272 CLINICAL RADIOLOGY

B O O K R E V I E W S

Bone - Certain Aspects of Neoplasia. Colston Papers No. 24. Editors C. H. G. PRICE and F. G. M. Ross. Published by Butterworths, London. 475 pages. Price £12.00.

The Colston Society comprises a body of prominent Bristol citizens, who among other activities sponsor an annual symposium on an important topic. Every department of the University of Bristol is eligible to present the symposium. In 1972 the Department of Radiodiagnosis was given the symposium - a signal honour because depart- ments of the Faculty of Medicine had been selected on only three previous occasions. The subject was neoplasia of bone and the President, Professor J. H. Middlemiss, invited an international group of speakers comprising diagnostic radiologists, radiotherapists, radiologists, pathologists, orthopaedic surgeons and scientists interested in bone neoplasia.

This book records the 37 original papers and also reports the discussions following the papers. Dr. Price and Dr. Ross have produced an excellent volume that does full justice to a memorable symposium. The volume should certainly find a place in the library of any hospital department, be it radio- logical, surgical or any other, that deals with any aspect of bone turnouts. Readers will find an up to date account of practically every important aspect of the subject. Research workers cannot afford to be without this book. At £12.00 it is reasonably priced considering the large number of illustra- tions and excellent quality of the production.

PHILIP JACOBS

Technical Reports Series No. 147 Environmental Isotope Data No. 4. World Survey of Isotope Concentration in Precipitation (1968-1969). International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, 1973.

This report is a survey of the concentration of the isotopes Tritium H 8, Deutesium H 2 and Oxygen 016 in precipitation in 97 distributed locations where stations of the IAEA/WMO network are situated. The data is presented as printouts in format which is easily followed after reading the short intro- ductions and includes meteorological and other data, The tritium concentration is expressed in tritium units (T.U.) which correspond to 3'24 picocuries pCi per litre of water. The D ~ and 2 8 / 2 6 ratios are then expressed in terms

~J K.¢

of the per mille deviation of the isotope ratio from that of Standard Mean Ocean Water. There is a great deal of infor- mation in the printouts which will be of considerable interest to workers in several fields concerned with or bordering on ecology and health physics. There are however two points of criticism which may be a source of some frustration:

(1) The data sheets are often incomplete even as regards basic meteorological information and (2) because the IAEA and the WMO do not have stations in the better developed industrialised nations, data regarding them is often com- pletely lacking. This data would be of interest in view of the variation to be observed from other locations.

A. M. HOLROYD