The opening sentence of the preface identifies the target audience and broad aim of this book - "This little book is for toxicologists who are in the early stages of their careers and want to know something about histological techniques". It is not, and does not pretend to be, a standard textbook on histological techniques, for which the reader should head straight for a definitive tome such as Bancroft's Theory and Practice of Histological Techniques (now in its 7th edition). It does however offer something that is not easily distilled from the authoritative text books - in plain and accessible language the authors give us a lucid explanation of the hows and whys of histological techniques, supported throughout by real life examples and personal insights. The emphasis is very much on what may be considered "traditional" histology - those interested in in-situ hybridisation, laser capture microscopy, gene sequencing and the like will need to look elsewhere. Note also that electron microscopy, slide scanning and quantification are also out of scope of this work. A total of 9 chapters, the first one an introduction to the scope and aims of the book, cover 8 discrete areas - each chapter serving as a worthy introduction to its chosen subject matter. The chapter covering histopathology explains the key physiological and disease process as seen through the light microscope, with some complex concepts eloquently explained in easily digestible layman's language. The chapter on light microscopes tells you everything you are ever likely to need to know on the subject matter, there is a useful and simple guide to how to actually use the microscope optimally - something many experienced microscopists tend to have forgotten - though, running to nearly 50 pages, there is perhaps too much detail in this section. Next up is "how to examine histological sections". For the most part this is a real gem, full of handy tips garnered over years of experience; I have not seen this theme covered as well as this elsewhere. A couple of chapters take us through the technical aspects of sample preparation from fixation of the specimen through to the unstained section on the slide; the authors' vast experience permeates throughout. The text is peppered with little tips garnered from first-hand experience and there are explanations of the theories behind the methods used. The closing 3 chapters on staining techniques are perhaps the weakest part of the work - the theory of staining is explained informatively and, whilst enlightening within the scope covered, only a relatively small selection of "standard staining techniques" are included - for instance there are no techniques discussed for amyloid, mineralisation, organisms or CNS, though the extensive bibliography does point you in the right direction for these. The section on histochemistry (including immunohistochemistry) is a little too concise; there is no room for important topics such as antibody validation and automated staining platforms. The text covering the ubiquitous H&E stain is a real treasure though- even the most seasoned microscopist should learn something new by reading this. The refreshing writing style makes each section a nice easy read; the authors clearly know their subject matter. There is even a subtle humour to the writing at times - I particularly enjoyed the "karyorrhectic cell masquerading as a snowman" (check out the picture on page 35) and recognising the novice stainer by "the rainbow appearance of their hands". There are occasional digressions into areas of purely historical interest - in this day and age do we still need to know about the Cambridge rocking microtome and do any pathologists really still do hand drawings of what they observe down the microscope? But on the whole the book is highly instructive and full of insight. So, does the book meet its aims? In general I think it does - for the toxicologist early in their careers, especially those who perform some of their own lab work, this is a highly readable introductory text, though bear in mind that it deals largely with traditional methods. In fact there are a lot of useful nuggets in here for laboratory scientists and trainee pathologists, for whom it would make an excellent companion volume to one of the heavyweight standard texts. -- Barry Reed, GlaxoSmithKline RandD * BTS News vol 1:3 * Chapter 1 or Introduction consists of a discussion of basics of histological evaluation, including a definition of the target audience for the book and distinction between histology and histo-pathology. It contains examples of some microscopic images, and there is an interesting section on the reasons to become a pathologist, which I will address later in this review. It also has a discussion on the similarity of histological sections to a film, where the clues as discovered as the film evolve and the difficulties in interpretations of the data. Missing in this section is some discussion of sampling, which is pivotal in the approach to pathology, and the need to have the samples represent the whole. It briefly introduces staining methods, and finally, it presents, with examples, the process of defining how to reach a diagnosis.


Chapter 2 is an Introduction to Histopathology, in which the authors give a primmer of general pathology, with some examples and helpful images, starting with responses to injury, through acute and chronic inflammation and hypertrophy, hyperplasia, metaplasia, and then neoplasia, both benign and malignant.


Chapter 3 deals with the light microscope and provides a very good explanation of the optics of the microscope, with excellent explanations of the physics of focusing, including the role of the condenser, and finally a very short discussion of the fluorescence microscope. This section could be more complete by including discussion of diffraction as it is used commonly in histopathology, the use of polarized light for identification of certain features, and perhaps inclusion of the optics of confocal microscopy.


Chapter 4 titled ''How to Examine Histological Sections'' is mostly a short introduction to histology with emphasis in a couple of tissues, with a couple of helpful tables about how to distinguish specific tissues, and then a short section of step- by-step directions on how to examine the tissues -- Ricardo Ochoa, DVM, PhD, DACVP, FIATP, Pre-Clinical Safety Inc, Niantic, CT, USA * International Journal of Toxicology, 2015, Vol. 34(2) 211-214 * "The refreshing writing style makes each section a nice easy read; the authors clearly know their subject matter."


"...the book is highly instructive and full of insight..."


"there are a lot of useful nuggets in here for laboratory scientists and trainee pathologists, for whom it would make an excellent companion volume to one of the heavyweight standard texts." -- Barry Reed, GlaxoSmithKline R&D * BTS News vol 1:3 * "Chapters 5, 6, and 7 constitute the core of the book and the most useful information for the target audience as well as for other professionals who are interested in understanding how tissue preparation occurs in a regular basis."


"some helpful hints to toxicologists, particularly in their formative years on how histology works. As such it is a valuable resource."


"The section on Introduction to Histopathology covers much ground in a succinct fashion and should be very useful to the audience in mind. It is factual and well organized. The section on the microscope is extensive and well written and should be useful to beginning pathologists as well as toxicologists and would be a good reference section to all interested in this field."


"In summary, this book is a valuable resource for training toxicologists, pathologists, and technicians, and it will be a good addition to one's reference library." -- Richard Ochoa * International Journal of Toxicology, 2015, Vol. 34(2) 211-214 *