The Machinery of the Body

This reviewer has often decried the tendency to write new textbooks which do not present a new approach to subject matter. Those remarks do not apply to this work. Although the first edition appeared twelve years ago, this edition is again a refreshing and stimulating presentation of material old to the professional physiologist, but as invigorating as if totally new. The worst criticism is the unevenness of the level of appeal. For the most part the presentation is aimed at the level of the intelligent college student. At times, however, the textual material seems most suitable for the level of the advanced seminar in physiology, except for its brevity. Perhaps this is inevitable and is not too serious. Sections in which important revisions have been made in response to new developments are blood, body defenses, emotions, cancer, and radioactive substances. The extent of treatment is necessarily brief for each subject