Harold Ellis

Surface Anatomy. The Anatomical Basis of Clinical Examination, 2nd edn. By John S. P. Lumley. (Pp. vii + 110; 210 colour figures; £13.50 paperback; ISBN 0 443 05302 2.) Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone. 1996.

A symposium was held in London in July 1994 to commemorate the retirement of Professor Michael Bradbury as Professor of Physiology at King’s College London. Mike Bradbury had had a substantial influence on blood–brain barrier studies, not just on the London scene, but also nationally and internationally. I caught up with his work in the early 1970s, having spent a number of years investigating the demyelinating diseases. It was clear that a proper understanding of the contributing role of blood–brain barrier changes was going to be essential. Mike Bradbury’s work was at once stimulating and illuminating. It was also a reference source, notably his 1979 book The Concept of a Blood–Brain Barrier, the title of which was adapted for the Festschrift held in his honour. The proceedings of the symposium have now been published as a book containing the 31 papers presented. Since blood–brain barrier studies represent such an extensive and dynamic research field in neuroscience it is not surprising that a new book appears every few years to assess the current state of knowledge. The last major work was The Blood–Brain Barrier: Cellular and Molecular Biology, edited by W. M. Pardridge (1993). Comparisons may be invidious but that is what this business is about. The Pardridge book was a significant landmark, being the first collection of review chapters on molecular aspects of the blood–brain barrier. Both its publication and purchase were therefore well justified. With the present book the situation is not so clear. The chapters are almost entirely presentations of the authors’ own work, some of them are only a few pages long and several assume the conventional research paper format of ‘Introduction ’, ‘Materials and Methods ’, etc. In no sense are the chapters reviews of our current state of knowledge of the blood–brain barrier topics. More likely they represent research findings which have been or will be published in more detail elsewhere in science journals. At a cost of £70 it is difficult to see the book selling readily. In the past libraries often bought scientific symposia published in book form. In the present financial climate, hard-pressed university libraries are likely to be very discriminating about book buying and less inclined to purchase symposia books. My own view is that this symposium and its central figure would have been better served by the proceedings appearing as a journal supplement. Having said that, many of the papers included make fascinating reading. The chapters cover a very wide range of blood–brain barrier topics and are written by authorities in the field from several countries throughout the world. Such a gathering of scientists in one place, plus many others attending, is no doubt a measure of the esteem in which Mike Bradbury and his work are held. . 