This is an ambitious book. It attempts to cover for the surgeon's guidance a very wide field in allergy including, in part, immunological theory, contact dermatitis, drug allergy, food allergy, inhalant allergy, pulmonary function tests and organ transplantation. There are 11 chapters each by a different authority. Such a format probably makes the unevenness of style and discontinuity of thought which results inevitable.
A great deal of useful information is presented, but there is also considerable material which the average surgeon would find beyond his needs as well as discussion of methods which may not be readily available to him. Detailed advice involving sophisticated procedures and apparatus tends to overshadow brief statements of equal importance.
It is suggested, for example, in the chapter on pulmonary function that in centers where available "it is essential that complete volumetric mixing and distribution, diffusion and flow volume studies be done before surgery"—presumably referring