Histology at a Glance

Abstract

What a relief. Someone has finally written a book about histology that is a pleasure to read and, more importantly, is just what is required for students. Few of us are able to teach full histology courses, particularly to undergraduate medical students. At best we attempt to integrate a degree of understanding of microscopic anatomy with our coverage of gross anatomy. For some time I have been searching for a histology text that has good quality low power micrographs, which are absent from most classical and more recent texts. This new book from Professor Peckham fills that gap perfectly and should be recommended to many students. The book begins with a simple but effective coverage of microscopy, staining and sectioning. The latter is particularly important as many students struggle with the difference in appearance of tissues in transverse and longitudinal section. The section on epithelia is important as it clearly illustrates the connection between form and function, and combines clear illustrations with accompanying micrographs and sufficient text. Throughout the text, tissues and organs are each given a double spread treatment, with images to the left and text to the right. I am pleased that the author has not felt the need to fill each page with text, but rather to cover what is required to explain the images. I particularly liked the comparison of low power micrographs of the different regions of the gastrointestinal tract, although it is a pity that they couldn't have been larger, as the illustrative use of colour coding to indicate the laminated arrangement of the tissue is really helpful. Another useful addition is diagrammatic representations of tissue organisation, such as the arrangement of hepatocytes and sinusoids in the liver, which is clear and informative. The comparative table illustrating the composition of the wall of the respiratory tract is also simple and effective. The low power slice through the kidney is again a perfect idea, but in this case the staining is a little dark and could well be improved in a second edition. The self-test questions are useful, and I particularly like those in which the student is asked to identify structures or features of the sections shown. It is a pity, though, that many of the questions could have been asked without the images. The associated website offers more histological material and self-test quizzes. In fact the Wiley link connects to a histology site at the University of Leeds, where the author is based. The extensive site has coverage of methods and techniques and questions, but chiefly a full online histology course with a whole additional set of images from light, electron and fluorescence microscopes. The ‘show labels’ feature is particularly nice allowing the images to be viewed uncluttered or with leader lines and labels. This is an excellent resource. Importantly, I would hope that the excellent images in the text will become available for lecturers to use in their teaching. It is nice to see some different fonts used for the image labelling, although comic sans is a little too obvious as the alternative choice - there are much nicer, clearer modern fonts available such as Calibri, but I am being fussy. For a book so dependent upon images, which is best used whilst at the microscope, I wish it were spiral bound and would therefore lie flat when open. But I accept that this is not the format of the ‘At a Glance’ series. I am a fan of this book: it fills a niche that has been empty for some time, namely an approachable histology book for students covering histology in somewhat less time than was historically available. The book is perfect to sit alongside a microscope when viewing tissue, is suitable to dip into to gain an appreciation of a region or tissue, but also has sufficient depth to satisfy all but the most dedicated old school histologist. After using this book, hopefully students will agree, to paraphrase the author, that ‘it's not all pink’.