Epstein JL, ed. (£139.00 + VAT.) Churchill Livingstone, 1999. ISBN: 0 4430 7933 1

I am a lover of well written textbooks and, I suspect, like most histopathologists a relatively late adopter of new technologies such as the use of the digital image. I therefore faced the review of this CD-ROM atlas of surgical pathology with some trepidation—the reader should take this into account. This CD-ROM installs, or uses, Quick Time, Adobe Acrobat, and Folio Bound Views to present and navigate between what is stated to be over 4000 images taken from 1500 different lesion types. The images are almost all haematoxylin and eosin stained sections. The quality of photomicrography is good—illumination is even, the staining is not obviously faded, and there are no colour casts. The colour intensity is rather strong and occasionally slightly muddy. The resolution of the images is not obviously stated, but is such that a full screen image looks good, without obvious pixellation, but when the zoom in facility is used, the pixellation becomes obvious when the magnification has been increased by 50% or more. In …