History Taking and Physical Examination—Essentials and Clinical Correlates

tissue structure, then goes on to examine types and causes of cellular damage and the subsequent patterns of disease responses. A section on trauma, for example, illustrates a subdural hemorrhage, a gunshot wound, and fat emboli, among others. The text accompanying each chapter, however, remains predominantly brief and generally emphasizes the histological appearance, more so than the pathologic processes responsible for the lesions. For instance, Gresham demonstrates well the fibrotic lesions of asbestosis and the vacuolar appearance of alcoholic fatty liver, but does not ever suggest pathogenetic mechanisms. Indeed, Gresham later suggests Taussig's Processes in Pathology and Microbiology (Blackwell, 1989) as a companion textbook for a discussion of such issues. Unlike Wheater's "colour atlas and text" and Thomas' "textbook and color atlas," then, Gresham's atlas seeks to serve simply as a supplemental illustrative reference. Unfortunately, with such an approach, ColorAtlas ofHistopathology loses much of its utility, especially by focusing entirely on general processes. Because many pathology textbooks (e.g., Robbins' Pathologic Basis ofDisease or McGee et al. Oxford Textbook of Pathology) approach their subjects both from a general and systemic standpoint, Gresham's atlas would only suffice for a minority of the material. Thus, although he provides a thorough presentation of atherosclerosis in one particular section, for example, Gresham only sparsely considers other types of cardiovascular disease, like the vasculidities or valvular heart disease. Likewise, he demonstrates only certain types of neoplasia, rather than the entire spectrum of lung or hematopo-etic tumors, for example. While on one hand Gresham probably never intended such an approach, on the other hand the current study of pathology generally assumes a systemic perspective, which is at variance with that of his atlas. Consequently, Color Atlas of Histopathology may prove insufficient for many students of pathology. Although it provides an excellent illustration of general pathologic processes, as a textbook it lacks utility because it relies on a companion text for discussion of pathogenesis but at the same time does not approach histopa-thology in parallel with the systemic approach of many texts. For the student focused entirely on general pathological processes, Gresham's atlas provides a thorough survey; but for those requiring a more systematic and detailed approach, one of the other, more appropriately oriented atlases would seem necessary. Medical technology has advanced to the point where physicians have the ability to peer into every nook and cranny of the human body, visualize physiologic processes in real time, faithfully …