This lengthy monograph on the relation between dermatology and general medicine is one of a series of specialty volumes entitled "Collana di Attualita di Medicina Pratica." If the author's contribution, "Dermatology and Medicine," is a fair sample of the quality of the works in this series, the latter can be considered good evidence of the resurgence of postwar Italian scientific medicine.
The initial chapters present, in readable and interesting form, a dynamic, functional and pathogenetic approach to dermatologic thinking, as opposed to one purely morphologic and nosologic. The roles of infective, allergic, circulatory, metabolic and nutritional factors in the development of minor and major dermatoses are presented. The lack of any sound etiologic background in some of the major dermatoses (psoriasis, pemphigus) is clearly noted. The discussion allotted to the mycotic and allergic factors in pathogenesis is less than in American literature, but that given to emotional and social factors