in the description of aircraft crashes in which the subordination of accident investigation to identification as a pathological end in itself is perpetuated. The insight into the New York drug scene makes fascinating reading and the inclusion of some toxicological tests suitable for the morbid anatomist is a useful innovation. The book abounds with encouraging admissions-it is good to know, for ,example, that others feel that the finding of coronary atherosclerosis should not immediately close the case or that sudden death from morphine or heroin injection can baffle cven those to whom it is a commonplace. We in the United Kingdom can also be grateful that we are spared what appears to be a running battle of wits between the pathologist and the undertaker!
The book holds very firmly to its title-it is not a book on forensic medicine, it is about the pathological investigation of sudden death. I t is very much for the post-graduate and is clearly directed at the pathologist who, not being a forensic specialist, may have to perform autopsies on deaths likely to be due to criminality. Throughout the world such a man is becoming less and less of a rare bird. Moreover, the established expert can glean much from this authoritative textbook which, in my opinion, can only be generally criticised for its bibliography. I t is said that the second edition includes all the additions and updates required; but references later than 1973 (the date of the first edition) are hard to come by and several of the books quoted went to later editions some years ago. The European literature has also received little attention-it is, for example, hard to acccpt a description of bomb injuries which does not refer to the work of Marshall in Northern Ireland. For these reasons I do not think I can quite accept the claim of the publishers in their blurb that this is "the classic forensic pathology text that it was predicted to become". Nevertheless, they must be very nearly right-it is truly excellent.
J. K. MASON SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW Microscopic Diagnosis in Forensic Pathology