A Textbook of Histology

Professor Maximow has left his mark in medical history as a cytologist of the first rank, and it is therefore fortunate that he should have left behind him when he died sullicient manuscript and notes to enable a book on histology to be published in his name. The historical value of such a book would in any case be considerable, but it is greatly to the credit of the second author that this book has proved of such practical value as well, that another edition was demanded within four years. We are not at all surprised that this book should have proved so popular, as it is in every way a satisfactory one. The plan of arrangement usual in a book of this kind is followed. The descriptions are clear and the illustrations well chosen; the latter maintain a nice balance between realism and clarity, and the half-dozen coloured plates are especially useful. The sections on the blood, on the blood-forming and destroying tissues, and on the spleen claimed most of the reviewer's attention. These sections are particularly good, though emphasis is usually laid on the theory favoured by the late Professor Maximow. For example, the present author is very hard on all the pluralist theories of blood formation, and one would gather from reading these sections that the unitarian theory of the common origin of all blood elements from a single stem cell, the ha3inocytoblast,