One naturally searches for something new in a treatise on blood vessels from the continent that has so recently given us angiography and endarterectomy. This giant paperback, one of two projected volumes by 27 authors from France and Belgium, is meant as a reference work for students and practitioners. It embraces basic principles relating to blood vessels as well as clinical practice.
Of the sections on basic principles I found best the concise, simply written chapter on physiology of the peripheral circulation, and the discussions on pathophysiology in the section, "Diseases of the Arteries." In this section clinical ways of appraising the circulation are emphasized, especially oscillometry, which the French have been using well for decades. Amazingly, the influence of viscosity on flow and the significance of polycythemia are hardly mentioned. The 107 pages on embryology and gross anatomy are of little value, presenting only a fraction of the information