REVIEW

Veterinary Pathology and Bacteriology, By S. H. GAIGER and G. O. DAVIES, of
the Department of Animal Pathology, Liverpool University. (Balliere, Tindall and
Cox, London) 1932. Pp. 610, 25s.

English Veterinary literature will surely welcome this handbook on Veterinary
Pathology and Bacteriology since the want of a comprehensive and at the same time,
concise textbook for English-speaking students has been actually felt- for a long
time. The authors state that the present volume has been designed mainly with a
view to remove the disadvantages under which undergraduate Veterinary students
in the British Empire and America have laboured, and they anticipate that general
practitioners, Veterinary officers of health and others may find this book of help in
their daily work. Further the claim is put forward that the book has been made
" sufficiently comprehensive to enable the student to acquire the requisite know-
ledge in these subjects without the necessity of searching through a varied assortment
of publications at a time when he is incapable of assessing the relative values of
information available ".

The main book is divided into three parts, and at the end there is an Appen-
dix (34 pages) which deals with the common laboratory methods, e.g., stains, media,
apparatus, technique for pH and agglutination work. Part I deals with General
Pathology in 84 pages and it is felt that this subject has been dealt with too briefly.

An important defect in the Chapter on Tumours is the omission of a discussion
upon the interesting work on Carcinogenesis, to which so much attention has been
paid in recent times, following the work of Yamagiwa and others.

Part II, consisting of 312 pages, is devoted to what has been termed Bacterio-
logy and Pathology of Specific diseases. Since virus infections, mycology, proto-
zoology and insect vectors have been included here, the term Microbiology of
Diseases would perhaps have been more expressive. This section has been treated at
some length and does the authors credit, but General Practitioners will perhaps be
a little loath to accept the lead given in adopting the nomenclature of the Society
of American Bacteriologists, which may by some be considered too cumbersome, e.g.,
Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae, instead of the unostentatious Bacillus of swine erysi-
pelas. The discussion of Theories of Immunity (p. 139) terminates rather abruptly
and no indication as to the modern trends of opinion is given. In the Chapter on
Virus Diseases, one notices that the occurrence of Newcastle disease in India is still
not known to the authors. They state that there is no reason to believe that carriers
of rinderpest exist (p. 377), a view which will not be generally agreed to in India, while

                                                   (313)