BOOK REVIEWS mch i t well merits library space. It is well indexed. The authors are to he rongratulated for the success they have achieved in writing this well integrated textbook. They have included certain references and the value of the very brief lists is increased by the concise descriptive comment about each book and review article. Supplementary reading should he stimulated. This shorter textbook is highly recommended. -
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Purdue Unioerszty Lafayette, Indiana
Practical Clinical Biochemistry
Hamld Vadey, Rlanehester University, England. 3rd ed. William Heinemenn Mcdicd Bonks, Ltd., London, and Interscience Books, Inc. (8, division of John Wilry and Sons, Inc.), New York, 1962. viii 889 pp. Pigs. and tables. 14.5 X 2" em. 30000 Aecmding t o a statement on the inside cover, tho object of this book is t o give a comprehensive account of the many hiochemical tests now carried out in hospital laboratories as a n aid to the diagnosis and treatment of disoaso. In each chapter there is given a t first an outline of various basic principles which lend themselves to
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the development of testing methods for a particular blood or urine constituent. This is followed by 8. few selected techniques which are described in detail so t h a t thev can bc ~ ~ r f o r m without ed consultine
tic implications of a particular result are given in a clear and concise manner. At the end of each chapter there is a. list of references which this reviewer finds very useful. The hook consists of 29 chapters, starting with an introductory description of the collection and handling of specimen, notes a n colorimetry, and a discussion of control of accuracy, and followed by 28 chapters devoted t o various blood and urine canstituenta. For those who awn previous editions of this book it might he of interest to know that this new third edition contains now a chapter on enzymes (transaminases, lactic dehydrogenase, aldolase, eholinesterase). The chapter on acid-base regulation has been rewritten to include the Astrup techniques. Among other additional newer methods are the glucose oxidase technique for blood glucose, the determination of methylated amines and of hydmxy-methmy-mandelic acid (in the section dealing with adrenaline and noradrcnaline), the d-xylose excretion test, enzyme methods for blood pyruvate and lactate, a technique for the determination of pregnantnetrid, and the diacetyl monoxime method for urea. The author is quite familiar with the
recent American literature in clinical chemistry and many of tho methods selected have originated here. Nevertheless, there is a distinct British flavor t o the book. Same of the apparatus illustrated me hardly, if ever, encountered in the USA and demonstrate nicely that we do not have a. monopoly on the manufacturing of precisianequipment. A table of normal body weights mitrht puzzle the American reader u n b s he gno& that 1 stone equals 14 pounds or 6.350 kilogram. I n contrast to Amcriczn usage, bload urea is expressed as such (milligram urea per 100 ml. of blood) and not as B.U.N. (milligram blood urea nitrogen per 100 rnl.). Most of the analytical procedures described are similar t o or identical with those used in hospital laborittories in the USA. Sometimes, however, one encounters techniques which arc unnecessarily eumbcrsome or outdated. The simple method of Mindlin and Butler for the determination of ascorbic acid in plasma, for example, is mentioned but not described, whereas a. more complex procedure is given in detail. The determination of total protein by the capper sulfate specific gravity method is hardly of more than historical interest. In his discussion of "on-protein nitrogcn determinations the author mentions t h a t trichloracetic acid (instead of tungstic acid) may be used for the preparation of protein-free filtrates. I t might be well t o add that trichloracetic acid is preferable since i t decomposes during digestion into volatile C 0 2 and CHCL, whereas tungstic acid remains and
BOOK REVIEWS is apt to cause turbidity during subsequent nesslerization. In summary: thii is not just another "cook-book-style" collection of procedures, but an intelligently written well balanced book with s. wealth of useful information, It should be in the library of clinical chemiats and of those interested in analytical aspects of biochemistry. Orno SCAALES Tulane University School of Medicine New Orleans, Louisiana
Volume 40, Number 10, October 1963
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