on the theories of Planck and Einstein. Rather, until The concept that human disease is a specialized branch of biology is universally accepted today, but in the mid-20th century, the accretion of individual historical perspective, is actually of recent origin. At examples of the biological nature of disease processes provided the framework for an evolutionary change in one time, the heliocentric theories of astronomy and the metallurgic transmutations of alchemy had their thinking. The new psychological and philosophical milieu provided the basis for an unprecedented accel counterparts in magical and vitalistic approaches to eration in the pace of biomedical research. It is clear human disease. Any relation between disease of humans and that of animals was not only unacceptable that the biological revolution of the last 35 years was made possible not only by technological advances and intellectually, but abhorrent theologically. Humans (and their diseases) were unique, and biology was the innovative analytical methods, but also by an intellec domain of those who studied animals and plants. tual emphasis on the unity of biological processes. The unification of biology and the study of human High school students are now aware that there is much disease, though begun some centuries ago, was con to be learned about the human condition by studying spicuously stimulated by the work of Darwin, and bacterial DNA, the chloroplasts of green leaves, or the reached its full flower in this century. For example, kinetics of enzymes in vitro.

Rubin and Damjanov's latest volume of Pathology Reviews highlights the latest progress in the interface of biology and disease. Forefront techniques and experimental models that were once considered exotic or esoteric, are explored here in the context of understanding more fully the processes involved in human disease. Topics include: regulation of liver growth • contractile cells in lungs • mineral formation in bone • folate metabolism • the "riddle of the mast cell" • HLA antigens • interleukin 6 • IgA nephropathy • Goodpasture syndrome • anti-basement membrane glomerulonephropathy • molecular mechanisms of oncogenesis • molecular diagnosis of cancer • inhibition of intercellular communication in carcinogenesis • DNA repair and its pathogenetic implications • human and rat mammary tumorigenesis. Pathology Reviews • 1990 is essential reading for everyone concerned with the mechanisms of disease.

A collection of cutting-edge accounts of special topics from various fields of forensic pathology and death scene investigation. The authors offer critical insight into the medicolegal investigation of bodies found in water, the forensic aspects of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 infection of the central nervous system, deaths in a head-down position, and forensic bitemark analysis. Additional chapters address taphonomic changes in human bodies during the early postmortem interval, arrhythmogenic ventricular dysplaisia that produces sudden death in young people, the postmortem diagnosis of death in anaphylaxis, and iatrogenici deaths. The forensic aspects of suicide, murder-suicide, and suicide trends in the United States are also discussed, along with the evaluation of fatal pulmonary thromboembolism and the use of radiology in medicolegal investigations.

Leading forensic pathologists from around the world synthesize the practical advances in a variety of important subspecialties of forensic pathology and demonstrate how the latest medical and scientific progress is being applied to solve current problems of high interest to forensic pathologists today. The authors offer cutting-edge insights into death from environmental conditions (lightning and elder abuse), homicide by sharp force, death from natural causes (asthma, Marfan syndrome, and peliosis of the liver and spleen), and pathology of human endothelium in septic organ failure. Additional chapters address special aspects of crime scene interpretation and behavioral analysis, neogenesis of ethanol and fusel oils in putrefying blood, agrochemical poisoning, imaging techniques in forensic pathology, and fixation techniques for organs and parenchymal structures. A comprehensive, up-to-date review of the international literature is given for each chapter.

New to the third edition: - revised chapter on the central nervous system - new chapter on AIDS - expanded section on bone marrow diseases - new entities identified since 1989 - new data to help date fetuses