Reviews and Notices of Books

Histopathology of the Peripheral and Central Nervous Systems. By George B. Hassin, M.D., Professor of Neurology, University of Illinois, etc. London: Bailliere, Tindall and Cox. 1934. Pp. 491. Price 30s. DR. GEORGE HASSIN has long been known by repute for his numerous contributions to neuropathology, and it is fitting that he has now given us a textbook on a subject of which he is a foremost exponent. His views and theories on not a few controversial questions of neuropathology may not command universal acceptance, but at least they have the merit of originality. In this book he does not obtrude them unduly, being content rather to describe than to discuss; nevertheless he has succeeded in producing a work which has a character of its own, and which fills somewhat of a gap in the English literature of neuropathology, being larger than most primers dealing with the matter yet not unwieldy and, above all, not ' padded.' On the whole, the presentation is worthy of the importance of the subject, though it is rather unequal; the chapters dealing with intracranial tumour, with inflammatory disease and syphilogenous disease are excellent; that on extrapyramidal disease is not so good-it lacks the critical touch, and contains expressions of opinion with which many will not agree and for which evidence is wanting. So far as we know no one has ever claimed that athetosis ' is a lesion of the corticospinal tract '; and it is inaccurate to aver that 'torsion spasm, athetosis, and spasmodic torticollis are practically one disease-process,' or that ' for a long time they were considered functional.' To state dogmatically that Schilder's disease is a 'morbid entity' rather overlooks the fact that its processes shade off by gradations to other diseaseconditions. What the author writes of the pathology of pellagra stands in need of amplification and some revision. Little is said of congenital malformations and defects beyond descriptions of a few of the best known. The book is finely illustrated and has useful bibliographies.