Spector TD Axford JS:

An Introduction to General Pathology, 4th Edition, Edinburgh, Churchill Livingstone, 391 pp, 1999 ($39).

This book was dedicated to the late Professor W.G. Spector, who wrote the first two editions and is remembered by the present authors as “one of the first teachers to believe that understanding rather memorizing the key disease processes is the best way to learn pathology.” Written in the same spirit, this fourth edition is a worthy descendant of its predecessors, continuing the time-honored tradition of British teaching at its best.

This slim volume, published in a pocket-size format, was prepared for medical students entering pathology. It covers the classic topics of general pathology, and, so far as I am concerned, it could serve as an ideal text for those 3- to 4-week-long introductory courses that were once called “Mechanism of Disease” or “Pathobiology.” In the “modern” curricula dominating the U.S. medical school teaching, unfortunately, few medical students will find time to read it. I hope, however, that the book will not be unnoticed by their professors, especially those who subscribe to Professor Spector’s credo.