A careful review of this volume of over 900 large pages, which is devoted to the subject of general pathology alone, leaves as the most distinct impression the fact that this is Adami's "pathology." Here is no submissive following of t ext \ x=r eq-\ book traditions, no thoughtless adoption of "accepted teachings," no more repetition and revision of what has been written by every book-maker and declaimed by every medical school lecturer. A broadly trained scholar has studied and taught

more »

... for many years as a scientist, has thought independently and reasoned vigorously, and this book represents the individual opinions and beliefs of its writer, clearly presented and stoutly maintained. It is an absolutely unique undertaking in the literature of pathology, and one divides his admiration between the industry, independence and originality of the writer, and the courage of the publishers in undertaking the preparation and production of so extensive a work of so unusual and advanced a character. The "Principles of Pathology," as projected, will consist of two volumes; the first, now before us, dealing with "General Pathology," while a second volume on the special pathology of the organs and tissues is promised at an early date. Perhaps the best idea of the method of discussion adopted in this work will be obtained from the author's own explanation of his at¬ titude toward text-books, which is : "There are different orders of minds, and no work can appeal to all. For myself, in be¬ ginning my studies, I found that I could easily remember tlip matter of such works as the larger Lyell's 'Principles of Geol¬ ogy,' Foster's 'Physiology,' and Fagge's 'Medicine,' to cite ex¬ amples in which there was a reasoned treatment of the sub¬ ject, whereas, to attempt to commit to memory 'cram books,' laden with facts and names, was mental agony. I saved time and gained knowledge by reading my subject at large. It is to those possessing a like order of mind that this work is addressed." From this peroration it may be foreseen that Adami's "Path¬ ology" does not consist of a classification of pathologic condi¬ tions in which cause, pathologic anatomy and results follow one another in neat but untruthfully exact order. Rather Adami has discussed the subject in a broad way, with emphasis on the things that have interested him, slighting things that have not, but always in a manner that is original, independ¬ ent and vigorous. Most of the chapters, particularly in the in¬ troductory sections (which occupy no less than 355 pages) partake of the nature of short monographs or addresses on topics concerning which Adami has ideas of his own to ad¬ vance or to defend ; in the sections devoted to more definite topics the discussion is more systematic and more satisfying. Professor Adami's viewpoint is quite different from that of the average medical-school and autopsy-room pathologist, being much modified by his familiarity with general biology in its broadest sense, from which he has gained many diverging and independent ideas that are interesting and stimulating to those with a different training and viewpoint, however much they may find to question or dispute. In contrast to the typical German text-book of pathology, in which pathologic anatomy is made the chief and often almost the only theme, Adami's work relegates the description of postmortem appear¬ ances and histologie findings to the background, and places emphasis on pathologic physiology and chemistry, a feature which is greatly to be commended. It is obvious that so extensive a work can not be discussed chapter by chapter in the space of a review, and hence general¬ ities must in the main suffice. The following special points, however, may be mentioned: The introductory chapters are numerous, extensive, but for the most part argumentative rather than systematic, much attention being given to the presentation and defense of certain hypotheses regarding vari¬ ous fundamental biologic principles; they are, nevertheless, well worth reading for their stimulating originality and for the nuggets of facts from many unusual and widely scattered sources. Cell growth, adaptation and inheritance are consid¬ ered with an extensiveness and originality uncommon in med¬ ical literature. Monstrosities and abnormalities are discussed thoroughly, clearly and well, this being one of the best sec¬ tions of the entire book, and the only one in which the illus¬ trations are of much account. (This last defect is due to the destruction of most of the illustrations that had been collected for this book by the burning of the McGill University Medical School.) But little space is given to animal parasites and there is no discussion of specific bacterial infections and their characteristic lesions-possibly these matters are reserved fur the second volume. The general subject of reaction to in¬ jury and infection is, however, most admirably covered in much the same way as in Adami's article on inflammation in Allbutt's "System," which article is now one of the classics of English medical literature. Immunity is satisfactorily dis¬ cussed in regard to the general theories and the history of the subject, although the proposed modification of Ehrlich's theory seems to be even more hypothetical than the original. Re¬ generation and transplantation are well discussed, and lead logically to the consideration of neoplasms, a sequence not ap¬ preciated by most writers of text-books. In this section on tumors is much that is independent and valuable. The method Downloaded From: http://jama.jamanetwork.com/ by a University of Calgary User on 05/26/2015