Human Blood Coagulation and its Disorders

-paper Humnan Blood Coagulation and its Disorders, 2nd ed. lower plate By Rosemary Biggs and R. G. Macfarlane. (Pp. xxi +476; 53 figures. 42s.) Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications. 1957. itiolpaper The literature on blood coagulation is as voluminous si fp as it is incomprehensible to the outsider. The authors say in their opening pages: ' It is the modest purF.I. M. L.T pose of this book to attempt to reduce this profusion to the smallest possible residue of useful and sober facts; to sort out the different names which really belong to the same thing. the different things which have had the same name, the things which probably ondon, 1958 do exist from the things which probably do not, and ,ondon, 1958 to present what is known about the probable ways in .nternational which the things which remain react together to prot the Royal duce a clot." From this we may deduce that they 2, 1958, are are masters of the English language and that they received at approach their subject in the trLie spirit of Oxford Ids, London. scholarship. Add to this that they lead one of the is not to be most active and fertile schools of study in this field; tained from then one has the ingredients of this model of all that a medical textbook should be. The first half of the book sets out in less than 200 pages our present knowledge of blood coagulation. Beginning with the thrombin-fibrinogen reaction the authors work backwards through prothrombin to the accelerators and thromboplastins that initiate the clotting reaction. Their approach is broadly historical. setting down an ever-growing pile of observations and hypotheses in the order of their discovery, and yet by superb marshalling and masterly selection leaving the reader with a coherent grasp of the substance as well as the complexities of their subject. The next part of the book describes the clinical states that arise from, or produce. defective clotting. The authors' deep theoretical knowledge of these conditions is clearly supported by great practical experience of their management. althouLgh it is the principles rather than the details of treatment that they set OuLt. This section includes a very clear and balanced account of the principles of anticoagulant therapy. The following chapter, describing the systematic investigation of coagulation defects, has been much clarified and improved. A very useful glossary has been added to this edition (but it omits proconvertin). Finally there is a detailed and authoritative description of technical methods, an excellent index, and a list of some 1,400 references. MARTIN HYNES.