a little material on fat and marrow emboli, and on traumatic brain damage. This chapter concludes with a thoughtful suggestion that, in cases dying in hospital following trauma, a few autopsies conducted as part of a full-scale clinicopathological conference might yield information of more value than would a larger series of more superficial examinations designed largely to discover the extent and nature of the injuries incurred. The chapter on Normal Values in Pathology has little for the morbid anatomist although more for the clinical pathologist, and most of the remaining chapters, excellent though many of them are in text and all of them are in illustration, concern the forensic pathologist only marginally. D. F. Barrowcliff HEREDITY I N DERMATOGLYPHICS
T h e Genetics of D e r m a l Ridges Sarah B. Holt (Charles C. Thomas, S+ringfield, Ill., 1968, 195 pp., $15.75) Dr. Holt, who works in the Galton Laboratory of University College, London, following in the footsteps of its founder, Sir Francis Galton, has herself materially contributed to the genetical investigation of dermal ridges and her book deals mainly with this aspect as well as with the effects of chromosomal abnormalities on ridge patterns and counts ; nevertheless parts of the book are of interest to the criminologist. He may, for instance, be reassured when learning that the "minutiae"-a term coined by Galton and comprizing such irregularities as branchings, enclosures, short ridges and islands are not much more similar between identical twins, than between unrelated people-while "counts" and "patterns" are. Abnormal prints of the palms or soles concomitant with chromosomal syndromes are characteristic for certain malformations, e:g., ectrodactyly or polydactyly, and may very occasionally help t o pin-point or alternatively to exclude a suspected person ; detectives ought to be aware of such possibilities. Within the normal range unidentified dermal ridges may occasionally through their characteristics provide the forensic investigator with estimates of probabilities concerning his guesses and these could be based on the data in Dr. Holt's book. Rut the evidence as yet will rarely be good enough H. Kalmus for a Court of Law. THE STORY THAT IS PRINTED IN HER BLOOD
Blood Grouping Tests. Medicolegal Uses Sussman, Leon N., M.D. (Charles C . Thomas, Springfield, Ill., 1968 ; 121 p@., index, $9.75) The purpose of this book is stated to be to give an account of the theoretical principles, the practical procedures and the useful applications of blood grouping tests. As would be expected from the distinguished author, this aim has been adequately and authoritatively achieved. The compact description of the various blood group systems with attention paid to the pitfalls and known peculiarities of each will be of value to those approaching the subject for the first time, and to those wishing to refresh the memory. There is also a good citation of source material. Yet although the book claims to give special attention to the medico-legal applications of blood grouping, the treatment of this aspect is disappointing, a t any rate from the point of view of the practising lawyer. There is no reference whatever to the extent to which blood grouping tests have proved acceptable in the law courts, nor is any advice given as to how actual problems may be brought to decision by means of blood grouping tests.
In short, the book approaches the medico-legal use of blood tests from the theoretical scientific standpoint rather than from the practical legal side. For all that, the book will be a welcome addition to the texts which describe this speciality. Now that blood grouping is practised in English Courts and a new statutory field of blood grouping is about to be put into operation it could be that this book would help those who find themselves faced with acquiring a background knowledge of blood grouping in order to understand how blood groups work and the methods which experts use. The only statement in the book which could be critikised is to be found on page 98 where it is said that an exclusion in more than one blood group system carries no greater significance than a single exclusion. While of course an exclusion is an exclusion, the confirmation afforded by a second independent means serves to corroborate and rule out any suggestion of mutation or undisclosed peculiarity accounting for the result. Alistair R. Brownlie
T h e Genetics of D e r m a l Ridges Sarah B. Holt (Charles C. Thomas, S+ringfield, Ill., 1968, 195 pp., $15.75) Dr. Holt, who works in the Galton Laboratory of University College, London, following in the footsteps of its founder, Sir Francis Galton, has herself materially contributed to the genetical investigation of dermal ridges and her book deals mainly with this aspect as well as with the effects of chromosomal abnormalities on ridge patterns and counts ; nevertheless parts of the book are of interest to the criminologist. He may, for instance, be reassured when learning that the "minutiae"-a term coined by Galton and comprizing such irregularities as branchings, enclosures, short ridges and islands are not much more similar between identical twins, than between unrelated people-while "counts" and "patterns" are. Abnormal prints of the palms or soles concomitant with chromosomal syndromes are characteristic for certain malformations, e:g., ectrodactyly or polydactyly, and may very occasionally help t o pin-point or alternatively to exclude a suspected person ; detectives ought to be aware of such possibilities. Within the normal range unidentified dermal ridges may occasionally through their characteristics provide the forensic investigator with estimates of probabilities concerning his guesses and these could be based on the data in Dr. Holt's book. Rut the evidence as yet will rarely be good enough H. Kalmus for a Court of Law. THE STORY THAT IS PRINTED IN HER BLOOD
Blood Grouping Tests. Medicolegal Uses Sussman, Leon N., M.D. (Charles C . Thomas, Springfield, Ill., 1968 ; 121 p@., index, $9.75) The purpose of this book is stated to be to give an account of the theoretical principles, the practical procedures and the useful applications of blood grouping tests. As would be expected from the distinguished author, this aim has been adequately and authoritatively achieved. The compact description of the various blood group systems with attention paid to the pitfalls and known peculiarities of each will be of value to those approaching the subject for the first time, and to those wishing to refresh the memory. There is also a good citation of source material. Yet although the book claims to give special attention to the medico-legal applications of blood grouping, the treatment of this aspect is disappointing, a t any rate from the point of view of the practising lawyer. There is no reference whatever to the extent to which blood grouping tests have proved acceptable in the law courts, nor is any advice given as to how actual problems may be brought to decision by means of blood grouping tests.
In short, the book approaches the medico-legal use of blood tests from the theoretical scientific standpoint rather than from the practical legal side. For all that, the book will be a welcome addition to the texts which describe this speciality. Now that blood grouping is practised in English Courts and a new statutory field of blood grouping is about to be put into operation it could be that this book would help those who find themselves faced with acquiring a background knowledge of blood grouping in order to understand how blood groups work and the methods which experts use. The only statement in the book which could be critikised is to be found on page 98 where it is said that an exclusion in more than one blood group system carries no greater significance than a single exclusion. While of course an exclusion is an exclusion, the confirmation afforded by a second independent means serves to corroborate and rule out any suggestion of mutation or undisclosed peculiarity accounting for the result. Alistair R. Brownlie