The Canadian Journal of Neurologicalsciences

380 general morphological, physiological features of skeletal muscle and its general pathological reactions. In addition to discussions of biopsy handling and staining techniques, there is also a brief section illustrating common histological and ultrastructural artifacts. The remainder of the chapters in this section illustrate and discuss the normal and abnormal cellular and subcellular components of skeletal muscle in some detail. The second major section describes the pathology of skeletal muscle on a disease-by-disease basis. The division of the text into two sections has an invaluable didactic advantage for the diagnostician. Muscle diseases rarely have pathognomonic single abnormalities, and usually it is a suite of abnormalities that points to the disease in question. The initial discussion of abnormalities on a structure-by-structure basis is therefore useful in shaping the differential diagnosis and guiding discussion with the referring clinician. Where a disease is defined by a single morphological feature (e.g. myopathy with cylindrical spirals) there is occasionally some redundancy. The discussion is skeptical in tone but insightful. I sometimes found myself wishing for more discussion of the molecular aspects of some disease entities, but in general the text is concise, and the references carefully chosen. There is considerable historical depth in some areas as well: these features strongly and positively reflect on the clinical experience of both authors. Probably the strongest feature of the book is the wealth of superb illustrations of ultrastructural and light microscopic features. There are over 100 beautifully printed color plates, and over 600 black and white photographs. These are carefully and liberally distributed throughout the text. The variety and quality of these illustrations alone ensure that this book will remain an important diagnostic guide for some time to come. I would recommend this reference to anyone interested in morphological aspects of skeletal muscle disease, whether resident, fellow or practicing clinician.